The Department of Biological Sciences, along with other organizations, is sponsoring Darwin Day in New Orleans Saturday.Darwin Day will honor the works of Charles Darwin, the 19th century English scientist who established the theory of evolution.
“It’s an event that’s happening all over the country. It’s sort of like an Earth Day. This is being principally organized by the New Orleans Secular Humanists Association,” Dr. David Schultz, assistant professor of biological sciences, said.
Also sponsoring the event are the biology departments of Nicholls and the University of New Orleans, the Delgado Community College Honors Program and The Institute for Human Studies.
“Nationwide, it’s sort of a grass roots thing like Earth Day,” Schultz said.
“It may be going on in England, but this is more of an American event. What this is about is partly in reaction to the thrust of the right-wing religious establishment to put creation into the science curriculum, or to get evolution out of the schools, one or the other,” Schultz said.
“The Europeans don’t have a problem with this because they don’t have fundamentalist Christians over there.”
Darwin Day was started at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
“Tennessee was the site of the Scopes Monkey Trial. The biology department there and some other people want to keep evolution in the public eye. They started this big thing. Darwin Day for them is all week long,” Schultz said.
“The person who started it is Massimo Pigliucci at Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville. He’s going to come in, give a talk for us on Saturday, go back Sunday and get their Darwin Day off the ground. He’s got a busy time.”
The event will consist of a series of presentations with Pigliucci as the keynote speaker.
Ronald G. Good, Louisiana State University professor of science education; Barbara Forrest, Southeastern Louisiana University philosopher; and Edward Johnson, Chairman of the UNO department of philosophy, will speak Saturday.
Schultz’s presentation is entitled “Keeping Creation Honest: An Analysis of Arguments”.
“It’s going to be on the tactics that Creationists use to make the idea of evolution seem implausible and presenting their tactics and showing where they’re dishonest — and in many cases they are just pure dishonest,” he said.
Schultz said the goal of the event is not to change people’s minds, but “to make sure science remains science only.”
“Much of this is to make people aware of what’s going on in Louisiana and nationwide to promote evolution in keeping it in the classroom. Once you introduce Creationism, then it’s open to have any sort of pseudo-science, abduction by aliens, whatever you want,” he said.
Schultz said anyone wishing to attend should go early, because seating is limited.
“There are a couple of Darwin Day websites,” Schultz said.
To find out what else is happening around the country to celebrate Darwin Day, Schultz recommended visiting www.darwin.ws/day/events.
