HUMANIST SOCIETY OF WEST YORKSHIRE
Affiliated to the British Humanist Association

NEWSLETTER (115), MARCH 2009

“Ashley Montagu as Humanist Critic of Darwin
Gregory Radick. Senior Lecturer in the history and Philosophy of Science 
Tuesday 10th March, 7.30 to 9.00pm      (coffee from 7.00 in the Café) at Swarthmore Centre, 2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds, LS3 1AD

Darwin was no less a child of his time than we are of ours." So wrote the British-born anthropologist Ashley Montagu, in a remarkable but little remembered 1952 book on Darwin. For Montagu, it was crucial that humans stop believing that Darwinian science had shown them to be competitive animals. His book argued that animals are by nature cooperative, and that Darwin's "fundamental error" in this matter was due to his immersion in Victorian imperialism and industrial capitalism. Although Montagu's book was well received, some have seen links between the leftwing stance expressed there and his departure from his academic base, Rutgers University in NJ, in 1955, when the USA -- Rutgers included -- was in anti-Communist mood. Making use of previously unexamined documents, this talk will reconsider Montagu's humanist interpretation of Darwin's science, explore the wider intellectual and political project that led him to write his book, and show that, if anything, it was his reputation as a defender of the Darwinian "law of the jungle" that made for administrative anxiety at his institution."

February meeting “The Neo-Darwinism - Darwinism plus Genetics” Dr Richard Parker

            We had about thirty members present.  Darwin stated clearly in “On the Origin of Species that he did not know where the natural variations in a species come from.  “The laws governing inheritance are quite unknown”; he speculated that there must be some sort of particles that are passed on.  He also noted that often characteristics were passed on in pairs. “Cats with blue eyes are invariably deaf.”; he also noted that the resistance to poison of sheep and pigs was related to skin colour.  Sometimes characteristics are inherited and sometimes not; he also asked why does variation sometimes skip a generation.  He devoted one chapter to all such problems that he could not explain and another to the fossil record with gaps between the species.   Later finds, such as archaeopteryx, have filled in the gaps,  The population of a variant that is beneficial firstly grows and then flattens off when there is a balance between life and death due to the competition for the fixed resources.
            Darwin was unaware of the work of the monk Gregor Mendel who found that characteristics come in twos.  He crossed two varieties of peas, one with purple flowers and the other with white.  The first generation were all purple, but the second was three quarters purple and one quarter white.  He explained this by postulating that the purple variant (P) was dominant, whilst the white(w) was recessive.  The first generation were all (Pw)but the next generation were (PP), (Pw), (Pw) and(ww). Because purple (P) was the dominant variant the phenotypes with the (Pw) pairing all had purple flowers.  Mendel’s ‘particles’ are now called ‘genes’
            Inheritance is not usually as simple as it is in peas.  There can be ‘Incomplete Dominance’; for instance, skin colour comes from about five genes so the characteristic can blend but the genes themselves do not.  Afro-Americans who are descended from slaves where the slave owners sometimes ‘generated’ their own slaves are lighter in colour than Africans living in Africa.  If both parents have the recessive white gene then it is possible that they will have a child with white skin. The speaker showed a picture of a black woman holding a child with white skin whilst his black siblings were gathered round.
            Co-dominance is when both characteristics appear in the phenotype, as in piebald and skewbald horses.  Mendel only visualised genes acting independently, but it was later found that genes come in bundles called ‘chromosomes’ with 23 pairs of genes, one of each pair from each parent.
            Genetics is important in medicine.  There is a 1 in 22 chance of carrying the cystic fibrosis recessive gene. If both parents have it there is a 1in 4 chance of the child having two such genes paired in their chromosomes and thus having the disease.  Screening for such gene-pairs and aborting the affected embryo raises controversial ethical issues.    
            Mutations are mostly bad for survival but they are occasionally beneficial. Genes can be turned off and on.  It is thought that there are genes that promote teamwork and so help the survival of the group.  Social Darwinism, its extension to society, is both bad science and bad morality.
            What Darwin did know:-  His ‘particles’ (i.e. genes) and the environment interact. The important role of sexual selection, as seen in the plumage of male birds
           
 Changing the meeting day to the second Wednesday of the month is proposed by the Committee.  This is because the Leeds U. U. Atheist Society also meet on Tuesdays so they have not been able to join in our meetings as much as they, and we, would like.  A larger audience helps in attracting speakers and the interaction of the two generations is good for both of us! Unless we have many well-based objections this will start in October.

Harold Blackham, founder of the British Humanist Association, died aged 105 in January.  Apart from all his other many achievements he addressed an audience of well over a hundred at a joint meeting of our predecessor, the West Riding Humanist Group, and the Bradford University Rationalist Society at the Main Lecture Theatre of the University.  His subject was “Rationalism and Humanism”

The Uganda Humanist schools Trust has been founded to aid the three humanist schools in Uganda.  As our funds are in good health (unless Barclays goes bottom up!) your Committee decided to send £200 from the Society.  Any personal donations should be sent to 31 Greenmeadows Road, Madeley. CREWE, CW3 9EY.  You can also get more information from email <info@ugandahumanistschoolstrust.org> 

Leeds Skeptics meet at 2pm on Saturday 18th April and Sat. 16th May at ‘Carpe Diem’, which is on the south corner of Great George St. and Calverley St. opposite the side of the Town Hall.  It is under the ’Old School Board’ building with an entrance down steps in Great George St. and another first door on the left in Alexander St. off Calverley St. You can find out more about them by following the links on our website.

 Leeds U. U. Atheist Society will be holding their ‘Rationalist Week’ from Mon. 20th to Fri. 24tth April.  Again there are links to them from our website.

The Leeds Dawkins Group meet on Monday2nd March at 6,00pm at the Scarborough  Hotel, New Station St. Leeds 1 for a general social gathering - all invited.

Quote of the Month  "Science has proof without any certainty - creationists have certainty without any proof.” Ashley Montague
           

Diary; all meetings at 7.30 (coffee from 7.00), Swarthmore, 2-7 Woodhouse Sq LS3 1AD                Tue. 28th Apr. 7.30 to 9.30  AGM. Please note change of date.  After the formal business and a break for ’drinks and nibbles’  Douglas Dale will give a  light-hearted talk on “How I became             a Humanist” .
Tue 19tth  May . Please note change of date “The coming crisis and how we might survive the challenge of peak oil” Colin Campbell

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