• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

NYC Skeptics event - Darwin Two Hundred

Reager

Muse
R
Joined
Jun 17, 2002
Messages
661
Celebrate Darwin Day with NYC Skeptics!

When: Saturday February 7, 2009 @ 1PM

Where: Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza, Second Floor (lecture hall TBD)

Free and open to the public - Due to security procedures at Pace University, please RSVP by February 5 to contact@nycskeptics.org with your full name and e-mail address.

New York City Skeptics celebrates this year’s "Darwin Day" with a special program honoring the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publishing of On the Origin of Species.

Out featured speakers will be:

John Rennie - Editor-in-Chief of Scientific American magazine

Matthew Chapman - Director, journalist, great-great grandson of Charles Darwin, and author of 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania

Terence Hines - Professor of psychology at Pace University and author of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Massimo Pigliucci - Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Philosophy at Stony Brook University and author of the forthcoming book Nonsense on Stilts

Join us as we discuss the life and times of Charles Darwin and the impact his work continues to have both within the scientific community and with the public at large. An audience Q&A session will follow.

For more information, please visit: http://www.nycskeptics.org/events/darwinday09
 
Matthew Chapman was one of the organizers of the Innovaiton 2008 Conference in Minneapolis back in October. Think he was also at the last TAM. And Rennie was at TAM5. Some cool people. This should be a great event.
 
That sounds really awesome - and i wish you the best of luck! Wish I could go but being on the wrong continent does not make that likely. Be great if you could challenge some of the myths about Darwin himself - not least the idea that he "discovered Evolution", which still irritates me today as surprisingly common, and then some of the nonsense about the Churches opposition to him, including the canards about the famous Huxley/Wilberforce debate - the truth of which has been known for over a century, but the myth persists. Obviously I'd like to see Asa Gray and William Russel Wallace get a good mention, and actually one thing that might be really interesting is how the debunk of the Lady Hope affair has in recent years been shown to be rather more strenuous than factual - there seems to be a reasonable case she did visit Darwin, and he may well have humoured her to some extent. Putting right the utter nonsense often written about Huxley and Darwin's religious beliefs or lack thereof would come really high on my list of myths worth addressing as well. With Wyhe's new biography out, the DarwinOnline and the Correspondence Project both going full tilt and much new stuff out this could be a really good chance to set straight some of the real historical myths which have grown up around Darwin, it's work and his importance.

cj x
 
UPDATE: Please note the location will be:

Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza, Lecture Hall North (second floor)

REMEMBER: Please RSVP by February 5 to contact@nycskeptics.org with your full name and e-mail address if you wish to attend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom