Friday, January 10, 2014

MY YEAR OF DARWIN (#YEAROFDARWIN)


 Charles Darwin

10 Jan 2014: "I had the bump of reverence developed enough for ten priests" Darwin autobiography

Darwin was leaving medical school at Edinburgh for a BA of divinity at Cambridge. The move was not immediate. He took a year off to catch up on his Greek and to convince himself that becoming a parson was acceptable. Which he did with the help of a private tutor. During this time his father died and there's no discussion of this in the autobiography. 

Later in life, Darwin sent a photograph to German phrenologists. Phrenology is the study of the shape of head and the once-believed link to abilities. Phrenology is classic pseudoscience; science jargon is used and plausible statements are made but there is either no support for these statements or there is contradictory evidence. Other popular practices I consider pseudoscience include homeopathy, subluxation-based chiropractic, chemtrails, bigfoot, intelligent design, and so on. 

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