In a recent political debate presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann raised the topic of vaccines. She accused Rick Perry, governor of Texas, of abusing his authority when he imposed vaccine mandates. What does this have to do with Charles Darwin? Darwin was also concerned about vaccines. But the so-called Father of Modern Biology had a different sort of concern. Darwin worried that vaccines preserved the lives of those who otherwise would have succumbed. “Thus,” warned the Sage of Kent, “the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind.” And that, he ominously concluded: Read more
3 Replies to “What Michele Bachmann and Charles Darwin (Don’t) Have in Common”
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If Darwin said that, then he was mistaken. Science changes with evidence, and quite a bit has changed since Darwin’s time.
We don’t know that. If he were still around, he might have learned a thing or two, and changed some of his early ideas.
Cornelius has taken this paragraph out of context. See Cornelius full post (click on “read more”) there a couple of comments showing the context. Darwin would have supported vaccines. For example he follows the quoted text with;
I think that it is difficult to say whether he would or would not support vaccines taking into consideration how changeable we are. Our views may seriously change in the course of a single day under the influence of the media or our own stomach 🙁