The Revolution Of Evolution

Just wanted to point out a very interesting essay in Harvard Magazine regarding Darwin and his theory of evolution. The link actually goes to a series of essays the biologist Edward O. Wilson wrote to introduce each of Darwin's four major works. Wilson discusses much of the current debate over the attempts to insert religious teaching in place of scientific fact in the classroom and whether scientific humanism can finally triumph over the religious worldview that, while responsible for much of human culture, also leads to bigotry and, coupled with "toxic tribalism," brutal warfare.

Wilson also has a nifty definition of scientific humanism that sums up how I try to approach things:

Still held by only a tiny minority of the world's population, it considers humanity to be a biological species that evolved over millions of years in a biological world, acquiring unprecedented intelligence yet still guided by complex inherited emotions and biased channels of learning. Human nature exists, and it was self-assembled. It is the commonality of the hereditary responses and propensities that define our species. Having arisen by evolution during the far simpler conditions in which humanity lived during more than 99 percent of its existence, it forms the behavioral part of what, in The Descent of Man, Darwin called the indelible stamp of our lowly origin.

It's an enjoyable read, but if you can only skim, skip down past the sketches of the monkeys to find Wilson's critique of current events.