Darwin Day pits atheists against believers

Just past the bumper stickers announcing that "one person's religion is another person's belly laugh," more than 60 people gathered at a Newark Marriott Thursday evening to celebrate the legacy of Charles Darwin, the revolutionary father of evolutionary biology who just can't seem to get a break.

"Darwin gets blamed for every eugenics program over the last 200 years," said Richard Hanley, a philosophy professor at the University of Delaware, who spoke at the event.

Hanley recalled that when his daughter learned about evolution in her top-ranked Delaware middle school, her teacher said, "Don't worry. It's only a theory."

Thursday marked the 206th birthday of Darwin, the naturalist and religious skeptic who is best known for his theory of evolution through natural selection.

And Delaware was the first and only state in the country to formally give Darwin his due.

At the request of a local atheist Meetup group, Gov. Jack Markell last month officially proclaimed Feb. 12 as "Charles Darwin Day." Without commenting on Darwin's religious reticence, the governor heralded the naturalist's theory of evolution as "the foundation of modern biology, an essential tool to understanding the development of life on earth."

Bill Dowling, a 33-year-old videographer who lives in Wilmington, praised Markell's "bold" move. Hawking "First State Evolve" T-shirts Thursday, Dowling wanted to show his solidarity with the Delaware Atheist Meetup group.

"We are the first state again," he noted, adding that one of his Facebook friends told him to burn the shirts.

Attended by a mostly gray-haired crowd, the program included remarks by Hanley, a UD anthropology professor, the managing director of the American Atheists organization and a legislative aide to the House Democratic Caucus in the General Assembly. The only "protest" came in the form of buttons warning, "Keep your theocracy off my democracy."

But, nationally, Markell's proclamation sparked controversy, with creationists lambasting Delaware for promoting secularism, not science. Critics, like the Dallas, TX-based Institute for Creation Research, reject Darwin's achievements and blame evolutionary theory for robbing society of moral accountability.

Chuck Dyke, a Newark data analyst who co-founded the Delaware Atheist Meetup, was sentenced to hell by readers of TheBlaze.com. That's the website for conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.

"Being an atheist or an agnostic isn't that easy," said Dyke, 59, who grew up Protestant in name only. "Revealing what we think can be dangerous to people in the workplace or at home when we're in relationships with people who are still believers."

Organized less than two years ago as a forum for secular conversation and debate, the Delaware Atheists count more than 130 members who gather once a month. The group welcomes "atheists, skeptics, humanists, agnostics, free thinkers, free speech advocates and nonbelievers,' according to its Meetup page. Men outnumber women 2 to 1, and members include University of Delaware undergraduates, Baby Boomers and two former preachers, Dyke said.

Nationally, there are more than 1,000 atheist Meetup groups in 27 countries with nearly 245,000 members. The 2,700-member Houston Atheists Meetup claims to be the largest in the world.

Dyke said one of his goals in petitioning for Darwin Day was to put a positive face on nonbelievers. With much less fanfare, he successfully campaigned last year for the state to recognize May 1, 2014 as the National Day of Reason. The date coincided with the federally-recognized National Day of Prayer.

Members of the Delaware Atheist Meetup also persuaded the city of Newark last summer to remove a Tic-tac-toe game at a city playground, because it illustrated the Bible story of Noah, Dyke said.

It's a thin line, he added, between "recognizing religion and promoting it."

"I draw the line at government sponsorship."

Dyke first submitted his Darwin Day proposal to state Rep. Paul Baumbach, a Newark Democrat, who forwarded it to Markell's office. In Delaware, citizens and local organizations can request that the state formally recognize a special day, week or month.

The Delaware proclamation gave bragging rights to the American Humanist Association, which has ramped up efforts in the last decade to gain government recognition for the embattled Englishman.

"It's not only sad but shocking that Darwin's work is held in such low value by a significant segment of the U.S. population, illustrating the lack of understanding of science and of critical thought," said Alan Palmer, director of the Delaware Association for Humanism. With 186 members listed on the association's Meetup page, the group champions rational thought and human compassion, working to thwart church-state violations at the local level. Several members overlap with the Delaware Atheist Meetup.

Darwin Day is celebrated worldwide, with more than 200 celebrations ranging from weeklong science festivals to groups of students donning fake beards and throwing parties, according to Serah Blain, a spokeswoman for the International Darwin Day Foundation, which is part of the American Humanist Association.

The movement has gathered momentum in recent years, she said, partly due to the publicity surrounding hot-button science issues like climate change, stem cell research and the anti-vaccine movement.

So far, only a handful of cities have adopted proclamations similar to Delaware's, including Omaha and Vancouver, Blain said. About 20 other city and state resolutions are at various points in the approval process.

The first federal Darwin Day resolution was introduced in 2011 by former Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat, who was the only openly atheist member of Congress at the time. The proposal was reintroduced in subsequent years, but failed to gain traction. This year marks the first time it is being introduced in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Changing faith landscape

While supporting such a resolution can be considered political suicide, recent surveys indicate that the religiously unaffiliated are the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. religious landscape.

The number of Americans who describe themselves as unaffiliated with any religion has grown to nearly one in five, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center poll. Of those, 2.4 percent self-identify as atheists and another 3.3 percent as agnostic -- both up from the last poll in 2007. Vermont claims the largest number of people who don't identify with a religion.

Meanwhile, Pew reported that about 60 percent of Americans believe that humans and other creatures have evolved over time. Roughly one-quarter of those believe that evolution was guided by a "supreme being."

In Delaware, a 2012 Pew Research survey found that the state is divided into thirds: "Very religious," "moderately religious" and "non-religious."

The "non-religious" label is deceiving, according to the Rev. Christopher Alan Bullock, because it includes people who believe in God but just don't identify with an organized religion.

Bullock, who leads the 2,000-member Canaan Baptist Church in New Castle, denounced Markell's proclamation for sending the wrong message to the rest of the nation and to children, in particular.

"I believe that God created everything, including the Big Bang, heaven and earth and all that came with that," he said.

"They have a day," he continued, "but we celebrate our faith every day."

Without addressing the merits or drawbacks of a state-approved Darwin Day, John Fluharty, executive director for the Delaware Republican Party, suggested that Markell spend more time evolving his fiscal policy to deal with the state's shifting economic environment.

"I hope the governor will come to naturally select some Republican ideas for meeting these challenges," he wrote in an email.

For Dyke, Darwin Day is about inspiring scientific inquiry, intellectual bravery and truth-seeking.

Why not celebrate Isaac Newton Day or Louis Pasteur Day?

That's not his passion, he acknowledges.

Today, Dyke's "visions of grandeur" involve increasing secular efforts for homeless outreach instead of leaving it up to faith-based organizations. He will politely correct a homeless man if he tell hims "God bless you."

"There's no evidence that would validate the existence of God," Dyke concludes.

So, what does he think happened in that nanosecond before the Big Bang birthed the universe?

"The whys are really hidden," he replied. "Science mostly answers the how."

"Why is best left to the philosophers."

Contact Margie Fishman at 302-324-2882 or mfishman@delawareonline.com.