If you fell prey to the siren call of the Discovery Institute's 2007 Darwin vs. Design conference at Southern Methodist University, well, dust off your fossil records and get your ape suit to the dry cleaners, because next Thursday night we're gonna do it all again.
Next week's panel discussion, "Four Nails in Darwin's Coffin" promises "new scientific challenges to Darwinian evolution," and they've even invited the godless (or otherwise) Darwinists among us to join the discussion.
Last time around, the conference drew outrage from SMU faculty members, and plenty more press coverage as organizers baited faculty members into an open debate. While the SMU law school's Christian Legal Society sponsored the '07 affair, the school's Victory Campus Ministries has signed on this time around.
The four guys who'll be giving Darwin his once-and-for-all nailing include Yale- and Berkeley-educated embryologist Jonathan Wells; stylin' Stephen C. Meyer, a Cambridge philosopher of science, and former SMU grad student; Douglas Axe, who directs the Biologic Institute, an Intelligent Design-backing science shop; and Richard Sternberg, the Smithsonian "heretic" who drew fire in 2004 for publishing one of Meyer's pro-Design papers. Along with a panel talk, the night includes a screening of Darwin's Dilemma, which is not the 2009 Paul Bettany film about how man evolved mutton chops.
Jump for more details on this rollicking scientifish night out.
Scientists Converge on SMU to Discuss Death of Darwin's Theory
4 Nails in Darwin's Coffin Presents New Scientific Challenges to Darwinian Evolution
"The evidence is clear: Darwin was wrong about the origin of new species, organs and body plans," says molecular biologist Jonathan Wells. "We are ready to show the next generation of young scientists just how wrong Darwin was."
Scientists from Discovery Institute, including Dr. Wells and philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer, will be joined by molecular biologist Douglas Axe and evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg as they present scientific challenges to Darwinian evolution at Southern Methodist University. The event, sponsored and organized by PULSE and Victory Campus Ministries, is from 7:00-9:30 pm at SMU's Hughes-Trigg Ballroom, where the scientists will also engage in a Q & A session after the movie and presentations.
When Charles Darwin tried to explain away the evidence for intelligent design more than a hundred years ago, the window of evidence in biology was small and narrow. Today that window has exploded into vast worlds of nano-technology, intricate layers of complexity, and irreducible structures of design.
Now the scientific evidence is challenging Darwin's theory of evolution in ways he never could have foreseen as molecular biology and genetics raise new problems for natural selection. Four Discovery Institute scientists have been invited to present new challenges to Darwinian evolution at Southern Methodist University (SMU) September 23, 2010, following a free screening of the acclaimed documentary Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record.
Three years ago Discovery Institute funded and organized a two-day conference on the SMU campus titled Darwin vs. Design and featuring several scientists including Stephen Meyer who will also be at this year's event.
"At that event some of the faculty and other Darwin activists around Dallas said that such a discussion has no place on an academic campus and tried to shut down the event," explains Robert Crowther, director of communications for Discovery Institute. "I'm hopeful this time there won't be any such outcries and that students will get to attend and learn about the scientific challenges to Darwin's theory."
For more information about Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record, and to see a trailer of the film, visit www.darwinsdilemma.org.
Sponsored by PULSE and Victory Campus Ministries, SMU, this event is FREE and open to the public.
