DEPT. OF ADAPTATION DARWIN IN MANHATTAN

by Ben McGrath

Posted 2005-11-14

On Election Day, as the Kansas school board was voting to allow the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, a couple of fifty-pound Gal ¡pagos tortoises were settling in to their temporary new Manhattan home, at the American Museum of Natural History. For the next six months, the tortoises will be the star attractions (along with five Argentine horned frogs and a green iguana) in a major exhibit on Charles Darwin.

The exhibit opens later this week, but last Wednesday museum workers were allowed a preview. The tortoises, made famous when Darwin wrote, in “The Origin of Species,” of riding atop their shells, are positioned at the end of the Hall of Amphibians and Reptiles, just outside the exhibit’s entrance, and a few employees had stopped to observe them while waiting for Michael Novacek, the curator of the Division of Paleontology, to arrive for a tour.

“Uh-oh, he’s discovered the lock,” one said as a tortoise gnawed repeatedly at a piece of metal in the corner of the terrarium, a kind of reptilian studio apartment.

“We’re lucky to be seeing them now,” another said. “Once they get acclimated, they’ll stop moving around and they won’t do anything.”

The tortoise abandoned his gnawing and started padding away, just as Novacek arrived. “When do they become sexually active?” an onlooker asked.

“Let’s see, they’re sixteen?” Novacek said. “I don’t want to call them teen-agers, but right about now, as a matter of fact.”

Novacek, who was wearing a conservative suit and a neatly trimmed beard, led the way into the exhibit and stopped in front of an encased magnifying glass, Darwin’s own. “It’s a very simple instrument,” he said. “We want people to get the sense that he defined biology, and yet he used very simple tools.”

Novacek proceeded through several installations devoted to Darwin’s childhood, and a picture gradually emerged of the biologist as a young man: by no means an  ©litist egghead but, rather, an aimless, God-fearing everyman. Pausing in front of young Darwin’s beetle collection, Novacek noted the sign above, which read “Beetle Mania,” and said, “Darwin was not very attentive at school, not a good student. We want kids to relate to that.”

“He liked the notion of being a clergyman,” Novacek went on as he continued past Charles’s rock hammer and arrived at a glass case featuring a Bible and a small pistol: proper red-state accessories for a long sea voyage, in this case aboard the famous H.M.S. Beagle.

Novacek stopped in front of a painstaking re-creation of Darwin’s study at Down House, in Kent, where he wrote “The Origin,” complete with his walking stick and his whiskey, and then moved to a couple of low video monitors. “We tried to go over the theory in several ways,” he said. “It’s really not that complicated.” At the top of one screen, where green- and orange-colored insects crawled over a bed of leaves, were the words “Which ladybugs are most likely to be eaten?” Bird beaks appeared from above, pecking the bugs one by one. The orange crawlers, being more conspicuous, were the first to die off, and the heading soon changed: “Now which ladybugs survive and reproduce?”

A man attempted to toggle the leaves’ pigmentation from green to orange, using a lever at the foot of the screen, in the hope of reversing the survival pattern. The lone remaining green ladybug continued dancing around.

“Why aren’t the birds eating him?” someone asked.

“They’re just full, I guess,” the toggler said.

The tour was near completion, and not a word had been spoken about Darwin’s current status as a man in the news. “It’s not escaped our notice that the theory is controversial,” Novacek said at last. (He explained that Darwin had sat on his theory for nearly twenty years, fearing scandal.) He pointed to a wall that offered what he called “contextual bits”: mentions of the Scopes trial; the introduction, in England, of a ten-pound bank note with Darwin’s likeness on it; and the briefest nod to the Dover, Pennsylvania, school-board trial, concerning intelligent design, that is winding down right now.

“We can’t say how it will turn out,” Novacek said, referring to Dover. “But the point is the larger context, which extends back a hundred and fifty years. What we’re currently seeing is what Darwin correctly anticipated.”

Soon after Novacek finished speaking these words, a loud alarm sounded, accompanied by a brief flash of light; one of the staffers had put his hand too close to a biology textbook that was mounted next to a cautionary sticker of the type used in Cobb County, Georgia, to warn that a book includes “material on evolution.” The tour ended in the gift shop: bearded Darwin dolls, finger puppets, stuffed tortoises. “There’s a lot of Darwin-O-Rama right now,” Novacek said, seeming pleased.

