Would you wish somebody ‘Happy Darwin Day’ ?
Our English friends are currently trying to have February 12th officially recognized as Darwin Day. This would coincide with the famous biologists 200th anniversary of birth.
An article discussing this appeared on poilitics.co.uk last Friday. Here’s the great read.
Politicians back call for ‘Darwin Day’
Friday, 16, Jan 2009 06:25 By politics.co.uk staffCharles Darwin revolutionised how mankind views itself
MPs are being asked to support a move to have Charles Darwin’s birthday made a public holiday in Britain.
The campaign is timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the biologist’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin the Species, the seminal text which explained evolutionary theory for the first time.
Andrew Copson, director of education and public affairs at the British Humanist Association (BHA) said: “Charles Darwin is one of the greatest and most influential thinkers who ever lived and one of Britain’s greatest scientists.
“In the middle of February we could all do with an extra public holiday and recognition of this particular day would be a great way of celebrating Britain’s great contribution to science, reason and free thought.”
Darwin’s birthday was on February 12th.
The campaign is being supported by Ashok Kumar, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who has tabled an early day motion in the Commons.
The motion already has the support of ten MPs.
It reads: “That this House notes the extraordinary achievements of Charles Darwin; notes that 2009 marks both the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species; welcomes proposals for the creation of a Darwin Day in recognition of the ground-breaking work of the British scientist responsible for the theory of evolution by natural selection; and calls for Darwin’s birthday, 12 February, to be designated a public holiday in honour of one of the fathers of modern science and one of Britain’s greatest, if not the greatest, scientific minds.”
The current campaign follows a similar effort in 2003 when over 40 highly-regarded academics, philosophers, scientists and writers called for a new public holiday, including philosopher Simon Blackburn, biologist Richard Dawkins, co-discoverer of DNA Francis Crick, author Philip Pullman and writer Claire Rayner.
The Darwin Day initiative follows several high-profile campaigns by atheist and secularist groups, including the now-infamous atheist buses currently operating around the country which feature the slogan: “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
Those of you who still aren’t convinced that evolution is real, I invite you to check out this video we’ve previously posted.
I think that it should be a Holiday for many reasons.
I think that our current educational system is being bent in all kind of ways by foreing religions and ethnicities respectively. So real, that in the last past year there has been major contreversy on educational curriculums teaching the big bang theory because many foreing groups with religious beliefs contradicts it. The same goes with McGuinty who went on air and stated that there will not be any new emergent school boards to facilitate different ethnicities. We currently have aboriginal, French and English school boards subdivided in catholic and public. These represent the traditional values of the state and were founded many generations ago.
I think that by having a darwin day it would set things straight here in Canada. We as the people can come to a common understanding which surpasses those superstitiously conditionned wich have also marked our calendar. By having this holiday put in place, I think there would be more implications.
I think Darwins life to be very interesting. He had to face much adversity considering the impact of the idea he had founded. It was rejcted by many and of course today continues to be rejected by many groups.
I have had the pleasure in the past of affiliating myself with individuals of such kind and their mental work of course is what appeals to me the most. When a theory is introduced, it is automatically attacked. In more than enough cases, it is unfortunate to say that the researcher is also attacked. But in an objective society like we would find within theoretical communities, a new theory is attacked by the deepest of critics who are also those who first accept it. Afterwards what we really see are integrated sciences either attacking or elaborating on the theory. All of this takes time but eventually, it becomes part of university curriculums and so on and so forth. That’s why when we hear the term “such and such” are ahead of their time by their ideas, it’s either because the idea is new and people are shocked or that the society is not ready for such ideas. For example, I highly doubt that it would be possible to discuss certain scientific topics in states like Israel. The society would violently exclude it.
All in all, I think that a darwin holiday can also provoke an era of intellectualism and intellectual development here in Canada. This has been a vision witch has been expreessed by some of our leaders such as Harper. Harper insisted on developping a information based society and is committed towards developping internet access in isolate areas of the country. During the launch of MARS laboratory whitch is a huge science facility for youth, McGuinty (who has an honors degree in biology) spoke about how Canada was falling behing other countries in innovation and sciences.
He gave an example that in China, there are 300 000 engeneers who graduate every year. Now I know the argument is somewhat implausible because of China’s mass population, but at the end of the day, were still talking about 300 000 engeneers in one nation.
Just to show the impact of innovative ideas and it’s economic influences, let’s take for example the current recession. We have all heard of our car companies basically going bankrupt, employments are lost and society is drastically reorganizing at such pace that stress levels are exceeding people’s capacity to tolerate.
In China, There’s a new company that has recently come up with electrical cars and are selling like des ptit’s pains chauds. eventhough China’s economy is also slowing down due to international recession, we are seeing mass production of electrical cars and huge corporations fabricating solar panels.
In other words, Canada is messed up and a Holiday like Darwin day would definitaly give us a friendly reminder. Another recent reality, just to compare our concervative government and the newly elected liberal government in the U.S., Our government has recently proposed I believe a 700 billion stimulus package which is the greatest deficit created by a Canadian government which also completely contradicts the conservatives mandate not to borrow money and to pay off the debt. If the conservatives would have not proposed the bill, they would have been defeated by parlement and we would be in a new election. The point that I’m making is the same that Chantal Hebert from the CBC made. We have a conservative government acting like liberals because they don’t have a choice and perhaps, just perhaps conservative parties just don’t have their place in the 21st century. Clearly their philosophy is loosing it’s place. But what bothers me is more than that.
When we look at the U.S., President Obamah made it very clear that he is using this recession to rebuild an America that will suit green companies and others that suits his vision for the country.
In Harpers’s case, He is dishing out cash to temporarely patch up the problem. Many economics have said that Canada within the next year or so will need another stimulus package. for example, harper is giving out a lot of money to car companies just to keep them a float. These companies still aren’t innovating. How long will this last? Prior to this economic crisis and during our past election, there was a huge emphasis put on the enviroment, Why isn’t Harper making it clear that companies who will receive money are companies who are going green? The reason is very clear and has been made clear when the recent budget was proposed. Harper perhaps has vision to make this country a knowledge based society, but he has very little vision for the entire country.
With this said, we will need more darwanians here in Canada in the future and integrating darwin with politics is a great idea. I think we are seeing the colapse of the conservatives, new emergents such as the green party and I believe that the face of our democracy will also change within our lifetime.
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L’évolution « Une douche froide a dit ceci sur 16 février, 2009 à 1:05