Darwin’s Bulldog

Posted by Greg Laden on June 29, 2008
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On this day in 1895, T. H. Huxley died at the age of 70. Huxley was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” because of his defense of Darwin’s important work in evolution. He debated Samuel Wilberforce in 1860, and people have been debating creationists since.

Huxley invented the term “agnostic” and described himself as one.

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  1. #1 JanieBelle
    June 29, 2008

    On this day in 1895, Th. H. Huxley died at the age of 70. Huxley was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” because of his defense of Darwin’s important work in evolution. He debated Samuel Wilberforce in 1960…

    I love you dearly, Greg, but you need an editor, darling.
    ;)

    Kisses

  2. #2 clinteas
    June 29, 2008

    Dont be too harsh on him JanieBelle…..

    You 2 some sort of Sartre and DeBeauvoir by the way? LOL

  3. #3 JanieBelle
    June 29, 2008

    No, unfortunately, Amanda beat me to His Hunkiness.

    I’m a gracious loser, though.
    :)

  4. #4 clinteas
    June 29, 2008

    Whats 100 years anyway,when youre in love LOL…..

  5. #5 Virgil Samms
    June 29, 2008

    Who was the medium?

  6. #6 Greg Laden
    June 29, 2008

    So, maybe they were debating the reality of Time Machines…

  7. #7 JanieBelle
    June 29, 2008

    I’m guessing Huxley would have won that debate had it occurred in 1960.

    “Step into my Tardis, and I’ll show you…”

  8. #8 Laelaps
    June 30, 2008

    After reading many of Huxley’s works it is surprising how Darwin and natural selection are almost never mentioned; Huxley seemed to be more concerned with figuring out transitions in the fossil record between groups (like his Sauropsida, which was reptiles + birds) than how it happened. he did defend Darwin in this way and definitely was struck by Darwin’s idea, but his own views were much more nuanced than we often realize.

    Likewise, Huxley never debated Wilberforce. During a series of lectures on creation/evolution at Oxford in the summer of 1860 Wilberforce made some snide comment to young Huxley who was in the audience. Huxley responded but from the accounts given most people didn’t even hear him and it ended up being a minor point and was not an actual debate in any sense of the word.