Happy Darwin Day!

In 1859, Charles Darwin published one of the greatest ideas ever conceived: evolution through natural selection. With this idea, Darwin singlehandedly explained and united the world of inanimate matter with the colorful world of life, purpose and design. His wonderful insights revealed that we are not above and beyond the natural world but a part of it, related to all other living beings on this planet through a long historical process of uninterrupted reproductive success.

The documentary below beautifully interweaves dramatizations of Darwin's own life and intellectual struggle to explain the seemingly disparate observations concerning living and extinct organisms he first perceived while traveling on The Beagle. Along the way, modern day examples of well documented cases of evolution are shown to provide ample evidence for Darwin's rightly celebrated theory. Darwin's industriousness and persistent attempts to make sense of the world, as well as his self-criticism, discipline and unabashed honesty, ought to serve as an example to all of us.

Among those interviewed are the late biologist Stephan Jay Gould, philosopher Daniel Dennett, and biologist Ken Miller.

Happy birthday, Charlie!

Click here to see the rest of the episodes in this wonderful series (as I get to post them).
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