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Article: FROM THE BEETLES' POINT OF VIEW
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- May 20, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A famous story in the history of science has the classical scholar
Benjamin Jowett ask the biologist J. B. S. Haldane what he had
learned about God from his scientific studies.
Haldane answered, "He has an inordinate fondness for beetles."
The conversation supposedly took place at high table at Balliol
College, Oxford. Never mind that Haldane was born the year before
Jowett died. Perhaps it was Haldane's father, a physiologist, or his
uncle, later Lord Chancellor, who was questioned by Jowett. Perhaps a
Jowett wasn't involved at all. More likely, the entire story is an
invention.
What is not in question is God's fondness for beetles. Beetles
constitute one-third of all named animal species, ...