Had Darwin correctly anticipated the commodification of natural selection? A man in line to pay glanced over at an employee who was fooling around with the Darwin finger-puppet magnets. The man spoke with a European accent: “I’m sure this is what he always wanted: to be stuck on our refrigerators.”

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/051121ta_talk_mcgrath

~~~

The Top 10 Intelligent Designs (or Creation Myths) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania school district that added the controversial theory of “intelligent design” to its curricullum. Unlike the theory of evolution which is taught at most schools as a fact-based science, “intelligent design” — as argued by the ACLU — is nothing more than a philosophy predicated on the Judeo-Christian belief that the logical sequences found in nature are not random happenings or surprising mutations, but deftly managed events created by a greater omniscient and omnipresent intelligence with a specific plan. In short, the work of God. But therein lies the rub: Which god? When the founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States, they chose to include the separation of church and state. This was to ensure that the state-sanctioned religious persecutions that plagued much of Europe during the 16th century would not despoil the young, yet grand experiment in democracy that was to become this Republic.

Scientific research has come along way since Charles Darwin first posited the concept of “natural selection”, an idea as controversial now as it was back in 1859 when it was first published. In the intervening years, humanity has learned much about how we became the dominant species on the planet, how the Earth and the solar system were formed and the ever-changing development of the Universe. Over that time, how we understand the theory of evolution has also changed.

Scientists now believe that there is an intrinsic logic to our reality, that there are absolutes, laws of nature. Much remains a mystery, and as one question is answered, many others arise. The question now facing Pennsylvania’s Dover School District is whether or not the imposition of one creation belief on a multi-ethnic, secular student body is in keeping with the law that prohibits the creation of a state religion. If they allow one belief system to be taught, surely they must also teach others?

To help out with this dilemma, LiveScience presents a list of those Creation Myths that helped define civilizations both past and present… — Tom X. Chao and Anthony Duignan-Cabrera

Hammer of the Gods: Norse Mythology

Mother’s Milk: The giant cow Au °humla feeds Ymir with her milk.

With its bounty of brawny, barrel-chested gods and buxom goddesses, the ancient Norse religion of the Scandinavian and Germanic countries is truly the creation myth for fans of both pro wrestling and heavy metal music. According to Norse lore, before there was Earth (Midgard), there was Muspell, a fiery land guarded by the fire sword-wielding Surt; Ginnungagap, a great void, and Niflheim, a frozen ice-covered land. When the cold of Niflheim touched the fires of Muspell, the giant Ymir and a behemothic cow, Au °humla, emerged from the thaw. Then, the cow licked the god Bor and his wife into being. The couple gave birth to Buri, who fathered three sons, Odin, Vili, and V ©. The sons rose up and killed Ymir and from his corpse created from his flesh, the Earth; the mountains from his bones, trees with his hair and rivers, and the seas and lakes with his blood. Within Ymir’s hollowed-out skull, the gods created the starry heavens. What can we say: Pure metal magic!!

Zoroastrianism, the Religion of Ancient Persia

The god Ahura Mazda: At first, he was only represented as two wings, later the human figure was added. Credit: hindubooks.org

The Bundahishn of the Middle Persian era tells of the world created by the deity Ahura Mazda. The great mountain, Alburz, grew for 800 years until it touched the sky. From that point, rain fell, forming the Vourukasha sea and two great rivers. The first animal, the white bull, lived on the bank of the river Veh Rod. However, the evil spirit, Angra Mainyu, killed it. Its seed was carried to the moon and purified, creating many animals and plants. Across the river lived the first man, Gayomard, bright as the sun. Angra Mainyu also killed him. Ouch! The sun purified his seed for forty years, which then sprouted a rhubarb plant. This plant grew into Mashya and Mashyanag, the first mortals. Instead of killing them, Angra Mainyu deceived them into worshipping him. After 50 years they bore twins, but they ate the twins, owing to their sin. After a very long time, two more twins were born, and from them came all humans (but specifically Persians).

By the Rivers of Babylon

