Public Sessions
Public Events at Hampshire College
The following events are free and open to general public:
Creationism Goes Global: From American to Islamic Fundamentalism
Dr. Ronald L. Numbers
Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 6:00pm, Franklin Peterson Hall
and
Islam and Evolution: A Panel Discussion
Dr. Jason Wiles
Dr. Ehab Abouheif
Dr. Taner Edis
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 6:00pm, Franklin Peterson Hall
Dr. Ronald L. Numbers is the Hilldale Professor of History of Science & Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Jason Wiles is Assistant Professor in Biology Department at Syracuse University, NY
Dr. Ehab Abouheif holds Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, McGill University, Canada
Dr. Taner Edis is Associate Professor of Physics, Truman State University, Missouri
Abstract for the public lecture by Dr. Ronald L. Numbers:
Despite growing evidence to the contrary, evolutionists in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries clung to the belief that creationism could be geographically contained. In 2000 the usually reliable American paleontologist and anti-creationist Stephen Jay Gould, assured foreign audiences that creationism was not contagious. “As insidious as it may seem, at least it’s not a worldwide movement,” he said reassuringly. “I hope everyone realizes the extent to which this is a local, indigenous, American bizarrity.” Although Gould remained oblivious to it, the worldwide growth of creationism by 2000 had already proven him utterly wrong. Antievolutionism had become a global phenomenon, as readily exportable as hip-hop and blue jeans. In the past few decades it has quietly spread from America throughout the world and from evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Orthodox Judaism, and, especially, Islam. This lecture situates the Islamic embrace of creationism in the larger global story.