HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARWIN

The following essay was written by my friend and colleague and Skeptics
Society associate Michael Gilmore, published this week in the Los Angeles
Times Opinion Editorial and presented here with permission and thanks. It's a
wonderful piece and f fine tribute to the Sage of Down (by the way, while
we're on birthdays, Alfred Russel Wallace's birthday was January 8. I suppose
the fact that even I, Wallace's biographer, forgot it, continues the problem
of him being, as the title of my biography states, "In Darwin's Shadow."

The Fossil and the Meteor
By Michael Gilmore

On my desk sit two little stones. One is a trilobite fossil, about
half a billion years old. The other is an iron meteorite of unknown
age. They represent the two greatest turning points in science: the
Darwinian and the Copernican revolutions--which this month are
remembered on the birthdays of Charles Darwin, Feb. 12, Nicholas
Copernicus, Feb. 19, and Galileo, Feb. 15.

It was not the purpose of Copernicus to explain meteors when he argued
for a sun-centered astronomical system in 1543. But he started a long
scientific argument, lasting more than three centuries, that eventually
explained the nature and origin of meteorites.

We have discovered some wonderful things along the path that
Copernicus started, including the incredible fact that rocks fall from
the sky.

Seventy years after Copernicus, his cosmological revolution was
enlarged and presented to scholars and the public alike by Galileo.

It is our immense good fortune that this revolution, which shows how
both Earth and the heavens follow the same natural laws, continued to
grow. Pockets of resistance existed, however.

When a statue of Copernicus was erected in Warsaw in 1839, no priest
could be found to officiate. Copernicus' book had only been removed
from the Catholic Church Index of banned books in 1835. That same year,
a young English naturalist was on the other side of the planet
exploring the Galapagos Islands. He was making observations that would
eventually be part of his most famous book, published nearly a quarter
of a century later, The Origin of Species.

Charles Darwin's revolution would be like Copernicus' and Galileo's, a
popular affair followed closely by both scholars and the public.

Mankind has suffered numerous displacements from what we thought was
our proper and rightful place at the center of the universe and the
pinnacle of creation. However, it is the Darwinian scientific
revolution that disturbed us the most, although the Copernican
revolution is a close second.

We now know we live on a small Darwinian branch, on a pale blue dot of
a planet, somewhere out in the cosmic boondocks.

Drawing from within the scientific revolution, there is a cure for our
bruised egos. Begin by viewing these revolutions not as demotions but
as inclusions. See yourself as a part of the natural world and thus as
part of the unfolding of a remarkable and mysterious universe. Consider
yourself, as Carl Sagan suggested, star stuff contemplating star stuff.

The more you understand our origin, evolution and place in the
universe, the more you can feel a part of it. At some point you might
even feel more at home. In fact, it could make you feel downright
spiritual.

Psychologist William James suggested that people may find a true
religious sense when they "have a feeling of being at home in the
universe."

Science is a very human enterprise that always stands on the edge of
error. Scientific knowledge is never absolute. Even so, evolution is as
certain as the existence of atoms or the revolution of our planet about
the sun.

The little fossil and meteorite on my desk hold for me a sense of
wonder and adventure. As they whisper of the mysteries of deep-time and
deep-space, they tell some wonderful stories. Stories that I hope we
will all come to know and cherish. They are the stories of science.
Stories that should make us all feel more at home in the universe.
_______________________

To learn more about Darwin's revolution go to:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution. A Congregational Study Guide for
Evolution, for your place of worship, is at: www.ncseweb.org.

Michael Gilmore, a thermophysicist, who has worked on the space
program, is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. He writes
for Skeptic magazine.

Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times