Our Father among the Saints

Today I received a departmental email inviting me to a week of celebration for ... yes, that's right, Charles Darwin's 196th birthday. Tomorrow night is the feature lecture: "Setting the Record straight". The entire program seems centered around debunking the ID fellows: those dastardly Darwin Challengers led by that annoying Berkeley Emeritus, P. Johnson.

For your enjoyment, here is the schedule of events. I plan on trying to get in, so hopefully I will have some intrepid reporting tomorrow night ... developing ...


Please come help celebrate Darwin's birthday, with events presented by the Bay Area Biosystematists, UC Berkeley Entomology Students Organization, and the Essig Museum of Entomology:

Throughout the week, there will be lunchtime screenings of the NOVA/WGBH "Evolution" series, Feb 7th-11th from 12-1pm, 306 Wellman Hall

ON FEBRUARY 8th:

*Essig Museum Open House, 1pm-5pm, 211 Wellman.

Specimen displays and tours at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30.

*Darwin's Birthday Cake and Toasting, 5:15pm, Essig Museum (211 Wellman)

*BABS Dinner, Mandarin Garden

*BABS Lecture

"Setting the Record Straight" (vignettes on modern Darwinism and anti-evolutionism).
Featuring speakers from UCB, CAS, and NCSE, including faculty whose work has been cited as "evidence against evolution."

1. Welcome (Kipling Will)
2. Introduction and overview of anti-evolutionism (Eric Meikle)
3. The knowledge of Darwin's time and development of the basis for our present knowledge (David Jameson)
4. Genomics and Darwin (Brent Mishler)
5. Vertebrate examples used by anti-evolutionists (Jack Dumbacher)
6. Anti-evolutionist (mis)use of Hawaiian spiders: evidence for evolution (Rosie Gillespie)
7. What can we do? (Eric Meikle)
8. Questions and discussion