Another Coat of Bronze
I remember the disappointment when I sat in class one day and listened to the otherwise brilliant professor discuss the “fact” of evolution. The switch from a scientific genius explaining how nature works to metaphysical midget issuing sophomoric truth claims was strange and disheartening. And so it is with the great Paul Johnson’s new book
Darwin: Portrait of a Genius, of which
Terry Scambray’s review is a
must read.
Terry Scambray: Omitted by Johnson is the comment by Richard Owen, the most famous scientist of his day and the man who coined the word dinosaur. As Owen remarked: Darwin’s seminal book, The Origin of the Species, “will be forgotten in 10 years.”
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. Anyway,
Terry Scambray: Though there are plenty of sputtering attempts at it, all that the book presents are the usual empty generalities about “Darwin the scientist”
Darwin was rightly considered a scientist of the first rank before he ever published Origin of Species.
Z:
DeleteDarwin was rightly considered a scientist of the first rank before he ever published Origin of Species.
Agreed. It was after that were the problems began.
Cornelius Hunter: Agreed. It was after that were the problems began.
DeleteThen Scambray's consistent denigration of Darwin as a scientist misses the mark.