Subject: Re: Darwin Day event at the Irish Humanists (uk)?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 17:35:51 +0000

Dear Dr. Stephens,

The Humanist Assocaition of Ireland has registerded its 2005 Darwin Day event 
on the darwinday.org site.

There is no '(UK)' at the end of the Associaton name as Ireland is an 
independent Republic and full member of the European Union. 

Regards,
Cormac O'Connell
Humanist Association of Ireland

Quoting "Dr. R. Stephens" <[email-masked]>:

> To our Darwin Day friends at the Irish Humanists (uk),
> In late 2002, Arthur Jackson sent you a long 
> email about Darwin Day.  This is a reminder that 
> the project is ongoing and growing.
> 
> Did you know that Charles Darwin's family and the 
> Wedgwoods with which they were closely linked 
> showed a spirit like modern Humanists, exploring 
> many questions and drawing conclusions from real 
> world evidence?  The Darwins and Wedgwoods also 
> showed a social conscience, being early public 
> opponents of slavery.
> 
> You may already realize that Darwin's 200th 
> birthday will occur on February 12, 2009.  You 
> may have held events that celebrate science and 
> humanity in previous years.  For those who don't 
> know, Darwin Day Celebration is a nonprofit 
> organization designed to promote an international 
> celebration of Science and Humanity each year on 
> or near Feb. 12, as we proceed towards 2009. 
> Darwin and the theory of evolution are being used 
> as symbols of scientific progress, and our goal 
> is to achieve a global celebration by 2009. 
> Currently, events are being registered on our Web 
> site for 2005.
> 
> The purpose of this letter is to invite you to 
> visit our website at http://www.darwinday.org -- 
> and then to consider joining many others in this 
> constructive educational effort.  If you are a 
> leader in a Humanist group, you might consider a 
> discussion related to Darwin and evolution. 
> Perhaps an examination of how knowledge is 
> obtained through traditional faith (receiving 
> beliefs from earlier generations, gathering 
> supporting evidence, and avoiding challenges) 
> versus how knowledge is obtained in science 
> (guessing about truth through falsifiable 
> hypotheses and encouraging attempts to disprove 
> hypotheses that are not true).  You might try to 
> identify IDEAS that do not promote survival in 
> today's environment.  Perhaps you could recount 
> Darwin's own evolution from a gentleman dabbler 
> (he almost became a parson so he could live a 
> relaxed naturalist life) to a reluctant 
> revolutionary, because the evidence he saw 
> convinced him of a new truth.  Perhaps you could 
> reflect on the likely consequences of the recent 
> results of DNA sequence comparisons that show 
> that all humans lived in Africa until about 
> 100,000 years ago and we are VERY closely 
> related.  Perhaps something about current events 
> relating to Darwin's ideas, like the Georgia 
> court's recent ruling that schoolbooks could not 
> be required to have labels denigrating evolution. 
> Or you can develop your own, better, idea.  And 
> whatever you plan, please use the DarwinDay.org 
> Web site to publicize your event to the whole 
> world
> 
> We recently revised the DarwinDay.org site to 
> emphasize science education and the very HUMAN 
> story of Darwin's life.  Our Web site offers 
> information to assist you in developing ideas for 
> a celebration event that is suitable for your own 
> unique circumstances.  To sign up quickly as a 
> supporter, register at 
> http://darwinday.org/register/index.phpÝ and to 
> publicize your event go to 
> http://darwinday.org/regevent/index.php .  If you 
> have reason not to register at our site, we'd 
> still like to hear what you are doing, so feel 
> free to e-mail to us at mailto:[email-masked]
> Supporters of Darwin Day include prominent 
> scientists, educators, philosophers, and writers 
> such as: Patrick Bateson, Provost, Kings College, 
> Cambridge; Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University; 
> Richard Dawkins, Oxford University; Daniel C. 
> Dennett, Tufts University; Steven Pinker, Harvard 
> University; Helena Cronin, London School of 
> Economics; Eugenie Scott, National Center for 
> Science Education; Steve Jones, Univ. College 
> London; and many others.  We encourage you to 
> join them and become an enthusiastic participant 
> in this project.
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> Robert J. (Bob) Stephens, Ph. D. Emeritus 
> Director, Cell Biology Program, SRI 
> International, formerly Stanford Research 
> Institute. Chairman of the Board, Darwin Day 
> Celebration, a nonprofit corporation 
> http://darwinday.org
> P.S. If you do not want to receive additional 
> e-mail from Darwin Day Celebration, simply reply 
> to this e-mail at [email-masked].
> 

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