Evolution Debate Here

By John Hickey
“Worlds Apart: The Unholy War between Religion & Science,” a three-day program sponsored by The Manor, a Parkersburg retreat center which aims to promote “peace, harmony, and reverence for the natural world,” will present “America’s Search for a Creation Story” at West Virginia University at Parkersburg Sept. 23.

Karl Giberson will speak on current conflicts between science and religion as each tries to tell the story of our creation. Giberson is the editor of Science & Theology News and is editor-in-chief of Science and Spirit magazine, whose current issue asks on its cover, “What’s the Problem With Darwin? Why Americans Are Turning Their Backs on Evolution.”

Dr. Edward L. Crisp, professor of Geology at WVUP, will respond to Dr. Giberson’s remarks. Dr. Crisp has taught courses on historical geology, astronomy, paleobiology of dinosaurs, and organic evolution.

Also responding will be Dr. Bruce Terry, professor of Bible and Humanities at Ohio Valley University; Dr. David McShaffrey, associate professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Marietta College, whose Biology 102 course studies the “evolution of new organisms” and includes a “consideration of how geological processes have affected evolution”; and Gordon Wells, associate professor of Natural Sciences and Teacher Education at Ohio Valley University who, according to the event’s sponsor, “conducts the monthly meeting of the Creation Research Science Education Foundation,” who say at worldbydesign.org that they are against the teaching of evolution and that they believe the Bible “teaches a young earth and a worldwide Flood in the days of Noah.” They say, “The scientific community has taken such great pains to keep God out of science that they have by default endorsed another religion called humanism.”

“America’s Search for a Creation Story” will be presented Friday, Sept. 23 from 7 to 9 p.m. in WVUP’s Little Theater, Room 1305.