Despite the "Republican war on science," scientific research and education continue to advance. In the last year, the Large Hadron Collider began operation as the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope was given new life, pandemic flu was averted thanks to public health campaigns and in spite of anti-vaccine denialists, climate change legislation made unprecedented advances even as emails stolen from a climate researcher gave the public a confusing view of science’s inner workings, and statewide science standards were found to require more and better evolution lessons than ever before. Scientific and technological advances require not just scientific experts, but an engaged public that appreciates the value of science and policies that encourage and support cutting-edge science education and research. A panel of scientists will discuss steps concerned citizens can and have taken to ensure scientific advances continue for the betterment of society.

Activists and leaders on the right have spent the past three decades running “stealth” candidates and funding pressure groups in an effort to shape what American students learn in their public schools. Two of the fiercest state battlegrounds in the education culture wars have been Texas and Kansas, where social conservatives have, at various times, taken control of their respective State Boards of Education. The flash points in those battlegrounds have often been science and social studies, particularly instruction on evolution, the role of religion in the nation’s founding and efforts to promote conservative icons and ideology in textbooks and classrooms. Panelists will explore areas where the right has been most successful in its efforts to hijack education in service of a political agenda. They will also discuss resources available to progressive bloggers and activists who want to uncover, monitor and counter the right’s efforts at local, state and federal levels.

In the last decade there has been much sensational news coverage of creationism, “intelligent design,” and the biological theory of evolution. Is there really a conflict between these various positions? Can we both (1) believe in God, and at the same time (2) accept the evolutionary assumptions of modern biology? Not only is it possible, but it is essential that religious traditions integrate the evolutionary world view into their theologies and religious cultures.

Dr. Peter Hess is a Theologian and a practicing Catholic.

Admission is free

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En la década pasada había muchas noticias dramáticas sobre el creacionismo, "diseño inteligente," y la teoría biológica de evolución. ¿Hay un conflicto entre estas posiciones? ¿Podemos (1) creer en Dios, y al mismo tiempo, (2) aceptar las ideas evolucionarias de la biología moderna?

El Dr. Peter Hess, del Centro Nacional para la Educación Científica en Oakland, CA, y un católico, explorará unas dimensiones importantes de la relación entre ciencia y religión.

Dr. Hess habla español si tiene preguntas, pero la lectura estará en puro inglés.
El costo es gratis

Tickets are available in advance from the Sunriver Nature Center, (541) 593-4394 or (541) 593-4442, or at the door. Tickets are $10 ($8 members for members of the Sunriver Nature Center); $3 for students with ID (scholarships available if needed).

Rosenau and Newton will share their experiences at the nation's only organization dedicated to defending evolution against creationist attacks in public schools. Rosenau, a biologist, and Newton, a geologist, will describe how creationist attacks have changed since the failure of intelligent design creationism in a Dover, PA courtroom in 2005. They will describe new anti-evolution laws being introduced across the nation, the impact of Texas' new requirement that textbooks include creationist claims, and the growing nexus between global warming denial and anti-evolutionism.

While many hoped that the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial of 2005 would put the final nail in intelligent design creationism's coffin, but creationism continues evolving. Since the judge's devastatingly thorough ruling in Dover, PA, new strategies have arrived in laws passed in Louisiana, new science standards passed in Texas, and a new textbook issued as a successor to Of Pandas and People – the textbook supplement central to the Kitzmiller trial. Rosenau, programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education, will discuss NCSE's work defending science education and explore the ways that scientists and non-scientists alike can block such attacks on science.

A discussion with science faculty and students concerning the creationism and evolution controversy, its history and present-day manifestations. Sponsored by the Biology Department of the University of Missouri. The talk is in conjunction with Dr. Scott's receipt of an honorary degree from the University of Missouri on Saturday, May 15.

Barbara Forrest will speak to Atheists United on the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008. A member of NCSE's board of directors, she is the coauthor with Paul R. Gross of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (Oxford University Press, 2004; 2007, 2nd ed.), which details the political and religious aims of the "intelligent design" creationist movement. She served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the first legal case involving "intelligent design," Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District.

Skeptics are the quintessential science fans. They enjoy learning about new scientific discoveries, they appreciate what science has given us in terms of a reliable food supply, greatly improved methods of coping with disease and infirmity, and technological discoveries that have improved communication and provided new sources of energy that can reduce human toil. So it is not surprising that skeptics tend to be short tempered when science is abused in the promotion of unscientific views --- some of which are injurious to our fellow citizens. But communicating the advantages of the scientific epistemology to our fellow citizens requires understanding some of the alternative ways of knowing commonly in use. Understanding reasoning from authority, reasoning from internal states of being, and reasoning using science will be discussed.

SkeptiCal
The Northern California Skeptics Conference
sponsored by
Bay Area Skeptics & Sacramento Skeptical Society