Conferences & Events
Intelligent Design is Focus of Celebration

Intelligent Design has sparked debate in schools and courts across the nation. Now the topic will be explored at Stony Brook University, which is celebrating “Darwin Day” on February 9 and 10 with an advance screening of a new documentary and a lecture by a nationally-known expert on Intelligent Design.

“Darwin Day” marks the February 12, 1809 birth of Charles Darwin, whose profound theories on the evolution of life stand as a landmark of scientific achievement.

Eugenie Scott will present “The Past, Present, and Future of Intelligent Design,” a discussion to be held Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 PM in the Student Activities Center Auditorium. Scott, a former college professor, is Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc., a not for profit membership organization in Oakland, CA, of scientists, teachers, and others that works to improve the teaching of evolution, and of science as a way of knowing. It opposes the advocacy of "scientific" creationism and other religiously-based views in science classes.

On February 10 at 7:30 PM, also in the SAC Auditorium, the documentary Flock of Dodos: the Evolution Design-Intelligent Design Circus will be previewed. Filmmaker and former evolutionary biologist Dr. Randy Olson explores the controversy over the teaching of evolution and the in Intelligent Design. The documentary focuses on how the two sides communicate their arguments as he visits the battleground state of Kansas and the small community of Dover, Pa., where efforts were made to have Intelligent Design introduced into the public school curriculum.

“There is a culture war going on in the United States right now,” says Kansas conservative author Jack Cashill in the film. “And it’s not about right or left. It’s not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about all those people who believe there’s a larger intelligence in the universe and those who don’t. And that’s the essential divide in America today.”

Following the film, a panel discussion with Olson will include Dr. Jeffrey Levinton, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook as moderator, film director and producer John Feldman, Laurie Goodstein, national religion editor for The New York Times, Dr. Massimo Piglucci, Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook, and Howard Schneider, former Editor of Newsday and Visiting Professor at Stony Brook.

For further information, please visit www.darwinsbu.org.

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