The Forgotten Story of Luther Burbank
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - College Senior |
| Discipline(s): |
History of Science and Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | Dan Barker |
| Description: | Interesing little nugget of history relating the great horticulturalist's views on religion. "Luther Burbank was widely known as a botanist and scientist. His fame as an inventor of new fruits, plants and flowers inspired world-wide interest in plant breeding, for which he was recognized by an Act of Congress, among many other honors. What was not widely known, until just before his death in 1926 at the age of 77, was that Luther Burbank was a freethinker. Those who had read his writings and attended his lectures on evolution knew that he was a "naturalist," in both the scientific and philosophical usages of the word; but the general public, loving him for his work as a gentle horticulturist, knew nothing of his iconoclastic opinions. Burbank had always been frank about freethought with friends and colleagues. He had read the rationalist press, and was fond of E. Haldeman Julius's "Little Blue Books." Robert G. Ingersoll was one of his favorite writers: "I do not think there is a person in this world who has been a more ardent admirer of [Ingersoll] than I have been. His life and work have been an inspiration to the whole earth, shedding light in the dark places which so sadly needed light," Burbank wrote. Until 1926, Burbank had preferred not to publicize his freethought views broadly, devoting his energies to the Burbank's Experiment Farms in Santa Rosa, California. But two events caused him finally to go public with his opinions of religion. The first was the famous Scopes trial of 1925, the "monkey trial" that thrust evolution into the national spotlight. The fact that a high school teacher had been put on trial for teaching the "heresy" of Darwinism (which Burbank had been teaching, and practicing, for many years) "aroused him to a conviction that he ought to speak out, without mincing words, and declare for truth," according to biographer Wilbur Hall (The Harvest Of The Years, by Luther Burbank, with Wilbur Hall, 1927, Houghton Mifflin). The second event was his friend Henry Ford's newly publicized views in favor of reincarnation. Edgar Waite, a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, interviewed Burbank about his reaction to Ford's ideas and wrote a front-page story appearing on January 22, 1926, with the headline: "I'm an Infidel, Declares Burbank, Casting Doubt on Soul Immortality Theory." |
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| Keywords: | Luther Burbank |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | History of technology. Or technology and religion or philosophy. |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Interactivity Level: | Very Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | 2008 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/back/burbankbio.html |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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