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arganoidThe Newmarket Weekly News recently printed a letter stating that Darwin was wrong (and racist). It included the laughable final line "Had Darwin the factual information at his disposal which we now possess he would never have arrived at his conclusions and published such a flawed theory".
However, they didn't see fit to print my reply, which was as follows:
Sir,
One of a number of flawed assumptions made in Ian Smith's letter regarding
evolution is the idea that the title "On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for
Life" has a racist tone. In fact, "races" here refers to varieties of
organisms within a species. Darwin was actually ahead of his time when it
came to racism. He strongly rejected the view held by many people of his
time that black people were a different species, and referred to the
anti-slavery movement as a "sacred cause".
Now more than ever, it is vital that science is judged on the basis of
evidence, and is not rejected because it makes us uncomfortable. And while
healthy skepticism is the foundation of science, we must also apply that
skepticism to those who denounce well-supported theories. Such people
frequently use arguments that sound convicing to a layman, but which do not
stand up to scrutiny.
However, they didn't see fit to print my reply, which was as follows:
Sir,
One of a number of flawed assumptions made in Ian Smith's letter regarding
evolution is the idea that the title "On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for
Life" has a racist tone. In fact, "races" here refers to varieties of
organisms within a species. Darwin was actually ahead of his time when it
came to racism. He strongly rejected the view held by many people of his
time that black people were a different species, and referred to the
anti-slavery movement as a "sacred cause".
Now more than ever, it is vital that science is judged on the basis of
evidence, and is not rejected because it makes us uncomfortable. And while
healthy skepticism is the foundation of science, we must also apply that
skepticism to those who denounce well-supported theories. Such people
frequently use arguments that sound convicing to a layman, but which do not
stand up to scrutiny.
