Ronald L. Numbers, Ph.D., the Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present the 2008-09 Witherspoon Lecture in Religion and Science at 4 p.m. April 16 in the Whitaker Hall Auditorium.
The lecture, “Antievolution in America: From Creation Science to Intelligent Design,” is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. The lecture is sponsored by the Religious Studies Program in Arts & Sciences.
Numbers’ talk will focus on the history of Darwinism. He argues that during the past 15 years or so, a new, non-biblical form of opposition to evolution has arisen under the banner of “intelligent design,” which seeks to “reclaim science in the name of God” and to change the very rules governing the practice of science.
Numbers is a former Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the International Academy of the History of Science.
He is a past president of both the History of Science Society and the American Society of Church History. In 2005, he was elected to a four-year term as president of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science/Division of History of Science and Technology.
Numbers is the author or editor of more than two dozen books, including, most recently, “Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion” and “Science and Christianity in Pulpit and Pew.”
The Witherspoon Lecture Series was made possible by a grant in 2000 from William Witherspoon, a retired investment banker and a past student and teacher at University College in Arts & Sciences. His gift was motivated by a deep interest in both science and religion.
For more information, call 935-8677.