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Rallying support for evolution
13/02/2006 10:44 - (SA)
Philadelphia - Thanks to the "intelligent design" movement, Charles Darwin's birthday is evolving into everything from a badminton party to church sermons.
Defenders of Darwin's theory of natural selection are planning hundreds of events around the world on Sunday, the 197th anniversary of his birth, saying recent challenges to the teaching of evolution have re-emphasized the need to promote his work.
"The people who believe in evolution ... really just sort of need to stand up and be counted," said Richard Leventhal, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. "Evolution is the model that drives science. It's time to recognise that."
The museum's celebration will include birthday cake, a little badminton (reportedly a favorite game of Darwin's) and a reading of his The Origin of Species by student Bill Wames, who volunteered to dress up as the 19th-century naturalist.
'Flawed theory'
At the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, philosophy students will get a jump-start on Darwin Day on campus on Friday by singing Darwin carols they composed.
Darwin, who was born in England on February 12 1809, and died in 1882, was 50 when he published The Origin of Species. His conclusion that species evolve over time was based in part on zoological and geological discoveries made during a five-year voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle.
The intelligent design movement challenges Darwin's theory, contending that organisms are so complex that they must have been created by some kind of higher being. Critics of intelligent design say it is creationism camouflaged in scientific language.
Intelligent design proponents suffered legal setbacks last year in Pennsylvania and Georgia, but Kansas education officials have approved science standards that treat evolution as a flawed theory.
'No need to choose'
Polls have shown many Americans don't accept evolution. A Gallup poll in 2004 found that about 35% of Americans believe Darwin's theory is well supported by evidence, another 35% thought it was not well-supported and 29% said they didn't know enough about it.
To show religion and science are not at odds, more than 400 churches of many denominations - most of them in the United States - have agreed to participate in "Evolution Sunday" by giving a sermon, holding classes or sponsoring discussions.
Organiser Michael Zimmerman, a biology professor and dean at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, said there is "no reason that people have to choose between religion and science".
The Darwin Day Celebration was formalised six years ago as a California-based non-profit organisation, but some tributes go back much further. Salem State College in Massachusetts has had a Darwin festival for 26 years.
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