We know Darwin and Lincoln shared a birth date. Amazing coincidence, perhaps. One lesson of history we should learn is that with the very long arc of history, and the very many people who come and go, such coincidences are not so rare as they are generally unrecognized.
I’ve tried to explore the coincidence and been frustrated for some time — at what hours were these two men actually born? Just how close a coincidence was it?
The Mount in Shropshire, family home for Robert Darwin, and the place where Charles Darwin was born. Photo by Darkroom Daze, via flickr
Darwin’s birth to a relatively wealthy family headed by a physician, his father Robert, suggests someone probably would have written about the birth giving an approximate time of day. I feel confident that information exists — but I’ve not found it online, nor in my few biographies. (I may have just overlooked it.)
Lincoln was born to a frontier family where writing things down at all may have been a rarity. I’ve queried several experts to no avail.
At length, I have found some potential value to astrology. “Accurate” astrological readings require a birth time, within an hour or two generally, to accurately note star and especially planet placement in star charts. So astrologers bent on casting the astrological charts of famous people have worked to get their birth times, in order to make charts “accurate.”
I’m not saying the claims of fate made in these readings have any accuracy — all I’m saying is that the work to get the exact birth time might actually have done that.
Astrothemes claims Charles Darwin was born at 3:00 a.m., probably close to Greenwich Mean Time; the same site claims Lincoln was born at 6:54 a.m, close to Central Standard Time.
Ominously for accuracy, the site gives absolutely no information on how those times were ascertained. For all we know the times are completely fictional.
A replica of what experts believe Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace cabin looked like, near the spot where it stood near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Photo by mobilene
GMT and CST are six hours different; if these times are close to accurate, we can say both men were born in the morning in their respective time zones, but about ten hours apart.
Where would astrologers get Lincoln’s birth down to the minute? Is either of these birth times accurate?
More:
- Lincoln and Darwin, born hours apart, February 12, 1809 (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- Darwin v Lincoln (forthesakeofscience.com)
- Cats for Darwin and Lincoln Day (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
- Darwinism, Darwinian, Darwinist [Greg Laden’s Blog] (scienceblogs.com)
- Remembering Honest Abe….his Kentucky home and favorite almond cake! (homeandtherange.wordpress.com)
Bill Dembski probably thinks Oorts are those nasty creatures in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series.
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Since astrology is “science”, according to the testimony of ID creationist Michael Behe, perhaps your neighbor Bill Dembski can apply his so-called “Explanatory Filter” to the coincidence to tell us if their births were random or due to planned parenthood. Too, given the astronomical odds, were the two Space Rocks of Unusual Size that visited Earth on Feb. 15th random acts, or deliberately designed by a disembodied mind to injure a thousand or so Russians? Seems sneaky to distract us with one big bollide we watched intently, then to smack us from the other direction. Oort Cloud or Grassy Knoll Cloud?
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Not in February! Maybe on June 6.
(I had a student in world history once who complained about the date of the Battle of Hastings. I had to take pains to show there were only two “6s” in the date, and not three.)
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No, Greg, that would be the birth time of every teabagger.
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I’ve always heard Darwin was born at 6:66 AM.
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