Posted on 06/24/2005 4:07:28 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito) hosted the World Summit on Evolution from June 9-12 at the island of San Cristóbal in the Galapagos Archipelago. This one-of-a-kind conference brought together the world’s most prominent biologists to discuss and debate what is evolution, the different fields of study, and what are the future horizons for evolution biology. This conference was unique because it compromised all subfields of evolution from microbes to humans, plus participants came from all around the world (more than 20 countries represented).
The format was also special because it consisted of a presentation given by a speaker followed by a talk given by a commentator in the same field. Once all speakers and commentators presented their work a discussion was opened to the public. This procedure created a unique mechanism of feedback and interaction among all participants.
During the various sessions speakers, commentators and session chairs debated old and new ideas. In some cases participants called for a radical reorganization of approaches to their subfield, i.e., sexual selection (Roughgarden) and genetic drift (Provine). Others such as developmental biologists (Wagner) talked about how they are able to answer centuries-old questions of morphological evolution using genetic techniques. Other ideas debated were: early evolution (Lazcano, Mexico), lateral gene transfer in microbes, selection in natural populations (Peter and Rosemary Grant, USA), selection at multiple levels (Avilés, Ecuador), and symbiogenesis (Margulis, USA).
Graduate students were also an integral part of the conference. Students from outside Ecuador were chosen from lists submitted by the speakers, among them six Ecuadorean students were included. Funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) made it possible for more than two dozen students attend the conference and present their recent research in a poster session.
The success of this conference lies in the broad impacts it will offer the world regarding evolution theory, research and its diffusion. All speakers and commentators agreed the need for a dissemination of all the ideas and research presented at the event. Carlos Montúfar (USFQ) and Antonio Lazcano are leading the group that will edit a volume containing the proceedings of this meeting. As a corollary, many scientists including the NSF made a call for more diffusion of evolution theory in US schools to combat the rise of Intelligent Design Theory. As Michael Shermer, who gave a vivid and controversial talk on the rhetoric that this movement employs, put it, “IDT [Intelligent Design Theory] is nothing more than creationism under the guise of pseudo-science.”
As a summary of the impacts of this conference it is clear the need for future conferences on evolution that will address specific problems in evolution biology, as well as developing strategies to deal with creationism and Intelligent Design Theory in schools and at a public level. Furthermore, several academic institutions, among them the University of Illinois, sealed cooperation agreements with USFQ (GAIAS) to do research in the islands.
A video documentary of this conference is being produced by John Feldman and Hummingbird Films with cooperation of the College of Communication and Contemporary Arts of USFQ. This documentary to be released in the US by the end of this year gathers interviews with scientists such as Will Provine, Richard Michod, Frank Sulloway, Antonio Lazcano, Peter and Rosemary Grant, Geoff McFadden, Joan Roughgarden, Daniel Dennett, and Laura Katz who discuss the major questions of evolution from their subfields.
Rarely have so many experts been gathered to discuss their views and projections within an area of study. It is expected that this documentary will become a long lasting document of the state of evolution at the beginning of the 21st century.
The World Evolution Summit 2005 is a project of Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and its Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS), established in 2002. This meeting was made possible thanks to the collaboration of private businesses such as OCP Ecuador S. A., Hilton Hotels, Metropolitan Touring, Time Warner Cable, Skeptic Magazine, and public and cultural institutions such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), UNESCO, WQLN, NPR, Ecuadorian Government, Ecuadorean Ministry of Tourism, and the Consul of Ecuador in Turkey.
| Evolution is pseudo science |
If a convincing case could be made for the fantasy of evolution, it wouldn't be fighting for its life right now. If there were a convincing case, the materialists would use it.
No one is threatened by the charge that the moon is made of green cheese because a convincing case to the contrary can be made. But because a convincing case cannot be made for evolution, the evos are extremely threatened.
More like sitting on a cusp.
Poofreaders neet not apply.
Certainly nothing if you are a Member of Congress.
What the h was that about proofreaders?
UranusDidit place mark
Consider reading beyond the title. You will learn that Darwin considered the term "race" to be a fuzzy construct, as difficult to apply as it was to determine when a village became a town; and he used "race" interchangeably with the term "species" and sometimes "sub-species."
I had that a bit backwards. It was the term "species" that Darwin considered fuzzy, or imprecise, because one species blends imperceptibly into another, so he would sometimes use sub-species and race instead. Particularly with humanity. Contrary to the prevailing attitudes of Englishmen of his generation, he regarded all mankind as one species. This attitude was, I believe, the opposite of the "racist" label you tried to pin on him. But then, your error is understandable, because you don't read beyond the title.
It depends on how rapidly a species reproduces. Bacterial evolution is quite visible in the lab. For other species where thousands of generations can take a long time, the evidence is in the fossil record -- as expected.
My complaint is with modern dogma. We must believe in evolution. We must not be racists.
You don't have to believe in evolution (or atoms, or relativity, or anything else that bothers you), and you can be a racist if you like.
One should reject racism for humanitarian reasons; it's just not nice to people. But it seems to me that a complete discussion of human evolution would include a discussion of race.
Darwin discusses the races of man extensively in The Descent of Man. And he concludes that we're all the same species. Interestingly, that wasn't a mainstream view in his generation.
Evolution today is a race between scientists striving to build a bigger, better, idiot-proof model of the history of life on Earth, and Nature trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, Nature is winning.
"Nothing is foolproff, for fools are ingenious fellows." - unknown.
;-)
Or, "You can make something fool proof but not damnfool proof."
Only because you refuse to look at the evidence.
Sheesh. Make one mistake.......LOL!
Janitors at Darwin Central are held to a higher standard of excellence.
Gots to polish that silver trim in the hallways you know.
Huxley said that evolution implies eventual devolution. Can we ever return to that blissful state of nature before there was a State and bickering over the nature of private property? Would anybody want to?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.