A natural selection

Today would have been Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. And given that this blog is subtitled “The organized ramblings of a woman struggling to evolve,” it only seems right to mention it before the day is out.

The celebration of Darwin’s birthday is timely for me because right now, this very instant, a book written by his great-great grandson is waiting for me at the library: 40 days and 40 nights: Darwin, intelligent design, God, Oxycontin, and other oddities on trial in Pennsylvania is Matthew Chapman’s take on a court case in Dover, Pa., where a group of parents successfully sued the school district to keep intelligent design from being introduced into the curriculum a few years ago.

I heard Chapman on my favorite NPR show the other day. He’s a movie writer/producer/director who’s written couple of books and cofounded a group called Science Debate, formed to pressure the 2008 presidential candidates into having a debate on science and technology issues. (Several of the group’s cofounders are now part of the Obama administration.)

Chapman's manner in handling the question of evolution and the people who attempt to deny it was the best I've ever heard. (Go here if you want to hear it too.)

I wish I had some well-though-out commentary on Darwin and his theory to add to this post. I don’t.

I believe in the theory of evolution by natural selection.

I believe that ignorance, recklessness and stupidity are naturally selective traits.

I try not to laugh when I hear someone say that all the research actually shows that dinosaurs and man walked the Earth at the same time, about 3,000 years ago. I trust evolution will deal with them.

Peace to you.