Darwin at 300: Anthropologists, Filmmakers and Historians Discuss
Darwins shoes.... from a statue of Darwin, Shrewsbury Public Library, UK.
Where do ideas come from, and how far do they travel? One hundred and fifty years ago, the astonishing year of 1859 saw not only the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, but such pioneering works such as John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Karl Marx’s Critique of Political Economy, and Richard Wagner’s first version of Tristan and Isolde. Can we imagine the world 150 years from now, and imagine the place our ideas will have in it?
This is something that a University of Southern California event series will examine under the banner of “The Darwin Revolution, 1859-2159.” Scholars from biology, anthropology, physics, literature, history, and gender studies, as well as poets and artists, will explore these questions together this spring. Go to http://college.usc.edu/tcc for details.
Photo by Norma Desmond. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Darwin’s Evolution Under Attack: Top Stories of the Year
Paris - La Grande Galerie de l'Evolution - 2007 (Etienne Cazin CC)
Evolution is under attack across the U.S. Last year, the teaching of evolution was challenged in scores of schools. During the same period, six states introduced (and Louisiana passed) “academic freedom laws” that discredit evolution and smuggle creationist teachings into the classroom. (For more, see http://ncseweb.org/evolution/education/academic-freedom).
2009 doesn’t look much better. Oklahoma is first to bat with a strong antievolution bill, followed by Mississippi with a bill requiring warning labels on textbooks. Other states that may consider similar legislation in 2009 include Michigan, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, and South Carolina.
Creationists are also undermining the teaching of evolution by sabotaging state science standards, with a battle currently raging among the members of the Texas state board of education. And in too many classrooms around the country, due to local pressure, their own misconceptions, or a lack of training, teachers are not teaching evolution. (more…)
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