Happy Birthday Modern World

Not only is 2009 the 400th anniversary of the Scientific Method and the dawn of the modern world, it’s the 200th birthday of two of the giants of the 19th century. Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born within a few hours of each other 200 years ago today.

Lincoln of course preserved the Union and freed the slaves and all that. But more than that he was our first president to espouse an idea of a United States, not just of a group of States that happened to be United. It’s been said and worth repeating that before Lincoln, the United States was plural (the United States are) and singular thereafter (the United States is).

Darwin taught us who we are, where we come from and where we are going. It’s sad that in this day and age – 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species – we’re still forced to debate the merits of the Theory of Evolution. But no one ever said that evolution would be easy.

So today give thanks to two men without whom our modern world would be all the poorer.

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