As we approach the 200th anniversary of his birth next year, it seems appropriate to ask: WWDT? (�What would Darwin think?�).

When: Tuesday September 16, 7:00-9:00 PM

Where: Krannert Room of Clowes Memorial Hall, Butler University 4600 Sunset Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46208

Part of Butler University’s Center for Faith and Vocation’s �Darwin, Religion and Society� series. It’s free and open to the public, but tickets are required. They are available at the Clowes Hall box office beginning Aug. 29. For more information, call (317) 923-7252 or visit www.butler.edu/cfv.

From the Butler blurb:

Darwinism, Natural Theology and Moral Values (Sept. 16)

Many contemporary biologists argue that Darwin�s theory of evolution by natural selection shows that the natural world is amoral and non-progressive. Darwin�s own views were more complex. Our panel will discuss how Darwin thought about the relationship between the biological, moral and divine orders, and consider how Darwin�s views might inform contemporary debates.

Speaker: Robert Richards is the Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin�s Theory. Respondents: Douglas Allchin, historian and philosopher of biology at the University of Minnesota, and Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler and founder of The Clergy Letter Project and Evolution Sunday.

You can see where richards comes down in this description from his Meaning of Evolution:

Did Darwin see evolution as progressive, directed toward producing ever more advanced forms of life? Most contemporary scholars say no. In this challenge to prevailing views, Robert J. Richards says yes�and argues that current perspectives on Darwin and his theory are both ideologically motivated and scientifically unsound.
This provocative new reading of Darwin goes directly to the origins of evolutionary theory. Unlike most contemporary biologists or historians and philosophers of science, Richards holds that Darwin did concern himself with the idea of progress, or telos, as he constructed his theory. Richards maintains that Darwin drew on the traditional embryological meanings of the terms “evolution” and “descent with modification.” In the 1600s and 1700s, “evolution” referred to the embryological theory of preformation, the idea that the embryo exists as a miniature adult of its own species that simply grows, or evolves, during gestation. By the early 1800s, however, the idea of preformation had become the concept of evolutionary recapitulation, the idea that during its development an embryo passes through a series of stages, each the adult form of an ancestor species.
Richards demonstrates that, for Darwin, embryological recapitulation provided a graphic model of how species evolve. If an embryo could be seen as successively taking the structures and forms of its ancestral species, then one could see the evolution of life itself as a succession of species, each transformed from its ancestor. Richards works with the Origin and other published and archival material to show that these embryological models were much on Darwin’s mind as he considered the evidence for descent with modification.
Why do so many modern researchers find these embryological roots of Darwin’s theory so problematic? Richards argues that the current tendency to see evolution as a process that is not progressive and not teleological imposes perspectives on Darwin that incorrectly deny the clearly progressive heart of his embryological models and his evolutionary theory.

Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
Darwin’s bicentennial in 2009 ought to provoke an active and open-minded discussion about the relation of evolution to ethics, religion, politics, and so on. All too likely these conversations will devolve into slanging matches. Too bad. This should be a good warm-up.

If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out �
Butler’s Center for Faith and Vocation’s next event on the politics of Darwinism on October 21. Also check out Richard Carrier’s moral defense of naturalism on October 26.

Similar Posts:

• November 8: Bill Newman discusses “chymistry” and Isaac Newton
• September 29: “The Bible and Eradicating Poverty” — Answering God’s Call: Bringing Justice to All
• September 28: Religion as Promoter of Peace, Perpetuator of Violence
• November 5: “Mindful Eating,” a Spirit & Place
• July 10: Making Humanism Relevant to African Americans