Darwin Week

By Matt Young

If any of our readers or contributors are taking part in Darwin Week activities, I’d like to invite them to announce those activities here. The International Darwin Day Foundation lists the better part of 100 activities here, most but not all between February 9 and 12. But if anyone has any pet activities to publicize, please go at it in the comments.

I will start: One of my colleagues tells me that the Iowa City event on February 11 and 12 will feature two talks by Frans de Waal, one technical, and one general. The general talk is entitled “Morality before Religion: Empathy, Reciprocity and Fairness in our Fellow Primates.” You may find the entire schedule and location at the link directly above.

The Secular Students and Skeptics Society at the University of Colorado is sponsoring a weeklong event, February 7-11. On Wednesday, February 9, I will discuss my contention that our sense of morality is an evolved trait; by a not entirely surprising coincidence, de Waal’s work figures into my talk. The no doubt sassy students will also show the movie “Creation” on Monday, February 7, followed by a discussion led by philosophy professor Carol Cleland. Again, you may find the entire schedule and locations at the link.

All I have so far. I invite anyone else who wants to publicize a specific event to do so in the comments.

Update, January 26: Please see below the fold for an updateby Michael Zimmerman of the Huffington Post.

You will have to get through certain amount of boilerplate, but Michael Zimmerman has an article on the Huffington Post here, in which he suggests writing to various media outlets and asking them to cover Evolution Sunday. Here is his list:

Contact anyone you feel comfortable, but here are some suggestions:

  1. NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday - fill out suggestion form at http://www.sciencefriday.com/about/contact/

  2. NPR’s Fresh Air - fill out suggestion form at http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx?sid=3

  3. NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show - contact via drshow@wamu.org

  4. MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show - contact via Rachel@msnbc.com

  5. MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell - contact via thelastword@msnbc.com

  6. Fox News’s Fox & Friends - contact via friends@foxnews.com

  7. Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor - contact via oreilly@foxnews.com

Take this simple step and make a difference – a difference that can have a lasting effect on our understanding of both religion and science as well as on the very nature of science education for years to come.

When I write, I plan to direct them to this link (http://darwinday.org/events/) and note that countless events are planned all across North America.