The Galapagos Islands. The name conjures up images that are an eco-tourist’s dream: unique flora and fauna in a pristine setting that has great weather!
That’s today. A hundred and sixty years, ago Herman Melville called the Galapagos “evilly enchanted. The chief sound of life here is a hiss” And Charles Darwin’s first impression was equally bleak: “The Country was what we might image the cultivated parts of the infernal regions to be. ” Darwin changed his tune when he closely examined the wildlife he found there, and changed the course of intellectual history as well. The Galapagos, wild, windswept chunks of lava continue to be a place where we see nature the way we want to see it. Scientists living there see it as the place where evolutionary theory is proved.
Creationists living there consider it the place where God’s master plan is revealed. A story of science and of evolution and evolutionary debates still unfolding.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)
Guests:
Edward J. Larson, author, “Evolution’s Workshop: God, Science and the Galapagos Islands”
Heidi Snell, photographer, artist, Darwin Station, Galapagos;
Howard Snell, head of ecological restoration and monitoring, Darwin Station, Galapagos.