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Post by Charles Martel on Feb 12, 2009 6:52:01 GMT
This man emancipated America from the scourge of slavery: Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. As the war was drawing to a close, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate. More at: Wikipedia...while this man begun the process of emancipating mankind from superstition: Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who realised and demonstrated that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s,[1] and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life.[2]
More at: Wikipedia
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ricklinc
New Member
Nostalgia
Posts: 2,597
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Post by ricklinc on Feb 12, 2009 8:19:11 GMT
" He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis,"
I'm not sure that I'd call a civil war much of a success. I'd call it the failure to sort stuff out without all the noise and fuss. And slavery was really only a side issue to secession.
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Post by mars33 on Feb 12, 2009 9:28:20 GMT
Happy Darwin day!
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Post by flatandy on Feb 12, 2009 9:59:57 GMT
The last tolerable member of the Republican Party.
And Darwin wasn't a great scientist, not like Newton or Einstein. But he came up with the best scientific theory evah. (Well, that's assuming that calculus is maths not science).
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KrispyKoala
New Member
We've gone Global? Do I need shots for that?
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Post by KrispyKoala on Feb 12, 2009 10:56:17 GMT
Am at a total loss to see how these two guys are linked in any way other than being born in the same century.
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Post by mars33 on Feb 12, 2009 11:48:56 GMT
Same day.
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Post by omnipleasant on Feb 12, 2009 12:33:34 GMT
I was never really that taken by Darwin's theory. Just because it's so common sense. You have to know the historical context I suppose, which we were never taught.
I prefered Einstein's stuff as the Best Theory Eva. Nothing is fixed - not even time. Mind-bending.
I've never heard of the bloke in the top picture of Martel's post, but if he is responsible for making America he's a right cnut in my book...
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Post by flatandy on Feb 12, 2009 12:41:06 GMT
Darwin's theory is completely ace. It is just common sense but nobody had come up with it in three of four millennia of people thinking about science. Which means it's just the most awesome bit of common sense.
Einstein's stuff is way more complicated, of course, but it's not nearly as astonishingly brilliant.
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Post by omnipleasant on Feb 12, 2009 12:45:10 GMT
Yeah but that's my point. It doesn't blow your mind, because it seems so common sense. You need to know the historical context to recognise the genius of it.
Whereas the mind-blowing amazingness of relativity smacks you right between the eyes as soon as you learn it.
And I'd even argue that in terms of thinking outside the box, Einstein's stuff was more brilliant. Darwin's wasn't quite so different from some ideas that were bubbling under the surface at the time, was it?
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skyways
New Member
Am I not cool?
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Post by skyways on Feb 12, 2009 12:45:51 GMT
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Post by omnipleasant on Feb 12, 2009 12:45:47 GMT
in comparison to Einstein's stuff, I mean.
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Post by flatandy on Feb 12, 2009 12:55:38 GMT
But that's my point, too. The power in Darwin's stuff is astonishing. Something so utterly obvious, once you know it, is so powerful.
Einstein was clearly more brilliant, and his stuff less intuitive, but I'm just not as gob-smacked by it.
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ricklinc
New Member
Nostalgia
Posts: 2,597
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Post by ricklinc on Feb 12, 2009 13:06:24 GMT
Read Darwin's Watch by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.
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VikingHumpingWitch
New Member
"My philosophy in life is keep dry and keep away from children. I got it from a matchbox."
Posts: 8,018
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Post by VikingHumpingWitch on Feb 12, 2009 13:15:34 GMT
Not sure you can claim Lincoln as a giant of Western civilisation on the basis of the abolition of slavery. For a start the UK had got round to it decades previously, in which case William Wilberforce must be even gianter.
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ricklinc
New Member
Nostalgia
Posts: 2,597
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Post by ricklinc on Feb 12, 2009 13:22:17 GMT
Getting shot seems to be a really good career move for American presidents. Lincoln did right well out of it and so did that idiot Kennedy. Even Reagan got a bit of popularity out of a near miss. The only thing Bush managed was to have a pair of sweaty shoes thrown at him.
If Obama get's shot in the next few weeks we'll never be able to survive the OCEANS of urine.
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Post by flatandy on Feb 12, 2009 13:30:46 GMT
Garfield and McKinley say you're not quite right, Rick.
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Post by tarrant on Feb 12, 2009 13:29:44 GMT
Yeah but that's my point. It doesn't blow your mind, because it seems so common sense. You need to know the historical context to recognise the genius of it. Whereas the mind-blowing amazingness of relativity smacks you right between the eyes as soon as you learn it. And I'd even argue that in terms of thinking outside the box, Einstein's stuff was more brilliant. Darwin's wasn't quite so different from some ideas that were bubbling under the surface at the time, was it? Darwin blew my mind when I first studied it simply because it was all so obvious. But it has to be pointed out that many people seemingly, know the points but have still completely failed to grasp the principal. From a previous thread that would seem to include several members of this site and Prof Dawkins. Einstine is also very mind blowing but in a different way. Most of us know the implications, bent space, time and so on, few of use really understand the principal. Though I have a feeling that this will be a bit like sex when were were teenage boys. None of us really understood it, bou each of us pretended we did and hoped to find another boy who we could tease for not. |
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VikingHumpingWitch
New Member
"My philosophy in life is keep dry and keep away from children. I got it from a matchbox."
Posts: 8,018
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Post by VikingHumpingWitch on Feb 12, 2009 13:35:21 GMT
But it has to be pointed out that many people seemingly, know the points but have still completely failed to grasp the principal. From a previous thread that would seem to include several members of this site and Prof Dawkins. PMSL |
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Post by tarrant on Feb 12, 2009 13:38:15 GMT
PMSL?  Sorry. Love using phone text but as I frequently point out to my nieces and nephews, I don't understand these abbreviations. I'm sure it was an utterly cutting ans witty retory. But, sadly, I need a translation. Fab!! |
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Post by flatandy on Feb 12, 2009 13:41:00 GMT
But it has to be pointed out that many people, seemingly, know the points of irony, but have still completely failed to grasp the principal.
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