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Post by merkavah12 on Jun 8, 2011 2:48:15 GMT
Yes. You read that correctly.
I recently had an argument with a chap who claimed that Richard Owen was a Christian Creationist and that his famously "vile" behavior is proof that all Christians are "unscientific scum only worthy of either being dragged into the light of reason or dragged to the firing squad".
His vitriol aside, I had to scratch my head. I thought Owen believed in Evolution (albeit not by natural selection) and that he was not religious himself.
Any insight on this?
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Post by wraggy on Jun 8, 2011 6:35:33 GMT
Are you referring to this Richard Owen? Sir Richard Owen, KCB (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.
Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's Origin. [/blockquote] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Owen |
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Post by merkavah12 on Jun 8, 2011 8:11:15 GMT
Yep. That's the one.
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Post by humphreyclarke on Jun 8, 2011 10:15:53 GMT
Unfortunately Owen was systematically written out of history by Darwin and his followers by making his personality the issue. In a lot of the later literature he is set up as the villain to the shiny white Darwinians - which appears to be what this guy is buying into.
Two points to make on this. First that since 1965 Owen has been rehabilitated in the historical literature - Owen's work formed part of the foundations of Darwin's theory (argued by Ospovat, Macleod and Robert J Richards). The type of 19th century 'structuralist biology' advocated by Owen has made something of a comeback among proponents of Evo-Devo and those who stress form and structural constraints in explaining organic diversity. Secondly there are differing reports concerning his personality and behavior among contemporary sources - I have to say if we judge a scientist by their personality then Isaac Newton would come off pretty badly.
So - referring to Rupke's biography - this 'unscientific scum' was Britain's' leading biologist of the 19th century, advocated an evolutionary theory of the origin of species well before Darwin, played a major role in the reform of the royal society, the founding of natural history museums and university science departments and assisted the emergence of a class of scientists occupying positions of acknowledged authority. I mean this guy can call that 'unscientific' if he wants but it does seem a bit of a stretch.
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Post by wraggy on Jun 10, 2011 7:06:14 GMT
A study on Richard Owen may be worthy of an article on Quodlibeta Humpy.
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