Pete Cashmore of Mashable posted a Tweet today with a link to the Slate article “The Evolutionary Roots of Facebook’s ’25 Things’ craze” by Chris Wilson. I thought this article was a good follow-up to my other post about Claire Suddath’s article “25 Things I Didn’t Want to Know About You.” Wilson discusses his theory that Facebook trends evolve and mutate, in concordance with Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. While Wilson’s analogy is somewhat creepy, he makes some legitimate points.
All in all, Facebook infections look remarkably similar to human ones. And like organisms, the odds do seem stacked against all but the fittest of memes […] Still, viral marketers might take note of the patterns that ‘25 Random Things About Me’ obeyed. The best hope for someone looking to start a grass-roots craze is to introduce a wide variety of schemes into the wild and pray like hell that one of them evolves into a virulent meme. If evolution is any guide, however, there’s no predicting what succeeds and what doesn’t. Just look at the platypus.
Charles Darwin to receive apology from...
by Celluloid_Hero...the Church of England for rejecting evolution
The Church of England is to apologise to Charles Darwin for its initial rejection of his theories, nearly 150 years after he published his most famous work.
The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin's ideas. It will call "anti-evolutionary fervour" an "indictment" on the Church".
The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin's views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching
Vatican admits Darwin was right!
by Cracoucass
The Vatican claims Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity
The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution should not have been dismissed and claimed it is compatible with the Christian view of Creation.
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said while the Church had been hostile to Darwin's theory in the past, the idea of evolution could be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.
Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, added that 4th century theologian St Augustine had "never heard the term evolution,...