Darwinist
Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!
Oh, and Abe Lincoln too.
For Darwin's birthday, I want to discuss the uses of the terms "Darwinism, Darwinian, and Darwinist." Many have written about this and many don't like any of those words, some seem to equally dislike all three. A couple of years back, writing for the New York Times, Carl Safina said,
Equating evolution with Charles Darwin ignores 150 years of discoveries, including most of what scientists understand about evolution. Such as: Gregor Mendel’s patterns of heredity (which gave Darwin’s idea of natural selection a mechanism — genetics —…
I keep reading articles for and against Darwin Day Celebrations spouting about "Darwinists" and "Darwinism". As I sat down to write my own post to "Blog for Darwin", I couldn't get these "-isms" and "-ists" out of my head. I really wanted to write more about the man behind the theory or the amazing journey he undertook, especially after reviewing the National Geographic Darwin Specials (#1 and #2), but I simply couldn't get this nagging post out of my head. So I have to leave the historical stories to someone else, or at least until tomorrow. I decided that my only choice was to explain, once…