[asa] Lincoln and Darwin

Today is the bicentennial of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.
Maybe this is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the impact of
individual scientists versus the impact of individuals in certain other
professions.

Several years ago TIME Magazine named Albert Einstein as its Person of the
20th Century. I read a comment by someone who suggested that that was a
mistake. He thought that Winston Churchill should have had that
distinction. His reasoning was that if Einstein had not accomplished what
he did in physics, others would have.

It occurs to me that this observation might be made of individual
scientists in general. How many discoveries or ideas that had a major
influence on the development of science depended on the individual persons
who produced them? Wouldn't someone else have thought of natural
selection? (Some would say that Wallace did independently.) We would be
using calculus and Newton's laws today even if Newton had never lived. By
contrast, many wars started by megalomaniacs have profoundly affected the
direction of world history, as have the heroes who prevented them from
attaining their goals. Even so, we rightly admire the impressive
accomplishments of the individuals who were first to come up with
solutions to significant questions in science.

Even though few people accomplish what noone else could, as Christians we
do know one man who did what noone else could have done: Jesus Christ.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

On Mon, 2 Feb 2009, Dick Fischer wrote:
> I think it is one thing for a religious organization, and in this case a
> major religion, to admit to previous mistakes. It's quite another to
> celebrate them. It's in that same vein that I have some misgivings about
> celebrating Darwin. Okay, he was a brilliant scientist and made a major
> contribution to our understanding of biology. But somehow I feel overtones
> that serve to be a slap in the face to our Christian beliefs. Maybe I'm
> just being over sensitive but if I were a pastor and Darwin Week was coming
> up (it is) I don't think I would prepare a special sermon to mark the
> occasion. I would prefer a science week to honor great scientists and group
> Darwin in with Kepler, Newton, Einstein and others. I would rather
> celebrate science than just Darwin. I think it has the unfortunate
> ramification of sending the wrong message or at the very least a mixed
> message.

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Received on Thu Feb 12 10:41:33 2009