Access Research Network's video: On the Theory of Evolution

“Each one of us has the freedom and responsibility to come to our own terms with evolutionary theory and that is best done in an atmosphere of open, respectful and spirited exchange that the university offers”....Thus starts this fascinating panel discussion between three scholars who have devoted their lives to the success or demise of Darwinian evolution. Ruse, Tiffney, and Wells bring their collective intellect, expertise, disagreements and humor to bear on three important themes in the origins debate: 1. the nature, aims, and limitations of science; 2. the contemporary status of evolution as a scientific theory; 3. the political dimensions of contemporary discussion and debates of evolution in American education. Michael Ruse is currently the Lucyle T. Werkmeist Professor of Philosophy at Florida State. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol. He is the author of many books and articles on Darwin and evolutionary biology, the founder and editor of the journal Biology & Philosophy, and editor of the “Cambridge University Press Series in the Philosophy of Biology.” Bruce Tiffney is currently Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. in Paleobotany from Harvard. His special research interest centers on the study of fossil fruits and seeds of flowering plants including patterns of plant geography, plant/animal interactions and broad scale evolution. Jonathan Wells is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture in Seattle. He earned his first Ph.D. from Yale University in religious studies where he wrote a book about the nineteenth-century Darwinian controversies. He earned his second Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California at Berkeley.