| This Feb. 12 marks the 196th anniversary of | | | | walking around local classrooms talking about |
| Charles Darwin's birth! | | | | 'intelligent design' and other nonsense," he said. |
| The day has special significance for America's | | | | Pigliucci's course on "Evolution, Creationism and the |
| nearly 30 million nonreligious people. In the | | | | Nature of Science" is available at the Continuum |
| humanist community, Feb. 12 is "Darwin Day." | | | | of Humanist Education, the online school of the |
| "Darwin has become an all-purpose icon for | | | | Institute for Humanist Studies. |
| humanists, who champion reason and science | | | | Though an unofficial humanist holiday, Darwin Day |
| while rejecting superstition and dogma," said Matt | | | | has been steadily gaining popularity in the humanist |
| Cherry, executive director of the Institute for | | | | community since it first appeared in the early |
| Humanist Studies in Albany, N.Y. "Darwin is the | | | | 1990s. Not long after the event took hold, the |
| definitive rebuff to fundamentalism." | | | | International Humanist and Ethical Union decided |
| In 2004, a Gallup poll found that only one-third of | | | | against making Darwin Day an official holiday. |
| Americans believe Darwin's 19th century theory | | | | Board members at the time argued that |
| of evolution is a credible scientific theory. The | | | | humanists should not ape saints days or elevate |
| same poll found that 45 percent of Americans | | | | humanist heroes to the status of secular idols. |
| believe God created humans in their present form | | | | Yet many humanists simply see Darwin Day as a |
| roughly 10,000 years ago. | | | | way to celebrate scientific thinking and progress. |
| Massimo Pigliucci, Ph.D., a professor of evolutionary | | | | Humanists are quick to note that science has |
| biology at SUNY-Stony Brook and author of the | | | | evolved since the time of Darwin. But that, |
| Web column "Rationally Speaking", is shocked by | | | | according to humanists, is a tribute to Darwin and |
| how few Americans have a basic understanding | | | | to science. |
| of evolutionary biology and the nature of science | | | | "Science should be celebrated as something that |
| in general. | | | | makes our lives better -- just like family, love, |
| "If people had a better understanding of both we | | | | nature, civil rights and the many other things we |
| wouldn't be embarrassed in front of the rest of | | | | already celebrate," said August E. Brunsman IV, |
| the world by cases such as the one currently | | | | executive director of the Secular Student Alliance. |
| going on in Dover, Pa., where administrators are | | | | |