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

From: "broncobell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 09:46:36 -0000

Good news - I am sure you will be aware of much activity from our website:

www.humanism.org.uk

----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. R. Stephens <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: 21 January 2005 23:45
Subject: Darwin Day event at the Lewisham Humanists (uk)?

> To our Darwin Day friends at the Lewisham 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 consequ
> ences 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.php 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].