These Happy Birthday musings to Darwin bring to mind that there has been research done on the adaptive benefits of religion as a benefit to survival of groups; I'm no scientist, yet I gain by osmosis much of what is discussed by my behavioral ecologist husband and colleagues, and the idea of the development of religion or other belief systems as a way of coping, and as such increasing survival, makes all kinds of sense. And as a writer and illustrator, I find the whole idea of "story" as a way that we work to understand ourselves as humans, to be another exciting aspect of seeing how we have evolved. Exciting stuff. (David Sloan Wilson has done work in this area of religion and science; he wrote a book called Darwin's Cathedral. I've not read that particular book of David's, however.) Happy Birthday, Darwin! (And yes, celebrations here in NC- we're going to a talk down at the natural history museum this evening... should be good...) Consie Consie Powell www.consiepowell.com www.science-art.com www.wincbooks.com Joan Lee wrote: > Once upon a time a monkey read a book. Since he read the entire thing > upside down he didn't get much out of it. So he ambled off and ate > some bananas. Now, there is no lesson in that anecdote; it is just a > bit of nonsense, in need of no interpretation. What is nice about it > is the cadence of the words. > > SCIENCE and RELIGION (by any name) are two entirely different > disciplines; why do we keep trying to force one or the other into > supremacy? Joan > > On Feb 12, 2009, at 8:42 AM, Mieke Roth wrote: > >> Hi Barbara, >> >> My apologies, you are absolutely right. Since I am agnostic it is >> unexplored territory. But over here some people came with creationist >> believes out of the woodwork that I really didn't think would think >> like that. Even some scientists. >> >> Last week we had a bit of a stir when one of the most known faces of >> our protestant public broadcasting network (I don't know if that is >> the right term), denounced creationism in favour of the evolution >> theory. He gained respect throughout the nation ;-) >> >> Mieke >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> *From:* SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science >> Illustration- [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf >> Of *Barbara Harmon >> *Sent:* donderdag 12 februari 2009 14:01 >> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >> *Subject:* Re: [SCIART] February 12 birthdays >> >> Hi Mieke, >> >> Actually there are many, many things going on. I won't list them but >> when I was reading about it I got an impression that many of them are >> in the SF Bay area in CA. However they are literally all over the >> country (even in the deep south!), and particularly in cities with >> colleges and universities. >> >> Yes, The Creationists have "attack plans" all over here as well. I >> missed a PBS show the other night on where things stand at this time >> in the argument for presenting Creation Science in schools. By the >> way, these people are not simply Christians, so you should not call >> them that (much of religion and Christianity is compatible with >> Darwinian evolution - that is a point which has always bothered me - >> it is not necessarily ONE or the OTHER). It is the /Creationist/s >> that take the bible literally and believe in a 7-day creation, >> including man being separate (and above) other species. And they have >> made it a "science", much to our disbelief. >> >> Regardless, enjoy the day and celebrate!! >> >> Barb >> >> Barbara Harmon >> www.barbaraharmon.com <http://www.barbaraharmon.com> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Feb 12, 2009, at 7:43 AM, Mieke Roth wrote: >> >> >> Hi Barbara, >> I didn't know it was Lincoln's birthday too! Congratulations to you all! >> In the Netherlands the birthday of Darwin is a big thing: today is >> the official opening of the Darwin Year at museum Naturalis in >> Leiden, our natural history museum, by Robbert Dijkgraaf the >> president of the KNAW (the royal institute of arts and science in the >> Netherlands) and on tv and other media there is a lot of attention >> for the origin of species since the beginning of 2009. I have a blog >> at one of our national newspapers and most of the bloggers there made >> a "scienceblog" today in honor of Darwin. I wrote one about the >> evolution of whales. Contrary to what I normally do, completely >> without illustrations! I didn't have the time for it, but I am >> planning on continuing about whales and make a series out of it. >> Unfortunally some christian groups have a plan to send a leaflet to >> each house in the Netherlands today to explain that the evolution >> theory is rubbish. The content of the leaflet is already known and >> they don't do a good job, luckily. Although I think that some people >> who really don't know anything about biology and geology will think >> otherwise. >> I know that a lot of US citizens still belief in the six days of the >> bible, but are there no festivities at all? >> Mieke >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> *From:* SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science >> Illustration- [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf >> Of *Barbara Harmon >> *Sent:* donderdag 12 februari 2009 13:27 >> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >> *Subject:* [SCIART] February 12 birthdays >> I'm sure most of you know this but in case you have forgotten, today >> is the 200th birthday of two great innovative thinkers, Abraham >> Lincoln and Charles Darwin! >> Barbara Harmon >> www.barbaraharmon.com <http://www.barbaraharmon.com> >> >> >> >> >> >