Chucky Darwizzy

Baba Brinkman, a self-styled “rap-troubadour,” with a master’s degree in English has taken on the task of educating the masses about the basics of evolution through his latest single “Natural Selection.” He became interested in rapping about evolution when he talked with Mark Pallen, an evolutionary biologist and rap enthusiast at the University of Birmingham, in Britain. Brinkman jokes that he performs “the only hip-hop show to have been peer-reviewed.” It’s clear that he is taking the information he’s rapping about seriously, which is good for the scientific community, because this is another way to make Darwin accessible for the next generation.

The portion of the rap that I found most interesting was when Brinkman took on the controversial, but very interesting question of religion and evolution. He begins by asserting that the stepwise mechanism of evolution is certainly accounts for the diversity of life on Earth. He proceeds to question the theory of Intelligent Design wondering why they would need to insert an unnecessary God into the equation. At one point he even turns the classic Intelligent Design metaphor of a watch against them, saying, “Evolution’s so easy, even a blind watchmaker could have done it.” He then proceeds to redefine how people should think about evolution in a way that will distinguish it from religion in that you don’t “believe” in evolution, but instead, you either “understand” it or you don’t. I like this distinction as a way to differentiate between my beliefs and my understandings in the world.

Take a listen. See what resonates with you.

Listen to Baba Brinkman’s New Single, “Natural Selection”: http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/play/band/Baba-Brinkman

Full Article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/darwin-got-it-going-on/?src=me

Darwin Rocks.
Sam