Image by Colin Purrington via Flickr
Darwin was tremendously influential, and his fingerprints remain all over modern biology. Along with his predecessors, he gave us concepts without which contemporary biological sciences could not exist (e.g., natural selection). His lasting contributions deserve respect and admiration. In fact, if I may be so bold as to suggest it, they deserve to be taught in science classrooms across the world.
But if there is one thing Darwin was not, it is divine. There is nothing magic, sacred, or holy about his theory. It is firmly grounded in reality and has the full strength of science behind it. Darwin provided us with a scientific theory, not a religion.
Those who accept the reality of evolution go by many names - "scientists," "informed consumers of science," "educated people," etc. Calling them "Darwinists" does little more than shine a spotlight on the idiocy of the speaker.
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