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Sigmund Freud's birthday
Humboldt's 150th day of death
Richard Feynman's
birthday
ERA
"Religion is an insult to human dignity.
With or without it you would have good
people doing good things and evil people
doing evil things. But for good people to
do evil things, that takes religion."
Betrand Russell's
birthday
Andrei Sacharow's
birthday
Carl von Linné's
birthday
Peter Ware Higgs (* 29 May +70), is a British theoretical
physicist and atheist. He is best known for his proposal of
broken symmetry in electroweak theory, explaining the
origin of mass of elementary particles in general and of the
W and Z bosons in particular. This so-called Higgs
mechanism, predicts the existence of a new particle, the
Higgs boson (often described as "the most sought-after
particle in modern physics"). Although this particle has not
turned up in accelerator experiments so far, the Higgs
mechanism is generally accepted as an important ingredient
in the Standard Model of particle physics.
Towel Day
Frank Drake's
birthday
Peter Higgs'
birthday
Hannes Alfvén's
birthday
Joseph Haydn
200th day of death
Huxley's famous DE+1 debate with Samuel Wilberforce was a key
moment in the wider acceptance of evolution, and in his own
career. Wilberforce was coached by Richard Owen, against whom
Huxley also debated on whether man was closely related to apes.
Huxley was slow to accept some of Darwin's ideas, such as
gradualism, and was undecided about natural selection, but
despite this he was wholehearted in his public support of Darwin.
He was instrumental in developing scientific education in Britain,
and fought against the more extreme versions of religious tradition.
One important conclusion was that birds evolved from small
carnivorous dinosaurs, a view widely held today.
Steven Weinberg (* 3 May +74) is an American physicist, and Nobel laureate in
Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the
unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary
particles. He furthermore engages against intelligent design and for atheism.
Richard Feynman
(* 11 May +59,
† 15 February +129)
was an American
physicist known for
the path integral
formulation of
quantum mechanics,
the theory of
quantum electrodynamics and the
physics of the superfluidity of supercooled
liquid helium, as well as work in particle
physics. Feynman was a joint recipient of
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965,
together with Julian Schwinger and
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. During his lifetime
and after his death, Feynman became one
of the most publicly known scientists in
the world. He was also widely known for
his disrespectfulness against authorities
and uniforms, as well for his atheistic and
free-thinking attitude.
150
Thomas Henry Huxley (* 4 May -34, † 29 June +36) was an
English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy
of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Physics is like sex.
Sure, it may give some
practical results,
but that's not why we
do it. Richard P. Feynman
During his life, and especially in the last ten years after retirement,
Huxley wrote on many issues relating to the humanities; he also
advocated equal rights and equal education to woman.
Russel's Teapot
© JPL/NASA (except the teapot)
May
DARWIN
Bertrand Russell , 3rd Earl Russell (* 18 May +13,
† 2 February +111), British philosopher,
mathematician, pacifist and atheist. In his analogy
the `Celestial Teapot' he refutes the idea that the
burden of proof lies upon the sceptic to disprove
unfalsifiable claims of religions.
In DE+91, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature, "in recognition of his varied and
significant writings in which he champions
humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars
there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an
elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my
assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot
is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful
telescopes.
But if I were to go on to say that, since my
assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable
presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it,
I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
If, however, the existence of such a teapot were
affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth
every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at
school, hesitation to believe in its existence would
become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter
to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened
age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
Sigmund Freud (* 6 May -3, † 23 September +3), was a famous Austrian psychologist who founded the
psychoanalytic school of psychology. He is also known as religion critic and one of the most influental
thinkers of the 20th century (1st century DE). According to Freud, it was man's first mortifcation when
Copernicus and Galilei taught that the earth is not at the center of the universe; the second mortification
was when Darwin showed that man belongs to the animals and has not been created by god. Freud called
this perception a 'severe injury to man's natural narcissism'.
There is
a theory
which
states
that if
Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author
anybody
Douglas Adams. On this day, fans carry a towel with them to demonstrate
ever
discovers their love for the books and the author. The commemoration was first held in
exactly
DE+142, two weeks after Adams' death on 11 May +142 . The towel is a
what the reference to Adams's popular science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's
Universe Guide to the Galaxy.
http://www.towelday.org/
is for
and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and
inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Douglas Adams Remembrance Day
From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Carl von Linné (* 23 May -152, † 10 Januar -81) was a
Swedish botanist and zoologist, who laid the foundations
for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is
known as the father of modern taxonomy and ecology.
It was Linné who coined the order of the 'primate',
though there was no biological reason for this particular
designation—it was merely a concession to the church.
For similar reasons he created a dedicated genus for
men and chimpanzees, although there is no genus trait
that shows the difference between the two species.
Nevertheless, Carl von Linné was a child of his time and
indeed his scientific research took science on a path that
diverged from what had been taught by religious
authorities; e. g. the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala had
accused him of "impiety".
www.darwin-era.org