Happy Darwin Day!

Today, Feb 12, has been designated "Darwin Day" in recognition of the 198 Birthday of Charles Darwin. This holiday gives us a opportunity not only to reflect on the development of the theory of evolution, which is, in my humble opinion, among the top three ideas in all of science. [As a physicist, I would have to put quantum mechanics, and possibly special relativity first, but I do spend most of my spare time thinking about Evolutionary Psychology, as I hope to detail in some future posts.] Indeed, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of evolution to modern Biology. It is literally the linchpin of all descriptions of life. See, for example, the classic essay by Theodosius Dobzhansky, "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution."

However, as momentous as this occurrence is, we should also realize why celebrations of scientific personalities is so rare. Contrary to what some Creationists have alleged, Evolution is not some "received wisdom" venerated like some anti-religious doctrine. And it goes without saying that Darwin is not looked on as an inerrant prophet whose ideas are mindless accepted as dogma. Scientists accept evolution because of its immense predictive power as well as the huge amount of fossil, molecular, anatomical, and genetic evidence in its favor. Like all theories, evolution has changed many times as new evidence is discovered and better explanations are formulated. As scientists, we do our best not to become overly emotionally attached to any theory, and to accept or reject them based on their merits. While it may seem a little disappointing that, unlike most religious believers, scientists cannot point to an idea and claim that it is the absolute and immutable truth, most of the ideas that form the foundation of modern science, like evolution, are so well founded by observations that, while constantly subject to improvement, are extremely unlikely to ever be completely overturned. This is why the theories, as opposed to the people, usually get most of the attention. But in the current debate over evolution, it is often valuable to have a symbolic figure to point to. So Happy Birthday, Darwin!