As a naturalist, it seems decidedly wrong to me to allow the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin to pass without acknowledging the fact and pausing at least a moment to offer a philosophical reflection.
While there will be a continuous flow of comment and commentary made this day upon Mr. Darwin’s life, his work, and his legacy, it has always struck me as unfortunate how this reportedly quiet, studious, and deeply introspective man has been made the hero and the villain of opposing camps in a war of words that will likely rage so long as his name is remembered. Not since Galileo have the writings of one man been the cause of so much argument and contention among so many people; however in Galileo’s case, at least those arguing about his writings had, generally, at least taken the time to read them.
To me, Mr. Darwin was neither hero nor villain; simply a man who was passionately and deeply in pursuit of an enlarged understanding of the mysteries of nature he observed all around him. Not the patron saint of the atheists nor a demon sent to torment the religious; merely a man of deep and sincere faith who would not let any man-made dogma stand in the way of the expansion of human understanding of the world in which he lived.
