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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On this day in 1885, Thomas Henry Huxley died at the age of 70. He is most famous for his sideburns, but in addition he was also involved with the study of evolution and the defense of Darwinism.
He also invented the term Agnostic. Which he was.
T.H. Huxley, Darwin's Bulldog
[Note:] I realized I posted this entry very recently, only three months prior to today, but since it is the anniversary of the Oxford debate/lectures I thought it would be fitting to throw this entry up again (with a few minor edits). I have also included two caricatures of Huxley (top) and…
A few months ago I was enjoying a pleasant evening with a few friends when the topic of evolution came up, more specifically the work of Stephen Jay Gould. One of the people in the room asked "Who's he?" and before I could respond someone else did, commenting "Well, he showed that Darwin was wrong…
On June 30, 1860, T.H. ("Darwin's Bulldog") Huxley and Samuel ("Soapy Sam") Wilberforce met at Oxford to debate the concepts put forward in Charles Darwin's recently published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, an encounter that is often celebrated even though the details of…
I love you dearly, Greg, but you need an editor, darling.
;)
Kisses
Dont be too harsh on him JanieBelle.....
You 2 some sort of Sartre and DeBeauvoir by the way? LOL
No, unfortunately, Amanda beat me to His Hunkiness.
I'm a gracious loser, though.
:)
Whats 100 years anyway,when youre in love LOL.....
Who was the medium?
So, maybe they were debating the reality of Time Machines...
I'm guessing Huxley would have won that debate had it occurred in 1960.
"Step into my Tardis, and I'll show you..."
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.