Happy (Belated) Darwin Day

I hope everyone had a nice Darwin Day yesterday. Unfortunately I missed the celebration on campus last weekend and did nothing special on the day itself. However, I am planning on playing catch-up at some point with the many radio and television programs from the BBC's Darwin season.

Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time radio show had a four-part look at the man while elsewhere on the dial there was "Dear Darwin" in which "five eminent contemporary thinkers write personal letters to the great man." I've downloaded these programs but haven't listened yet. On the boob tube, I've gotten a hold of What Darwin Didn't Know, Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, and some others but more are on the way.

Also notable is a new book about Darwin called Darwin's Sacred Cause which argues that his "theory of evolution may have been shaped by his abhorrence of slavery as much as by his keen observations of Galapagos finches".

Lastly I want to note a blog post by a fellow Madison blogger about the Freedom From Religion Foundation's billboard on Regent Street. It reads "Praise Darwin" and beneath that "Evolve Beyond Belief". Here's what the proprietor of the blog, whose name escapes me at the moment, says about it:

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has done some good work in support of the constitutional separation of church and state, but this hardly seems to be designed to promote healthy dialog with the faithful.

The emphasis is mine. I agree that a "healthy dialog with the faithful" was not the ultimate goal of the billboard. But so what? Why should such a dialog be the ultimate goal? And with which faithful should the FFRF be having a dialog?

What kind of dialog is there to be had with Bishop Morlino? Julianne Appling? The producers of the pro-Intelligent Design movie Expelled garnered interviews under false pretenses and had it hosted by Ben Stein who said, "science leads you to killing people" - what kind of dialog can be had with such people? When a teacher loses his job because community members harbor the suspicion that he is a "liberal" and an "atheist", tell me what kind of dialog there is to be had. How about people who open and go to a museum that tells folks that the earth in 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs and human being co-existed? Scientists will present evidence while the faithful will put forth the Bible. I don't see where a healthy dialog fits in. When Christians want to put their religion into public schools, it's not a dialog that's required – it's efforts to uphold secularism that are needed.

None of this is to say that dialog is useless a priori; but you have to recognize that it isn't applicable to all situations.

Personally, I think the dialog that the FFRF is hoping to have with the billboard and the ads on buses is with the non-religious. The organization is trying to boost membership by letting godless heathens know that they are not alone. In addition I suspect the FFRF is also trying to get current members more active, i.e. – convince them to write letters and make their voices heard.