Date/Time

Location
Gloucester County Library
389 Wolfert Station Rd
Mullica Hill, NJ

Details:

Regular monthly meeting of New Jersey Humanist Network – Gloucester County (Gloucester County Humanists). We meet from 1pm to 4pm on the first Sunday of each month, in Room C of the Gloucester County Library in Mullica Hill, NJ. The meetings are free and open to the public. Light refreshments may be served, bring a snack to share.

Find GCH on Meetup at http://tinyurl.com/NJHNGCM.
Find GCH on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/NJHNGCH.

February 12th is Darwin Day. Our February meeting will be on the topic of Charles Darwin’s contributions to science. Our own Bill Reitter will lead a discussion about Darwin, natural selection, and more.

We will have Darwin handout materials and I will give a talk about natural selection and the history of Darwin and evolution as it relates to Humanism. We will try to answer the question of where Charles Darwin fits among the top 100 most influential persons of all time.

In the end Darwin was an shy agnostic but was a thorough scientist first and foremost. He did not event the word evolution or the concept of transmutation of species. He discovered, after much research, evidence and thought, what causes the process of species die-off and renewal. He did not use the phrase “survival of the fittest” but discovered how nature, both internal and environmental, selects those species that have adapted to the local conditions of their surroundings. If the conditions change, the fit are no longer as fit. So sometimes the most fit species does not survive.

Of course he never knew about DNA and how mutations affect our genes. But he opened a new world for scientists to explore and a new tool to validate the evidence. He applied this to the growing awareness of deep time and did away with the need for a divine creator.

We will have a cake to celebrate Darwin Day. See you at the meeting.