Members Op-Ed: Darwin Day--What is this Mishegas?

Darwin Day is a recently instituted celebration intended to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12, 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contribution to science and to promote science in general.⁽¹⁾ Moreover, it is an opportunity for lovers of science to join together, have a party, and do what we love: learn about new ideas that explain and deepen our understanding of the natural world in a way that is reasoned and supported by factual evidence.

Darwin Day’s “invention” is attributed to the Humanist Community of Palo Alto, around 1993, and independently to faculty and students at the University of Tennessee several years later.  Like any good meme, the idea of Darwin Day has been perpetuated and spread by a growing host of human enthusiasts, including scientists, humanists, educators, students, secularists, skeptics, atheists, party hounds, scallywags and various co-conspirators.  A watershed event came in 2009: the 200^th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150^th anniversary of the publication of “On The Origin of Species”, Darwin’s treatise describing natural selection and related natural phenomena (specifically, biological variation) as the determinants of evolutionary processes and the forces behind the diversity of plant and animal species observed in the world.  Darwin Day 2009 saw many hundreds of observances throughout the world, including lectures, dinners, parties, seminars, festivals, contests, sporting events, regattas, scavenger hunts, and the list goes on.  The American Humanist Foundation now administers The International Darwin Day Foundation, whose website offers a lengthy registry of Darwin Day events and activities worldwide at: http://www.darwinday.org/events/.

How is the CHJ of Fairfield County involved? Three years ago I searched the DarwinDay.org website for a local event celebrating the 200^th birthday of Charles Darwin.  I was shocked: there was nothing!  The nearest events to Fairfield County were at Columbia University in NYC, eastern Long Island, and Boston.  How could this be?  Surely Connecticut is not Kansas? (where, from 2005 to 2007, the State Board of Education debated adding Intelligent Design to its science class curricula, in part because some board members identified a controversy associated with teaching the “theory” of evolution).  “No!” I screamed, waking up in a cold sweat one Sunday morning in the Fall of 2008.  Grabbing a metaphorical pitchfork in one hand, and a flaming torch of humanism in the other (okay, it was really the New York Times), I bundled my two CHJ Sunday School bound kids into the car, and drove anxiously to the coffee klatch of parents I knew to be waiting at Bedford Middle School.  There a rabble was raised of CHJ dads, including Craig Tomarkin, Cary Shaw, and high school biology teacher Mitch Kalmus. We formed the Southern Connecticut Darwin Day Committee.  With the help of many other volunteers, spouses, and kind people, the expanded Committee, since February of 2009, has produced an Annual Darwin Day Dinner, open to the public, at one or another local venue.  The Committee added as event co-sponsors: the CHJ, Wilton Quaker Meeting, and the Unitarian Church in Westport.  This gave the event the veneer of legitimacy we felt was needed, as well as some marketing muscle to draw in attendees.  In addition, we have, over the years, invited local high school science students to attend, and added the Norwalk Public Schools Science Department as a sponsor.  Sponsors don’t pay for anything – they lend their name and approval.

Our First Annual Darwin Day Dinner was held on February 13 at the Continental Manor in Norwalk.  With about 95 attendees, it was a rousing success, largely due to the enormously fun science quiz put together by Mitch Kalmus, and by the fascinating talk by Prof. Laurie Santos from Yale’s Department of Psychology titled: “Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature”.

We have kept it going: the 4^th Annual Darwin Day Dinner will be held on Saturday, February 11, starting at 6 pm at the Inn at Longshore, in Westport.  There will be a cocktail hour (with a cash bar), hors d’oeuvres, a full course dinner, yet another science quiz, and another excellent talk from another excellent Yale science professor.  We guarantee this will be a lot of fun, you will meet other science lovers and secularists, including wonderful folks from outside our congregation, AND we guarantee that every attendee will go home smarter than when they arrived!  The cost is $55 per person (same as 2009), which only slightly exceeds the cost per person that the venue charges for the event.  If you have attended in the past, then you know how much fun it is.  If you have not attended, then you will be pleasantly surprised.

Questions, ideas, suggestions, and complaints: please contact Craig Tomarkin: Ctomarkin@aol.com.

(1)    Wikipedia.

by John Levin jlevin@tfm-llc.com

Look what Beth Ulman discovered! She went to the Westport News' website and typed "humanistic" in the Search box at the top of the page.  The results are dynamic, which means they will change as new articles meet the criteria, but scroll down and you'll see a history of the Congregation's recent finest moments, with photos. Many of these articles were contributed by Beth herself. Thank you, Beth. Try it yourself!