Not ready for primetime: Image of Marduk and his snake dragon. Image Credit: J. Black & A. Green, Gods, demons and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia, 1992

The Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, begins with the gods of water, Apsu (fresh), and Tiamat (salt), spawning several generations of gods, leading to Ea and his many brothers. However, these younger gods made so much noise that Apsu and Tiamat could not sleep (a complaint still common today amongst apartment-dwellers). Apsu plotted to kill them, but Ea killed him first. Tiamat vowed revenge and created many monsters, including the Mad Dog and Scorpion Man. Ea and the goddess Damkina created Marduk, a giant god with four eyes and four ears, as their protector. In tangling with Tiamat, Marduk, bearing the winds as weapons, hurled an evil wind down her gullet, incapacitating her, and then killed her with a single arrow to her heart. He then split her body in half and used it to create the heavens and the earth. Later he created man to do the drudge work that the gods refused to do, like farming, telemarketing and accounting. (Marduk currently appears on Cartoon Network’s Sealab 2020!)

Spirits of Ancient Egypt

Hold that pose: Geb, the god of the Earth, hoists Nut, the goddess of the sky, into position.

The ancient Egyptians had several creation myths. All begin with the swirling, chaotic waters of Nu (or Nun). Atum willed himself into being, and then created a hill, otherwise there’d be no place for him to stand. Atum was genderless and possessed an all-seeing eye. He/she spat out a son, Shu, god of the air. Atum then vomited up a daughter, Tefnut, goddess of moisture. These two were charged with the task of creating order out of chaos. Shu and Tefnut generated Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky. First they were entwined, but Geb lifted Nut above him. Gradually the world’s order formed, but Shu and Tefnut became lost in the remaining darkness. Atum removed his/her all-seeing eye and sent it in search of them. (Just how all-seeing it was, and what did Atum do without, remains a mystery.) When Shu and Tefnut returned, thanks to the eye, Atum wept with joy. (Presumably he/she re-inserted the eye first.) Where the tears struck the earth, men sprang up.

South of the Border, Down Mexico Way: The Aztecs

Mother! Please!: Coatlicue was depicted as a woman with a skirt of snakes and a necklace of hearts torn from her victims.

The earth mother of the Aztecs, Coatlicue (“skirt of snakes,”) is depicted in a fearsome way, wearing a necklace of human hearts and hands, and a skirt of snakes as her name suggests. The story goes that Coatlicue was impregnated by an obsidian knife and gave birth to Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, and to 400 sons, who became the stars of the southern sky. Later, a ball of feathers fell from the sky which, upon Coatlicue finding it and placing it in her waistband, caused her to become pregnant again. Coyolxauhqui and her brothers turned against their mother, whose unusual pregnancy shocked and outraged them, the origin being unknown. However, the child inside Coatlique, Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and the sun god, sprang from his mother’s womb, fully-grown and armored (talk about a C-section!). He attacked Coyolxauhqui, killing her with the aid of a fire serpent. Cutting off her head, he flung it into the sky, where it became the moon. That was supposed to comfort Coatlicue, his mother–some comfort!

China, the Middle Kingdom

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Pan-gu separates the Earth from the Sky.

A cosmic egg floated within the timeless void, containing the opposing forces of yin and yang. After eons of incubation, the first being, Pan-gu emerged. The heavy parts (yin) of the egg drifted downwards, forming the earth. The lighter parts (yang) rose to form the sky. Pan-gu, fearing the parts might re-form, stood upon the earth and held up the sky. He grew 10 feet per day for 18,000 years, until the sky was 30,000 miles high. His work completed, he died. His parts transformed into elements of the universe, whether animals, weather phenomena, or celestial bodies. Some say the fleas on him became humans, but there is another explanation. The goddess Nuwa was lonely, so she fashioned men out of mud from the Yellow River. These first humans delighted her, but took long to make, so she flung muddy droplets over the earth, each one becoming a new person. These hastily-made people became the commoners, with the earlier ones being the nobles the first example of mass-production!

Japan, this Island Earth

All in the Family: Izanagi and Izanami, the siblings that brought forth Japan and its inhabitants.

