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SUGAR STICKS-- A TRIBUTE TO CHARLES DARWIN
The Sweetest Honour of All |
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Although the Bank of England has finally
announced that Charles Darwin is to be
celebrated on one of their bank notes, they
weren't the first people to recognize his
genius. Darwin has already been honored in many
other ways. One of the strangest was his
depiction on a sachet of sugar. |
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I came across this
sachet at a business meeting in February 2000. A
colleague had just torn it open and stirred the
contents into a particularly unpleasant cup of
coffee. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw
who was depicted on the sachet, and knew that I
had to include a scanned copy of it on the
Friends of Charles Darwin web site. |
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Slyly, I scoured
the remaining sachets, looking for a pristine
example, but to no avail: my colleague had
unwittingly selected the very last Darwin
sachet. So, trying not to draw too much
attention to myself, I carefully placed my
personal organiser over the discarded sachet and
swept it nonchalantly into my lap. |
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I think you'll
agree, the sachet bears more than a passing
resemblance to the Friends of Charles Darwin
bank note campaign logo. Just compare them next
to each other: |
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Misleading |
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Unfortunately, the
sugar sachet is misleading in two ways (which is
pretty good going on a sugar sachet):
Firstly, the
sachet implies that Darwin was the first person
to come up with a theory of evolution. He did
not. Many people, including Darwin's own
grandfather, believed in some form of evolution
before Darwin came along. Darwin, however, was
the first person to explain correctly how
evolution occurs (by means of Natural
Selection).
Secondly, the
sachet depicts the clichéd image of a straight
line of bipedal forms gradually "ascending" from
ape to man. Although mankind (excluding
Jehovah's Witnesses) undoubtedly did descend
from ape-like ancestors, the image gives the
misleading impression that it was an inevitable,
natural progression. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. The human family tree is just
that: a tree - branching off in all sorts of
directions throughout its convoluted history.
Depicting our evolution as a simple straight
line does not do us, or Darwin's theory,
justice.
But at least the
sugar company had the discernment to honour the
right person. |
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Excerpted-- Article contributed by Marlene
Davis |
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