Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Darwin Awards

Considering that Charles Darwin believed that it takes a long time for certain traits to get weeded out of the population, it is amazing that there are the “Darwin Awards” which reward those that died in unique ways. Just because they have died does not mean that their genes are completely removed from the gene pool as they could have already produced off spring. This system seems like another miss conception of Darwin’s Theories by so-called Darwinists. Especially because today in a bookstore I was reading the description of how Darwin was in a book outlining some of the more famous Darwin Award recipients, and it called Darwin the Father of Evolution. As Darwinist Bruce Alexander said, many Darwinists have misconceptions of what Darwin actually said as they have not actually even read his books. Could this be another case where a publisher decided it would be a good idea to put out a book on this topic but not actually look at Darwin and his writings and just label himself a Darwinist? It is perplexing that an idea such as this can be put into print even though it is not necessarily the truth.

It seems like it would be better to call them the Bernard Shaw Award’s, as the individuals did not have the “will to live”. This is similar to the fifth part of Shaw’s play where the elder is telling the newborn about how they will live for about 300 years then have an unfortunate accident to end their life. This could be seen as these individuals’ unfortunate accidents as they were not able to survive. The individuals will to live was lost as they were put into a compromising situation and ended up taking their life. It is important to understand that Darwin’s theories of natural selection do not always apply to every situation, and this seems like an odd place to have his name attached to after studying his theories for the last three months.

1 comment:

  1. After everything we have read with Butler and even within Darwin's writings itself, it is astounding that present day writers can have something published stating that Darwin is the "founder" of Evolution. It is one thing to have believed 'the big lie' (as Butler felt) at the time of its inception, but even hindsight and current day study has not solved these misconceptions.

    And like you say, these 'Darwin Awards' going to individuals who die in a certain way - this strikes me as odd... and perhaps I don't understand exactly what the point of this book was that you are citing - but wouldn't "Darwin Awards" go to those that have survived? Survival of the fittest? This is probably my own misunderstanding in the matter.

    Good thoughts, as always Jonathon!

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