Sir John Lubbock

After writing such nasty things about Sir John Lubbock in my last post I felt that I should get to know him better, so I went to trusty old Google and began to research his name. 

John Lubbock was born in 1834 and was the oldest son to Sir John William Lubbock, a banker and mathematician. At the age of fifteen (2), Lubbock stopped his studies at Eton College and became a partner to the family bank. He self-educated himself and focused mainly on natural history. Lubbock had the "privilege" to have known Charles Darwin, who took him in as a student. When Darwin worked on his treatise of barnacles, Lubbock helped Darwin re-draw his scientific papers on zoological specimens from the Beagle (2).

In 1858, Darwin submitted Lubbock’s account of the methods of reproduction in Daphnia to the Royal Society. The Royal Society (3) was a scientific organization in Great Britain that sought to find experimental evidence in medicine, botany, and the physical sciences. The leading scientists of the world were members in this organization including Sir Isaac Newton and Lord Rutherford. Lubbock was made a member of the Royal Society three years later (2).

Lubbock became a Member of Parliament in the 1870s (1) and introduced reform bills in banking. He sponsored the Bank Holidays Act in 1871 (2), which is now called St. Lubbock's Days. He provided an evolutionary framework for the accumulated archaeological remains about human beginnings and, for this, gained an international reputation (2). Lubbock also came up with the terms Neolithic and Paleolithic when talking about the Stone Age periods. During his lifetime Lubbock published twenty five books, over a hundred scientific papers, and gave many lectures on the subjects he wrote about. 

Sir John Lubbock died in May of 1913 at the age of 79. A century later, I have had the opportunity to "meet" Mr. Lubbock. 

As I was researching more about Lubbock I found one of his books called The Pleasures of Life. I went to chapter 11, Religion (4), and was surprised to see that he began with a Bible verse. Intrigued, took some time to read through the chapter. At the end Lubbock's rambling he came to this conclusion: "In religion, as with children at night, it is darkness and ignorance which create dread; light and love cast out fear."

I wish that Lubbock had realized that this "religion" he talks about takes less faith to believe that evolution does. The Bible explains how life happened, not evolution. Lubbock was so influential during his lifetime; if only he had been able to be influential for Christ.


Research:
1. infoplease.com
2. encyclopedia.com, John Lubbock
3. encyclopedia.com, Royal Society
4. The Pleasures of Life