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"All the professors in all the religious colleges in this country rolled into one, would not equal Charles Darwin."
- Robert Green Ingersoll
Charles Darwin was born on the same day of the same year as Abraham Lincoln. It's an inconsequential fact, but I think it's cool.
In his book, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life," (later shortened to simply "The Origin of Species" when the fad of giving books lofty names died away*) Darwin makes what is often considered the most seminal observation of the natural world. All species, he says, go through genetic changes over the course of the population's lifetime. He goes on to call this process of change evolution thereby laying the groundwork for all modern biological sciences.
Not only did he give us X-Men, but also Adaptation starring Nicholas Cage. Adaptation is the guide stick by which organisms change. Populations which evolve in ways best suited to their environment are thereby best suited to survive.
Sadly, the phrase "survival of the fittest" has been used to justify everything from eugenics to laissez-faire super-capitalism. Of course, Darwin drew a distinction between the "fittest" and "the best."
In case you haven't seen the image up in the indentation (well, don't look now) you might be wondering what you can do to honor Chuck Darwin, the greatest scientist the world has ever seen (eat it Archimedes!), while at the same time helping science further alienate young earth creationists, flat-earthers, wizards, and the superstitious and supernatural at large. Well, with this Darwin fish decal, you can do all that while driving.
* Other examples
"The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil" by Thomas Hobbs
shortened to "Leviathan"
"The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" by Peter Weiss
shortened to "Marat/Sade"
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