Here it is, February 12, 2008 and the 199th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin (coincidentally, also the 199th anniversary of the birth of another great man, Abraham Lincoln). For the occasion I've fashioned this little e-card (Flash required) with a quote from the final chapter of his most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Yes, it's true, I am one of the Evil Darwinists™, though in all honesty I just sort of chuckle when I see one of those Biblical literalists or ID proponents use the term ("Darwinist") in a posting on the web or in print. No one living today who has any knowledge whatsoever about the progress in biological research over the past 150 years thinks for a minute that Darwin had it all right. Far from it, in fact, since, for one thing, he didn't have access to all the high technology research methods available today. He didn't know about nucleic acids, he was not aware of the thousands of transitional fossils that have been uncovered in those 150 years (including hominid fossils), and he had no clue how really old the earth actually is). The Theory of Evolution says nothing about how life on this planet began (that's abiogenesis), only what happened after it did (another common misconception by the literalists).

It is not a matter of "faith" or "belief" in evolution (being a "Darwinist") like someone "believes" or has "faith" in the words of an ancient text. The evidence is there for all to see, it is what you ultimately do with that evidence that matters. Evolution is a fact and a theory.

Mr. Darwin, as I said, didn't have it all right. But 150 years after the publication of his work, everything we know about biology on this world of ours supports his basic premise: Life evolved, is evolving today, and will continue to evolve as long as it exists.

So raise a glass to Chuck and "Happy Darwin Day!" to you!