Thursday, February 12, 2009

Chucking it up


On Charles Darwin’s bicentennial I suppose we could do yet anther critique of “his theory”, analyze its originality (or lack there of) its merits, its open questions and its qualifications to even be classified as a true scientific theory at all. Or we could examine what sort of implications it might have on philosophical or theological matters (as far as I can tell, basically none). But instead I think I will look at what impact Darwin and/or his theory have had on humanity.
Hum….not much there either.

One could I suppose say Darwin had a hand in the cultural decadence of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But Thomas Huxley did not invent hedonism anymore than Queen Victoria invented prudery. If people wish to become slave of their lowest animal impulses, they do not need a scientific theory to justify doing so…and indeed evolution through natural selection does not.