The Cleric who guided the group we were in was very articulate, very knowledgable and very interesting. Every half hour, another cleric mounted the pulpit and called the faithful to prayer and worship over the PA system.
My friend and I wanted to know if the tour guide would mention Darwin and if so what he would say. We approached Darwin's tomb towards the end of the tour and stood next to the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton. As he finished talking about Newton, the guide indicated Darwin's plain tombstone in the floor nearby and he said:
"You might be surprised to know that Charles Darwin is buried here."
An American lady in the group responded with;
"Darwin! Isn't he the evolution man! What is HE doing HERE!"
The cleric responded with a little speech about British Culture and how it honours its Kings, Queens and great men in a way that perhaps Americans would take a while to understand.
I then asked him if he knew that it was Darwin Day. He replied:
"Is it really? No I didn't know that."!
and we moved on to look are the row of statues depicting 20th century Martyrs looking down on Darwin's plain slab in the floor. We heard how wonderful the Martyrs were in dedicating their lives to God and dying for their beliefs.
The tour then ended and, somehow, I felt unable to slip the cleric a small reward for his efforts.
Feb 12th is the last Darwin Day bforw 2009 and I've been wondering if we should send a team in to Westminster Abbey to repeat that experiment. The tour is generally very interesting and the PA prayer session can easily be ignored. I'm based in Scotland but I could join in if there was sufficient interest in a meetup in London on Darwin Day.
Stay Bright
John (Emo) Wiltshire.
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