Feliz (ou triste) “Darwin Day”
Hoje é “Darwin Day”, o dia em que se comemora o nascimento de Charles Darwin (1809 -1882).
Tristemente, nem o Google, que tradicionalmente muda o seu logotipo para comemorar as datas mais obscuras, se dignou a marcar a passagem do aniversário de um cientista que deu uma contribuição à ciência do porte da Teoria da Evolução.
O Reuters UK publicou um artigo que retrata bem a triste mentalidade atual com relação à ciência no mundo. Abaixo está uma citação sobre as razões que estão levando organizações em todo o mundo a planejar uma divulgação mundial do “Darwin Day”, que eu acho que resume bem o artigo:
“Because a Darwin Day would send out a signal that science matters in an era when pseudo-science and fear of science seem to be gaining ground.”
Vocês podem ler o artigo original clicando aqui. Eu também copiei o texto do artigo aqui em baixo, para o caso dele sair do ar no site da Reuters.
Campaigners push for “Darwin Day”
Wed 11 February, 2004 07:13
By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) – Atheist, agnostic and humanist organisations in the Americas, Europe and Asia are gearing up for a five-year campaign aimed at achieving international recognition of February 12 as “Darwin Day”.
Their target date is 2009 — the bicentenary of the birth of biologist Charles Darwin whose own faith in a deity who created the world collapsed before the theory of evolution he set out in 1859 in his ground-breaking “The Origin of Species.”
Why push for an annual celebration of Darwin now? His ideas are widely shared and even religious leaders from churches that once denounced him as a heretic accept that life on earth evolved over three billion years from primitive forms.
“Because a Darwin Day would send out a signal that science matters in an era when pseudo-science and fear of science seem to be gaining ground,” argues the British Humanist Association which is playing a key role in the campaign.
In the United States, where a survey in 2002 found that 45 percent of the population believe an all-powerful deity created the universe and all life in it within the last 10,000 years, this concern has even stronger force.
Under the administration of self-proclaimed born-again Christian George W. Bush, U.S. humanists and atheists say there has been a broad offensive by “creationists” aimed at undermining or even halting the teaching of evolution in schools.
The creationist stance has been boosted by a newer movement arguing that, while the earth may indeed be billions of years old, evolution leaves open many questions that can only be answered by the existence of an “Intelligent Designer.”
CREATIONISM “VERY SCARY”
“It is very, very scary,” says Amanda Chesworth, head of the U.S. Darwin Day movement which works to counter the trend by organising community festivals marking the biologist’s birthday. “Creationism is spreading further and further.”
“Our nation went from the earth to the moon a few years ago and discovered these worlds date back billions of years. Now it is sticking its head in the sand, claiming the whole lot was made in a flash a few millennia ago by one entity.”
In Britain, where unlike the United States religious observance is weak, there are strong concerns among secularist groupings over the promotion by Prime Minister Tony Blair, a professed Christian, of “faith-based” education.
The Labour government has allowed creationists to take over funding and administration of at least one state school where pupils are taught creationism.
Other schools may follow, Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society says, unless critics speak out.
In India, where humanism and atheism have a strong tradition and are not so distant from traditional Hindu thought which rejects “ultimate truths,” rationalists are alarmed at the rise of an aggressively militant version of Hinduism.
Narisetti Innaiah, a leader of the country’s Rationalist Association, argues that children should be taught about all religions in schools “but on scientific lines”.
“They should be taught that gods and demons, devils and apparitions, heaven and hell, are all human creations, and that the world’s scriptures are all human works,” Innaiah says. “Children should have freedom to choose any religion, or none.”
Events marking Darwin’s birthday this year are scheduled in many Indian cities and in Nepal, across Australia, in South Africa and Zambia, in Argentina, Brazil and Peru as well as in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
LATIN AMERICAN CHALLENGE
Latin American humanists, arguing that Catholic teachings of humility have done little to encourage populations mired in poverty to fight exploitation, face a mounting challenge from evangelical Protestant groups funded from the United States.
In a church a stone’s throw from the Darwin Research Station on Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands — where the biologist gathered much of his evidence for evolution — fiery evangelical sermons on hellfire awaiting unbelievers are on the daily menu.
In Europe, humanists in former Soviet-bloc countries where Catholicism is strong — like Poland and Slovakia — are also struggling to raise their voices against what they see as religious indoctrination in state schools.
Slovak humanists plan protests around February 12 over a concordat that their country’s government has just signed with the Vatican mandating religious education in schools.
But in Muslim countries, proponents of Darwin Day say the idea is a non-starter, for the moment. In many, the non-religious and even scientists who take a Darwinist view can face prison, or death, for propagating agnosticism or atheism.
“However, even there a change may come,” says a former Asian Muslim who renounced his faith and has written several widely-read books, under the pseudonym Ibn Warraq, questioning the basis of Islam.
“There are millions of people across the Islamic world who hold rationalist views and will hopefully one day be able to voice them in freedom.”
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Infelizmente, esse é o mundo em que vivemos… Quem mandou o povo colocar no poder essas duas antas? :/
Como preconizou o próprio Darwin, a evolução atropela todos os obstáculos.
Infelizmente o ritmo da evolução é muito lento para apaziguar nossos anseios e desgostos…
Que as vindouras baratas tenham mais sabedoria do que nós!
Que pena que a ignorância ainda seja conveniente para tanta gente nesse mundo.
Pois é… enquanto o Charles Darwin, o Eistein, o Carl Sagan (e atualmente o Stephen Hawkings) perderam tempo e neurônios tentando entender alguma coisa útil no mundo e no universo, eu aqui perco neurônios tentando entender porque todo mundo se interessa tanto pelo destino da BBB Antonella (ou será Giovanella, sei lá?)… vai ver sou eu que não entendo nada… qual a relevância disso? Eu acho que estamos evoluindo ao contrário… cada vez mais gostamos de macaquices. O Júlio, César, é que estava certo… o grande lance é mesmo pão e circo.