Posted on 07/19/2006 3:55:15 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Plans are being drawn up to build a £3.3m working replica of the boat that took Charles Darwin around the world at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
Fundraising for the project, which would mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 2009, is under way.
The aim is to built a seaworthy vessel identical to the HMS Beagle on the outside, but with a modern interior.
Darwin, who showed how natural selection could explain evolution, sailed on the Beagle between 1831-36.
Sitting opposite him on the expedition was mate and surveyor John Lort Stokes.
One of Stokes' descendents, Pembrokeshire farmer David Lort Philips, together with commercial yacht master Peter McGrath, have founded the Beagle Project Pembrokeshire.
Mr McGrath said the ship would look identical to the original Beagle on the outside but would have a 21st century interior with diesel auxiliary engines and generators.
He said he hoped the fished vessel would inspire the scientists of the future and be used by researchers and scientists from across the world.
"Externally it will be exactly the same but we want it to do some serious scientific work and you would not want the crew living like they did in the 18th Century," he said.
The pair have spent three years putting their plans together and aim to raise the money through private and institutional investors along with public subscription.
"With all the Darwin 200 celebrations there is not one big project to focus the attention on," added Mr McGrath.
"I know the effect a square rigger has on young people - it's a jaw dropping site.
"But we do not want this just to be a replica - we want it to have genuine scientific benefits.
"We have started the fundraising. Construction will take 14 months and it has to be finished by early 2009.
"She will be built in Milford Haven and it will be her home. But what we want to do when she is built is visit the significant sights in Darwin's and the Beagle's life."
Researchers believe the original remains of the 27m-long Navy brig, that was sold for scrap in 1870, are embedded in a marsh near Potton Island in Essex.
Darwin, who published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, came fourth in a poll run by the BBC in 2002 to find the public's greatest Briton of all time.
His voyage on the Beagle allowed him to form the basis for much of his later work.
This is false. Evolution was accepted by practically all biologists no later than 1880 or so. This required no government support.
In the same way that same Government gave Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography and Astronomy their status.
I am totally baffled on the possessive use of "knower's." But in the meantime, veneration of Our Heavenly Father AS A SUBJECT is inappropriate in public school (that pesky 1st Amendment thingy). As part of comparative theology or philosophy, sure (but that isn't until well into High School).
Private schools can talk about God all they want.
ROTFLOL. Equating evolution with cannabalism is a new low for the anti-evolution side.
Like all those hundreds of thousands (actually millions) of silly, stupid "doctors" and "biologists" and "geneticists." Silly, silly people applying the lessons from a "psuedo-science" in their careers.
It makes much more sense to take the detailed scientific notes from the Bible and use THAT to engineer new life-saving drugs or as a basis for a diagnostic regimine.
Especially when in the same paragraph Dahmer notes that God made him that way. Thus belief in God equals cannibalism (bu their logic).
Put this Hitler thing to Bed bookmark
And I am happy to note one small area where Hitler and, oh, let's say Pat Robertson have commonality: both exalt their own interpretation of "biblical texts" over their own (albeit limited) reason.
Good luck with this most whackable-of-moles....
"It was a joke son, in the words of my favorite rooster."
I say, boy, I say, it went riiiiiight over my head. ;-)
What has that got to do with Darwin and the Beagle? Numerous people who believe in the divinity of Christ also accept the physical evidence that underpins evolution. Do you think they are all going to hell for accepting evolution?
Darwin is linked with Hitler's actions. That does not make Darwin's science superstitious. Evolutionism, insofar as it attempts to deny intelligent design, is superstitious enough without Hitler's endorsement.
They're not stupid. Neither was Charles Darwin. Neither are you.
Your capacity for projection is awe-inspiring!
(That pesky flood! Still can't find that pesky flood!)
No, THAT doesn't make them superstitious or mystical.
They state very plainly where things came from, where they are going, and why.
And it is sometimes right about them too.
As such they form the perfect foundation upon which science may apprehend the details behind it all, and science does so daily, no thanks to the superstitions of Darwinian philosophies.
Your basis for this...opinion?
Aside from the facts that 1.) most of the planet is covered with water, 2.) most of the geologic record is one of sedimentary deposition, 3.) there are human records denoting a world wide deluge at some point, 4.) all of the above took place before you became an observer, and 5.) you are predisposed to reject the authority and accuracy of the biblical texts, it is no wonder you cannot find the pesky thing.
Why bring up the geological record? The flood is commonly placed at about 2350 BC.
You want to find something 4350 years old don't waste your time looking about in the rocks; send the geologists home and look in the soils. The creation websites have wasted all their time researching flood geology, when the clues are in the soils.
What do you say about mtDNA continuity for over 10,000 years in North America with no break, and no shift to Middle Eastern (Noah's wife) mtDNA?
What do you say about continuity of Native American occupation for over 13,000 years on the west coast?
(Never mind, I know. All the dating is wrong. Science is all wrong.)
A preponderance of physical evidence that concurs with what is written in the biblical texts, which evidence is chiefly found in the ubiquitous presence of organized matter that performs specific functions on both microscopic and macroscopic levels and is roundly supported by archaeology. Not to mention the fact that no part of the biblical texts invites dismissal on the face of it.
It stands to reason that an almighty Creator, who takes a keen interest in His creation, would provide a means whereby He could make known His actions and intentions toward the one creature capable of science. That means is called "language." Nothing mystical, superstitious, unclear, or even unscientific about it. Science cannot happen with out language, and language cannot happen without intelligent design.
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