Discussion Group Report

David N. Campbell is a retired university professor. He is founder and past president of the Center for Inquiry Community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently, he becomes Charles Darwin for a weekly cable television show and for live performances. He prepared for this over a three year period, reading everything Darwin wrote that was available, including the four volume, From So Simple a Beginning edited by E.O. Wilson. He read Darwin's On the Origin of Species three times. The article "What Would Darwin Do?" is a synopsis of some of the main points he makes during his presentations.

Quoting from the article: "When people proudly announce, as so many do, 'I don't believe in evolution.' I politely reply, 'Neither do I. No one believes in evolution. Evolution is science. It is not about believing in anything. We either know and understand--which is why you have these electric lights, and can expect to live beyond the age of 40--or we are in the process of knowing and understanding.'" In just a few words the author summarizes my philosophy of life. I think most humanists, agnostics, and scientists would agree with Darwin. The only message we can hope to pass on after our demise is what science has achieved, how it has transformed all our lives, and how much more there is to know and understand. There are no true alternatives, just a desperate longing for some hope to be spared, to be exempt from the reality we have finally come to know.

Darwin's life was a transformation from a more standard philosophy of life to that of a scientist. Many people do not know that he completed a degree in theology before he became a naturalist, and before he journeyed around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. He, himself stated that early in the voyage of the Beagle he talked with his shipmates about his natural science studies from a biblical language, but by the end of the voyage he used a more "naturalistic" language.

Darwin struggled with his own religious hopes and yearnings for many years. Quoting again from the article: "There must be 'something' beyond this world. There has to be a creator, a mover." Darwin went through this questioning acutely when his precious Annie died in his arms at age ten. Darwin wrote, "After that, I no longer accompanied Emma to church. I knew for sure then that there was no loving benefactor anywhere in this world or the universe. I was just beginning to understand. What obviously existed was the struggle to survive that I had observed."

The article ends with Darwin's admonishing us about others. "I know firsthand, as do all scientists, that it is not easy thinking, and perhaps we should consider the possibility that we can never expect everyone--or even most--to think in this fashion.

I would end with the admonishment; we need to expect others to think rationally, we really have no other choice.