Posted on 02/09/2007 5:15:20 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA — In honor of Charles Darwin's 198th birthday — and the 148 years that have passed since the publication of “The Origin of Species” — Ithaca has joined several communities across the nation in celebrating Darwin Day.
The Museum of the Earth, in partnership with Cornell University, will sponsor a series of events through Monday, Feb. 12.
Amy Naim, director of marketing and communications at the Museum of the Earth, said the museum wants to help moderate a community-wide discussion on evolution. “This is a perfect forum to bring us to the public,” she said.
David S. Wilson, a professor of evolutionary biology at Binghamton University, agrees. Wilson said he urges those who believe in evolution to apply it to their lives. He hopes this celebration will accomplish that.
“Evolution is more than just a explanation of how the world began,” he said. “It provides a way for thinking about human life.”
Wilson will speak at 7 p.m. today at the Statler Auditorium in a lecture titled “Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives.”
Rob Ross, director of education at the Museum of the Earth, believes Darwin Day provides an opportunity to share knowledge with the Ithaca community.
“Evolution is a unifying principle in biology. Darwin Day gives an opportunity to share information on how biology works,” he said.
Ross said the museum plans to help host the event every year with a special presentation in 2009 to celebrate the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the Sesquicentennial of “The Origin of Species.”
Events are planned daily at Cornell University and the Museum of the Earth, 1259 Trumansburg Road in Ithaca.
* “Evolutionary Psychology,” 10 a.m. today at the museum.
* “Evolution, Eugenics, and Beyond,” 2 p.m. today in Statler Auditorium at Cornell.
* Darwin's Birthday Party, 6:30 p.m. Friday at the museum, To register, call 273-6623 ext. 11.
* A reading from the play “Inherit the Wind,” 10 a.m. Saturday at the museum.
* A film, “Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus,” 5 p.m. Saturday and 7:15 p.m. Sunday at Willard Straight Hall Theatre at Cornell ($4).
* An evolution workshop for teachers will be on Monday, Feb. 12 at the museum. Advance registration is required and can be accessed on the Museum of the Earth's Web site, www.museumoftheearth.org.
* Family Day will be all day Saturday at the museum. Additionally, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo of Syracuse will give a presentation at 11 a.m., and paleoartist John Gurche will talk at noon. Both talks are at the museum.
For more information, visit www.priweb.org/dd2007/2007events.html.
Put aside religious beliefs? Like Stalin? Pol Pot? China?
Can anyone point out any society that has put aside religion and based it on atheism that's been good?
Very interesting and very revealing statement. Maybe we should use science as our basis for racial policies and we can use The Bell Curve as the text book in public schools. Click on those links to see just two quick examples of how science could have or could be used to determine 'truths' for public policy.
There are a million things to say that can better characterize 21st century society, but the main downfall is the selective reasoning to determine 'truth' by liberal socialists and those so-called 'conservative scientists' who have been duped by these 'very convenient truth tellers'.
The saddest aspect is that is has been people who put their faith above societies 'truths' who have most positively impacted 'public policy' in ways that have provided a better truth for society, most recently, the end of slavery.
The same will hold true, over time, for abortion.
Gee no discussion of the Cambrian Period.
"The Cambrian is a major division of the geologic timescale that begins about 542 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago) at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about 488.3 ± 1.7 Ma with the beginning of the Ordovician period (ICS, 2004). It is the first period of the Paleozoic era of the Phanerozoic eon.
The Cambrian is the earliest period in whose rocks are found numerous large, distinctly fossilizable multicellular organisms that are more complex than sponges or medusoids. During this time, roughly fifty separate major groups of organisms or "phyla" (a phylum defines the basic body plan of some group of modern or extinct animals) emerged suddenly, in most cases without evident precursors (Gould, 1989). This radiation of animal phyla is referred to as the Cambrian explosion."
Of all the scientific types, why celebrate Darwin? Why not Einstein Day, or Newton Day, or Hubble Day? Actually, the reason is fairly obvious. Darwin has become the patron saint of the secular left.
Go out and kill someone to show you're the strongest one in your niche.
What principle does it unify? Maybe it is when a pile of bones is found they can be put together to form something that agrees with the evolution agenda. Or maybe they are referring to the Church of Evolution.
All this sillyness caused by a nineteen year old, Darwin, spending two whole weeks tromping around the island. My God, people on the left are truly insane!
Their stamp of insaness is profession of global warming. Of course for that we all will be paying the price.
Hmmm..... You might want to do a bit more research before posting again.
What? And let facts get in the way?
Darwin wasn't a racist. Well, maybe mildly so by today's standards, but certainly not by the standards of his time. Darwin would certainly have to be considered less racist, for instance, than a widely admired figure like Abraham Lincoln who appears to have thought that blacks were inferior to whites, albeit only on average and that no discriminatory consequences should follow from this.
Darwin was also a more fervent abolitionist than Lincoln.
So would you lump Lincoln with Hitler?
Darwin was over 20 when the Beagle sailed, and the journey was nearly 6 years long. Darwin conducted extensive natural history researches during that whole period. Afterward Darwin spent 20 years developing his theory in detail, and btw conducting thousands of his own experiments, before publishing. During that time he took out 8 years to conduct an exhaustive and authoritative study of cirripidae (Barnacles) which involved thousands of microscopic dissections of these pinhead sized creatures. He made numerous original discoveries concerning the systematics of these animals, and his classification scheme (a wholesale reform of the confused state the order was in previously) is still used to this day.
Following The Origin Darwin applied his theory to elucidating the physiology and adaptations of insectivorous plants, climbing plant and orchids (to select just a few subjects) making more original discoveries and contributions along the way.
And even leaving completely aside that brief and very incomplete summary of his biological work, Darwin also had a strong career as a geologist, having been elected to both the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society on that basis long before anyone even knew of his major biological theories.
You can disagree with Darwin all you want, but to portray him as a dilettante or a lightweight is just stupid.
Wilson said he urges those who believe in evolution to apply it to their lives. He hopes this celebration will accomplish that.
So maybe they should give evolution a litle nudge and kill themselves.
Yeah Darwin!!!!
Hey Luddites, eat it.
Interesting. Most of the findings in evolutionary psychology have been diametrically opposed to the general leftist view of human psychology and sociology.
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