Dr. Barbara Forrest is currently a professor of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University. She is the co-author of “Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design” with Paul Gross, which speaks about the creationist movement “Wedge Strategy”, that has advanced through a religious agenda, rather than a scientific agenda.
She was on campus to lecture Feb. 16 for the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”
Q: How has Darwin influenced science?
A: Well Darwin’s impact on the biological sciences was huge. The biological sciences during Darwin’s day were not as rigorously empirical as the physical sciences. The physical sciences were far ahead, in terms of their scientific methodology than biology. Biology was still governed by the old biblical understandings of where life on earth came from. What Darwin did was apply rigorous empirical methodology to Biology that the physical sciences were having so much success with. So Darwin really modernized Biology. Not only has he had an enormous impact on Biology, but his ideas about evolution have spun off to other fields, even Computer Science, which now, models some of its software applications after the process of natural selection.
The theory of evolution, by natural selection, has been an enormously productive and fertile theory.
It’s important to bring it to Northern Kentucky University, because anybody now in the modern world, who wants to understand science properly has to understand how fundamental evolution is to the study of Biology.
So young people here who are studying science, who are studying Biology, or any related field, certainly want to get a modern scientific education and that has to include evolution, because so much of modern science depends on it.
Medicine, Biomedical research, is built on the foundation of what Darwin discovered.
Q: What is your argument against Creationism, specifically the Discovery Institute?
A: The major argument against the Discovery institute is that what they’re doing is promoting a religious agenda. Not a scientific agenda. In fact, they really don’t even care about science; they are just using it as vehicle to attack the teaching of evolution. The discovery institute is nothing more than a pretty, well oiled, propaganda operation. Rather than making any contribution to the education of children, or to the way science is done. These guys simply do nothing, except use politics to advance an idea that has been debunked many, many, many times, as a religious idea rather than science.
9 comments
It's Not Darwin's or Wallace's Theory
Both Darwin and Wallace admittd that they did not originate the theory of natural selection,instead, they gave priorty on the idea to Patrck Matthew and Charles Wells. My latest research also shows that non of the ideas in "On the Origin of Species" are novel to Darwin(search Google for "wainwrightscience"
Best Wishes, Prof. Milton Wainwright,,Dept.Molecular Biology and Bioetechnology,University of Sheffield UK.