Why Are We Still Talking About Darwin?

Why Are We Still Talking About Darwin?

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If someone in 2012 wants to criticize Henry Ford because he didn’t know everything about automobiles a century ago, it’s a little silly. He knew what he knew given the science and the technology of his day – he revolutionized his field. Freud got a lot wrong about psychology but he created the only unified theory of psychology recognized by people today. Criticizing him is as quaint and pointless and irrelevant as someone criticizing a 19th century analysis of Coleridge – any researcher doing it is likely to get a “someone paid for them to write this?” response.

In 2012, though, people are still trying to bash Charles Darwin and their main argument is he didn’t know everything. To biologists, he had perhaps the greatest idea anyone ever had, descent with modification, and that was that. His books are okay, he was not a great writer, you are really only reading them for historical context, but a ‘culture war’ exists over him