Monday, April 17, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Brown University biologyist Ken Miller gives the keynote speech on evolution at this weekend's science conference. Miller stressed that while evolution and creationism might look like polar opposites, they are in many ways they compatible and in some cases even complementary.
Photo by Craig Bennett/KANSAN
Scientists explore history of life, Earth and universe
By Jim O'Malley writer@kansan.com Kansan staff write
Science and religion are not adversaries, Chancellor Robert Hemenway said, opening the Science, Teaching and the Search for Origins conference this weekend at Budig Hall.
"A scientific worldview is not hostile to the idea of a deity." Hemenway said. "No one should feel they have to choose between religion and science, and that is the position of this University."
The conference was sponsored by the chancellor's office and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and organized by the division of continuing education and the department of physics and astronomy.
The conference was a response to the Kansas State Board of Education's decision last August to remove evolutionary theory, the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, and geological time from the state's science education standards, said conference organizer
Ken Miller
"Phillip Johnson is not, with all due respect,a scientist. He's a lawyer. This is not a trial. This is a scientific conference."
Brown University biologist
Hume Feldman, assistant professor of physics and astronomy. The conference was intended to show what science knows about the history of life, Earth and the universe.
Feldman estimated that about 250 scientists, teachers and students attended.
Brown University biologist Ken Miller gave the keynote address on evolution Friday evening. Saturday's speakers were Princeton physicist Jim Peebles, who holds the Albert Einstein chair, University of New Mexico geologist John Geissman, Washington University biologist Ursula Goodenoid, and Robert
Pennock, professor of philosophy at the College of New Jersey. The conference featured breakout sessions for science teachers and a general audience.
After Miller's speech, a member of the audience asked why intelligent design advocates Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe weren't included in the conference.
Miller said he had debated Behe three times and would be thrilled to share a platform with Johnson.
Feldman said he hadn't invited Johnson because the conference wasn't a debate.
"Phillip Johnson is not, with all due respect, a scientist," he said. "He's a lawyer. This is not a trial. This is a scientific conference."
In an interview after Miller's speech, Hemenway responded to Johnson's statement last weekend that Hemenway's campaign for improved science education was a call for indoctrination, propaganda and intimidation.
"Science never tries to compel belief," Hemenway said. "It tries to create understanding."
Biologist argues for evolution
By Jim O'Malley writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Religion, science can coexist, speaker says
Ken Miller's passion for biology shined through in his lecture Friday evening at Budig Hall as part of the Science, Teaching and the Search for Origins conference.
Biologists have an advantage compared to other science teachers, said Miller, a biology professor
at Brown University.
"We're teaching the most interesting subject in the world," he said.
Board misunderstands science
The evolution debate
Miller said the State Board of Education showed a misunderstanding of the historical sciences — evolutionary biology, geology and cosmology — by adopting standards suggesting that only direct observation was scientific.
That's a strange idea to a scientist, he said, because many discoveries have been made by indirect observation and inference. One example was the discovery of the element helium. Its existence was discovered in the sun before it was
Miller said the board was confused about the scientific and everyday meanings of "theory."
found on Earth.
"Ilive in Massachusetts," he said. "I have a theory about why the Red Sox will never win the World Series.
Religion and evolution
Miller said that to find a contradiction between religion and evolution, one had to misunderstand both religion and Darwin.
Creationists who insist that evolution is atheistic are wrong, he said. And so are scientists who say science proves the universe is governed by "blind, pitiless indifference."
Evolution is not antitheistic, Miller said. It makes no reference to God and neither does chemistry, he said.
"For me and lots of other believers, it doesn't take God out of the picture," Miller said. "It makes Him all the more remarkable. He used evolution as the tool to set us free."
Miller said that theologians long had recognized an element of chance in God. Otherwise, everything would be predictable and there could be no free will, he said.
Evidence for evolution
Evolutionary theory has plenty of evidence to support it, Miller said.
Contrary to creationist claims, fossils are common and detailed, he
said. The fossil record shows relationships between ancestors and descendants. Miller showed slides that included fossilized leaves from the Cretaceous era, giant shrimp from the Jurassic period, extinct elephants and sea urchins.
There are more than a million identified sea urchin fossils because they are picked up in core samples taken by oil companies searching for petroleum, Miller said. The companies send them to museums, which use them to tell the companies the age of the rock in the samples.
"Exxon may not believe in ecology, but it does believe in evolution," he said.
The fossil record also documents that species do not appear instantaneously, he said. The examples include homo sapiens. The fossil record clearly shows human's relationship to pre-human species, he said.
Miller said creationist claims that there was no mechanism that could make the enormous changes required for macroevolution were wrong. Field studies of living species show rates of change much faster than would be required to account for the rates of change shown in the fossil record, he said.
And genetic research shows in detail how species acquire new capabilities and new genes, Miller said.
Some avoid aspirin, seek alternatives
writer@kansan.com
By Warisa Chonit
writer@kansan.com
By Warisa Chulindra
Kansan staff writer
For some University of Kansas students, reaching for aspirin and pain releivers is a last resort in treating headaches.
Tom Wilcox, a pharmacist at Round Corner Drug Store, 801 Massachusetts St., said the drug market had increased considerably in the past three to five years, giving people more pain management options.
While there are alternatives to asprin, including herbs and homeopathics, Wilcox said most people usually stuck to traditional pain relievers.
Mike Gleue, pharmacist at
Gibson Pharmacy, 2104 W. 25th St. said sometimes people took the herb willow bark for headaches, but he said herbs should be taken with caution.
He said that he didn't hear customers voice concerns about becoming addicted to aspirin but that some worried about the effects aspirin had on their stomachs.
"You have to be a little more careful because it hasn't been studied as much." Gleu said.
is unbearable before taking medication
"I usually wait until it's really bad," said Lauri Romine, Englewood, Colo., freshman. "Most of the time it'll go away."
Some students wait until the pain
"I'd rather analyze why I get the headaches than just cure the symptoms." Aaen said.
She said she usually got headaches from being stressed and reading or looking at a computer screen too long. Planning study breaks and scheduling ahead to avoid stress helps her reduce how often she has headaches, Aaeen said.
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