For a good story to be passed on from father to son, from teacher to pupil, from book to reader, it isn’t always necessary for it to be true, it’s sometimes enough simply for it to be a good story that some people would like to be true.
The Natural History Museum (NHM) presents scant regard for historical accuracy in its account of Samuel Wilberforce and his famous debate with T.H. Huxley in Oxford on June 30th 1860.…
If any one theory can be said to have converted the Western world to atheism, it is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The noted American sceptic Robert Ingersoll (1833-99) declared:-
…This century will be called Darwin’s century. He was one of the greatest men who ever touched the globe. He has explained more of the phenomena of life that all of the religious teachers. Write the name of Charles Darwin on the one hand and the name of every theologian who ever lived on the other, and from that name has come more light to the world than from all of those.
We tend to associate Creationism (that is to say, Young Earth Creationism) with American fundamentalism. However, it is alive and kicking in Britain too. According to a recent survey carried out on behalf of Theos think-tank, 17% of Britons take the Young Earth position (compared with 11% for Intelligent Design, 28% for Theistic Evolution, and 37% for Atheistic Evolution).
Not long ago, The BBC website carried this article about British creationists. It discusses, among other things, the Genesis Expo museum, set up in Plymouth by the Creation Science Movement.…
The story of Charles Darwin and his discovery of evolution has become as much a part of our culture as the story of Adam and Eve before it. It has become ‘common knowledge’ that living beings have evolved over millions of years, and that we occupy no privileged place in the animal kingdom.
The story of Darwin, together with that of Galileo, marks the turning-point when science dispelled the superstitions of religion and ushered in the modern world.…
It’s not an original idea, but Andrew Marr’s thoughts about the dangers of turning Darwinism into a secular religion are of some interest. Describing himself as a ‘lapsed Presbyterian Christian’ (“I had a blinding revelation of disbelief at the age of around 15”), Marr reminds us that science in general, and Darwinism in particular, can offer some of the nourishment that religion provides.
The natural history museums of both London and Oxford are ‘temples of nature’ and mimic cathedrals in their design. …
