Special Darwin Day Event, Joint Meeting of BSH and Baltimore Ethical Society

Title: “Foundations of Evolution”

Speaker: Mike Reid


Like all accomplished scientists, Charles Darwin built on the work of his predecessors. With a slide presentation, Mike will discuss the amazing ideas of Erasmus Darwin (Charles’ grandfather who speculated on organisms originating from primitive ancestors), James Hutton (the 18th century geologist who discovered the antiquity of the Earth and speculated on natural selection), Sir Charles Lyell (the geologist who inspired Darwin and later became his close friend), Alfred Russel Wallace (the naturalist who independently discovered organic evolution and natural selection) and others who are less well-known, but also made essential contributions. Mike will argue that Charles Darwin was the greatest of the evolutionists, but that he was not the first or only one. He will also make the case that precursory scientific discoveries had to have been made and that society had to have reached a certain level of social, political, economic and technological development before evolutionary theory could be formulated.

Mike Reid is the president of the Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH), the parent organization of the Baltimore Secular Humanists. He holds degrees in geology and computer systems. He formerly taught geology and astronomy at a community college in California and works in the aerospace field and the space program. He has a long standing interest in the history of science and in the 19th century.

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