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Davies Forum
The Louise M. Davies Forum at the University of San Francisco is a challenging intellectual program that focuses on values in public life. The continuing theme of the Davies Forum "The Search for values in Contemporary America," promises a refreshing examination of the turbulent state of American Society in the Last half of the 20th century and the present. But perhaps more importantly, it fosters an analysis of the country's current struggle to define its purpose and direction. By bringing distinguished visitors to campus to work with selected USF students and faculty in seminars and discussions, the Forum provides opportunity for informed consideration of timely national and international issues.
Fall 2009: Evolution, Faith and Reason in the USA
This fall 2009, the Davies Forum is titled “What on Earth is Going On? Evolution, Faith and Reason in the USA” and will be taught by Professor John Cobley of the Department of Chemistry.
The seminar topic is both timely and significant. 2009 is the 200th
anniversary of Darwin’s birth and is also the 150th anniversary of the
publication of one of the most influential books ever written, Darwin’s
“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection...”
The expansion of biological knowledge in the last couple of decades
has shown evolution to be beyond the realm of debate, and to be
unequivocally an unassailable reality. The future of our planet will be
in jeopardy unless we weave the truth of evolution deeply into our
understanding of humanity. In spite of this, Americans are much less
likely to accept evolution than citizens of other industrial nations,
and this lack of acceptance in the U.S.A is strongly tied to
fundamentalist religious beliefs. In a general sense, attention is
being increasingly drawn to the tension between faith and reason in the
U.S.A. Evolution and this tension is what we will be examining in the
seminar. We will explore how, with the discovery of natural selection,
we have begun to perceive ourselves differently in the world; why there
is no longer any reason to believe that human beings are especially
chosen or that we are fundamentally distinct from the other living
organisms. With this change in perception humanity comes of age.
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