Following in whose footsteps?

I was invited to attend the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Awards Dinner last night. It was quite a pleasant evening, but one thing really stuck in my mind. Since I'm already late for work at the time of writing this I will try to keep it short and sweet.

The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.

One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".

As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)

Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.