The gods created two divine siblings, brother Izanagi and sister Izanami, who stood upon a floating bridge above the primordial ocean. Using the jeweled spear of the gods, they churned up the first island, Onogoro. Upon the island, Izanagi and Izanami married, and gave forth progeny that were malformed. The gods blamed it upon a breach of protocol. During the marriage ritual, Izanami, the woman, had spoken first. Correctly reprising their marriage ritual, the two coupled and produced the islands of Japan and more deities. However, in birthing Kagutsuchi-no-Kami, the fire god, Izanami died. Traumatized, Izanagi followed her to Yomi, the land of the dead. Izanami, having eaten the food of Yomi, could not return. When Izanagi suddenly saw Izanami’s decomposing body, he was terrified and fled. Izanami, enraged, pursued him, accompanied by hideous women. Izanagi hurled personal items at them, which transformed into diversions. Escaping the cavern entrance of Yomi, he blocked it with a boulder, thus permanently separating life from death. (Rather like Persephone in Hades, isn’t it?)

Japan, this Island Earth

All in the Family: Izanagi and Izanami, the siblings that brought forth Japan and its inhabitants.

The gods created two divine siblings, brother Izanagi and sister Izanami, who stood upon a floating bridge above the primordial ocean. Using the jeweled spear of the gods, they churned up the first island, Onogoro. Upon the island, Izanagi and Izanami married, and gave forth progeny that were malformed. The gods blamed it upon a breach of protocol. During the marriage ritual, Izanami, the woman, had spoken first. Correctly reprising their marriage ritual, the two coupled and produced the islands of Japan and more deities. However, in birthing Kagutsuchi-no-Kami, the fire god, Izanami died. Traumatized, Izanagi followed her to Yomi, the land of the dead. Izanami, having eaten the food of Yomi, could not return. When Izanagi suddenly saw Izanami’s decomposing body, he was terrified and fled. Izanami, enraged, pursued him, accompanied by hideous women. Izanagi hurled personal items at them, which transformed into diversions. Escaping the cavern entrance of Yomi, he blocked it with a boulder, thus permanently separating life from death. (Rather like Persephone in Hades, isn’t it?)

The Greeks and the Titans

Dads, think twice about curfew: The Mutilation of Uranus by Cronus, by Vasari and Gherardi. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

The early Greek poets posited various cosmogonies. The best-preserved is Hesiod’s Theogony. In this hymn, out of the primordial chaos came the earliest divinities, including Gaia (mother earth). Gaia created Uranus, the sky, to cover herself. They spawned a bizarre menagerie of gods and monsters, including the Hecatonchires, monsters with 50 heads and a hundred hands, and the Cyclopes, the “wheel-eyed,” later forgers of Zeus’s thunderbolts. Next came the gods known as the Titans, 6 sons and 6 daughters. Uranus, despising his monstrous children, imprisoned them in Tartarus, the earth’s bowels. Enraged, Gaia made an enormous sickle and gave it to her youngest son, Cronus, with instructions. When next Uranus appeared to copulate with Gaia, Cronus sprang out and hacked off his father’s genitals! Where Uranus’s blood and naughty bits fell, there sprang forth more monsters, the Giants and Furies. From the sea foam churned up by the the holy testicles came the goddess Aphrodite. Later, Cronus fathered the next generation of gods, Zeus and the Olympians. And, boy, were they dysfunctional!

The Genesis of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic Faiths

Gifts from a Stranger: Adam and Eve, bears the following marking: ‘Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg made this engraving in 1504’

Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible, contains two origin stories, both of which are accepted as the creation of the world by today’s Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. In the first, God says, “Let there be light,” and light appears. In six days, he creates the sky, the land, plants, the sun and moon, animals, and all creatures, including humans. To all he says, “Be fruitful and multiply,” which they do. On the seventh day God rests, contemplates his handiwork, and gives himself a good evaluation. In the second story, God creates the first man, Adam, from the earth. He makes a garden in Eden for Adam, but forbids him to eat fruit from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Adam names the animals but remains lonely. God anesthetizes Adam and makes one of his ribs into the first woman, Eve. A talking serpent persuades her to eat the forbidden fruit, and she convinces Adam to do likewise. When God finds out, he drives them from the garden and makes man mortal. They should have stuck with apricots!

http://www.livescience.com/history/top10_intelligent_designs.html