HMS Beagle (Possibly) Found

With the Beagle 2 lander lost on Mars, good Beagle-related news has been lacking, until now. British paper The Observer is reporting that the original HMS Beagle, the ship Darwin travelled on during his famous voyage, may have been found. Marine archeologists believe they have found the ship, which has been resting at the bottom of some Essex marshes for the last century.

Comments

Re:And this means what?

[p4ul13]

I was raised Christian (some of it stuck, most didn't); but one thing I can say with little reservation is that evolutionary theories have plenty of validity and yet they don't conflict in my mind with anything the Bible has to say about our own origins.

I'm not looking to start a theological debate here, but just make the statement that it bugs me when some of the more fundamentalist Christians outright oppose evolution in schools because they see it as a blasphemy. Same thing happened when folks were debating the planet being round or that it isn't the center of the galaxy.

I know your comments weren't on this extreme level at all, but it just made me think of others who have taken such stances.

Re:And this means what?

[dankney]

Let's not undervalue history.

What value did Ballard's discovery of the Titanic and Bismark have? They wouldn't have been nearly as important if they had been some anonymous freighter that sank during a storm, even though the technological achievement would have been identical.

These are ships with history -- with stories that we deem important, interesting, or compelling. The stories that we value as a culture (species?) are part of what define who and what we are.

The value of the Beagle's discovery is purely historic. And in defining it as important or unimportant, we define something about ourselves as individuals and a society.

Re:What the hell was...

[Tassach]

There you go trying to bring facts into it again. People don't want to be told the real facts, they want to be told pleasant lies which support their preconcieved notions.

If people were swayed by facts, or were even capable of recognizing them, superstition would have died centuries ago and most politicians would be unsuccessfully trying to sell used cars instead of feeding at the public trough.

Re:Too bad...

[Tassach]

Darwinism is a proper scientific theory because it has several key properies: it explains observable facts, can be used to predict future events, and can be proven false. Creationism is not a proper scientific theory because it has no predictive value and is not falsifiable.

You need to learn the difference between a theory, a hypothesis, and a fairy tale. You cannot pull any idea out of your ass and call it a theory -- until you have tested it and produced supporting experimental and/or observational evidence it's (at best) hypothesis.