The Origin of Species - Darwin/Kirk Cameron

As some of you may be aware, November 24th 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. This truly monumental work is deservedly being celebrated around the world in a manner similar to the celebration that took place in 2005 for the 100th anniversary of Einstein's mind-boggling achievements in 1905 (the year he published papers on Special Relativity, Brownian Motion [his least famous but most cited work] and the Photoelectric Effect). Also as some of you know, Kirk Cameron has taken this time of celebration to be a complete dick.

Walking through campus last week around lunchtime, as I am prone to do, I noticed hordes of students carrying what seemed to be a copy of On the Origin of Species. At first I thought they must have all just been from the same class, but as I saw more and more of these copies I excitedly figured that someone on campus must be handing them out for free in celebration of the anniversary. On my way back from the student center, I spotted some people handing out these books and snagged one. However I got a weird vibe from the man who handed me one and asked 'is this a trick?' to which the man just replied 'no, the whole book is there'. I instantly know that yes, this was indeed a trick.

Because Georgia Tech is a state school, anyone can come and distribute free information on the campus. However what this really results in is religious fanatics handing out pamphlets, showing pictures of aborted children, or yelling about fire and brimstone through a megaphone as students rush off to class. It's taken much of my self-control not to confront or thwart these people in the past.

What I realized after picking up my copy of The Origin of Species (yes I left out the 'On', see below) is that this was no different than the above cases. Yes it does have the entirety of Darwin's text, but the front 50 pages of the book is creationist propaganda. After getting back to my computer and chatting up some informed friends, I discovered this was a well known ploy spearheaded by infamous nutjob (thanks for the word, Pat) Kirk Cameron.

He calls his this is 'Origin into Schools' project, which intends to 'inform' students about the 'truth' involving evolution. Because public schools like Georgia Tech are public domain, he intends to freely distribute roughly 100,000 copies of this monstrosity on campuses around the country, hoping to change the minds of countless 'lost souls'.

Now I don't really want to sit here and point out all the fallacies found in the introduction to the book (and boy are there many) but it's the whole idea behind this stunt that I find despicable. First let me point out that they got the title wrong of Darwin's book (having left out the 'On'). Yes something as simple as the freaking title Cameron, Ray Comfort and their cronies were unable to get right. Secondly it is true that they seem to have included the entire text from On the Origin of Species, they have however made it completely unreadable. Using a text at least 4 points smaller than the intro, they have also eliminated any line breaks and formatting whatsoever, leaving it as a large impenetrable block of text. They obviously never intended anyone to read the majority of this book, which makes their motives loud and clear.

What I have a big problem with, is the 'Trojan Horse' method used here. I can't imagine anyone picking up this copy intending to read Darwin, and being convinced by the shoddy and infantile introduction. As much criticism as atheists often take for 'using hostile methods to force their beliefs on others' I don't think anything Richard Dawkins or others have done anything as disrespectful as this. The only proportionate response would be for Dawkins to publish his own edition of the bible including footnotes whenever the text says something factually incorrect or impossible. And before anyone claims that this is an illegitimate comparison, yes I do believe that On The Origin of Species is equivalent to the bible for evolutionists (just as I also believe that going into space is as close as someone like myself has to reaching heaven).

I don't think this attempt by Kirk Cameron and introduction author Ray Comfort will really have any impact on this intellectual war whatsoever. It is generally agreed that they are pretty crazy and very few (although more than you would like to think) people listen to them. My only hope is that for anyone on the fence with respect to this issue sees through the vile tactics used here to realize how crazy these people really are. I leave you with Darwin's final words, found even in this copy.

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

(Interesting side note: as Dawkins points out in The Greatest Show on Earth after the first edition the line 'having been originally breathed' was modified by ending with 'by the creator' due to pressure from religious forces. The fact that this line does not occur in Cameron's edition shows that really, they have put hardly any thought into this section of the book and have no idea what they're talking about.)