Andrew and I were in Providence and at Brown for 5 and 6 years (respectively), and ashamedly, we never went to a talk of Ken Miller's. In fact, Professor Miller had an office one floor above me in the Biomed Center. After hearing him on NPR, I would sometimes go by his office and congratulate him for his successful NPR appearance.
For those who don't know him, Ken Miller is a cell biology professor at Brown; he is a devout Catholic known for his opposition to creationism, including the intelligent design movement. He has authored several high school biology texts (Miller and Levine) and a book about how God and evolution are not mutually exclusive: Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. He has been asked to appear at several states' evolution lawsuits; most famously, Miller was involved in the Georgia case involving placing warning stickers on the high school biology text books that he authored. As you can imagine, his talk was fascinating. He walked us through the state court cases he's been involved in, new evidence filling in the fossil records demonstrating evolution, and quotes by the Pope and other religious leaders backing evolution. There is a very similar lecture that Ken gave somewhere in Ohio that is on YouTube (oddly beginning with a prayer).
"Theories don't become facts, theories explain facts." Eugenie Scott
4 comments:
How funny that it took the two of you a move across the country to hear one of Brown's most celebrated professors speak.
Ken Miller drives me crazy in some ways (I took his class as an undergrad), but I am very happy that he's around and that he's on "our" side. And I do think he's a very good speaker. Hope you had fun!
it's always like that...can't do the stuff in your own backyard til you move so that it's not in your backyard anymore.
anyway, cool.
i love the little trees that Darwin did. There's one - I think published in The Origin - that has all the nodes labeled in letters, only he seems to have left one out. Like K or I or something, can't remember right now. Most odd!!!
Mom N. just reminded me that while working at Pierson Education, she edited/designed one edition of the Miller/Levine text. Andrew even had the opportunity (but turned it down) to fact check for the book while he was teaching at Hackley. He was a GREAT speaker, even though he came across as a bit egotistical at times. Also, he treated the Intelligent Design people pretty harshly - basically calling them idiots. There you have it.
D- that's funny, as if he is so intelligent, he can't be bothered with the alphabet? reminds me of kids learning to count to 20 who consistently leave out one of the numbers like 17 every time...
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