Our third annual Darwin Day with Humanists of Utah went very well, as those of you who attended already know. Professor Bruce Dain, of the University of Utah History Department gave us an excellent presentation about Charles Darwin. While I have read a fair bit about Darwin and his works, Professor Dain helped further enlighten me with a better perspective of Darwin the man. Learning more about Darwin's personal characteristics, his upbringing, his education and his intellectual abilities that made him capable of taking on such an endeavor as he did, was delightful. I again want to thank Professor Dain for his presentation and all the board members who helped with the logistics and so that the event actually happened.

Also, on the 29th of February, I attended the presentation orchestrated by the student group SHIFT. At the U of U Fine Arts auditorium they presented Dr. Austin Dacey who gave a presentation about blasphemy and free speech. It was very interesting and well attended by what I would estimate as around a hundred people. Dr. Dacey's book, The Secular Conscience, is an excellent read and expands on the idea of blasphemy and free speech in greater detail.

After his presentation, Dr Dacey engaged in a discussion with Dr. Mark Hausam of Christ Presbyterian Church about whether God is necessary for morality.

I am quite happy that Humanists of Utah was one of the co-sponsors, with SHIFT, Secular Student Alliance and Christ Presbyterian Church. It is one of Humanists of Utah's goals to foster learning and help bring younger people in contact with humanism. We will work to make these events continue to happen regularly.

I want to comment on the word, or more specifically, the concept of "Mystery." I recently read an article brought it back to mind for me. I won't bore you with the details of the article, but in my experience there are certain people who try to criticize science by asserting that it somehow destroys the mysteries of life, or the universe, or of the creation. Or perhaps they will say that we should "leave some things alone" or "just go with the mystery," Often it is obvious that statements of that sort are fueled by the criticizing person's religion.

I see it quite differently. To me the beauty of nature, if you will, isn't solely in being awed by its mysteries, but rather in being intrigued by them. To want to understand what is going on out there in the world or the cosmos. Why are there earthquakes, why is that volcano where it is, how can life can survive in the deep dark depths of the oceans floor? Imagine exploring the far off stars or perhaps our neighboring planets.

I think Richard Dawkins speaks to this idea of "destroying the mystery" quite well in his book Unweaving the Rainbow. Dawkins tells us that the title to his book is from the poet Keats who lamented that Isaac Newton had "destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colors." Three sentences from his preface sum it up very well, "The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music or poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living it is finite." Rainbow is truly one of my favorite books.

--Robert Lane
President, HoU