by JEFF KOEHLER
News Reporter

The Darwin Bicentennial Series, a series of lectures that will discuss the scientist’s theory of evolution, and its impact on the world, begins today and will last until the end of the year, Howard S. Neufeld, biology professor at Appalachian State University said.

He said the main purpose of the series is to discuss why Darwin’s theory matters to the world, and to explain the necessity of maintaining good scientific standards.

Neufeld said all the speakers are internationally known, and the university was able to book every speaker it had contacted for the event.

“It’s the most intense lecture series of any college in the country about Darwin and evolution,” Neufeld said.

He said the first speaker, Eugenie C. Scott, will speak today from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Farthing Auditorium. 

The title of her speech is “Why Darwin Matters.”

Neufeld said the lectures will range from a variety of fields, and will discuss such topics as reconciling religious faith with belief in evolution, Darwin’s relevancy, teaching scientific concepts to children using comic books as a medium, and the differences between evolutionary science and intelligent design.

He said a major goal of the series is to teach the audience to recognize what is science and what is not.

He hopes by listening to the lectures, students will recognize what belongs in the classroom, he said.

Thirteen speakers are scheduled to present throughout the series, Neufeld said. 

In addition to the presentations, there will be events for faculty members who wish to discuss topics relating to evolution with the speakers.

“There’s something for everyone,” Neufeld said.

He said there would be other events in addition to the speakers, such as a competition between members of the art and music departments to create works of art inspired by Darwin’s work.

Teaching evolution concurrently with intelligent design theories is a poor decision, because intelligent design does not follow the scientific method of creating and then testing a hypothesis, Neufeld said.

R. Wayne Van Devender, biology professor said all the aspects of evolutionary biology are “open-door,” and the reviewers that analyze scientific papers on evolution are both harsh and anonymous.

He said the picture of the world built by Darwin’s evolutionary theory is consistent.

Michael Windelspecht, biology associate professor, said before Darwin, the scientific community had already known that organisms change over time.

He said Darwin’s most crucial contribution was natural selection, a mechanism that could explain why evolution occurred.

“Scientists would love to find another mechanism, but all inquiries come back to natural selection,” Windelspecht said.

He said some of the controversy over evolution and creationism is a misunderstanding that evolution is an attempt to replace religion, and people do not want evolution to challenge their religion.

He said evolution is not a challenge to religion, but an attempt to explain the natural world.

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