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5 12

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday on 2/12, a passage from an 1860 letter that I found interesting:

"But I own that I cannot see, as plainly as others do, & as I [should] wish to do, evidence of design & beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe & especially the nature of man, & to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton.— Let each man hope & believe what he can."

NicThePoet 7 Feb 15
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5 comments

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0

Great quote. It reflects that Darwin was moved by Adam Smith's model of rapacious capital markets.

1

Belief is belief. There are a lot of non-falsifiable thoughts out there. Whether one believes there is a God or believes there is not, that is still a belief. To the extent that an idea is harmless, and possibly beneficial in terms of natural release of healthy hormones or fortifying will to accomplish a positive action, I do not object to people entertaining something that may well be a fantasy - so long as one is able to remember or accept a reminder that this could be nothing more than a fantasy, and it does not cross the line into delusion.

1

Freaking wicked quote, WickedNick

4

Over 150 years later, with all our advances in the scientific field and the incredible knowledge we have gained way too many people still refute Darwin's basic ideas. I think survival of the stupid will doom us all.

2

"Religion is the smile on a dog". Not my line. It's from a song that I am tortured with on Muzak.

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