Speakers
Day 1: Opening of the program
Theme leader: Professor Keith Christian, Charles Darwin University, Australia
Key speaker: Professor Tim Berra, The Ohio State University, USA , Charles Darwin: The concise story of an extraordinary man
Day 2: Theme one
Brave new world? What is Darwin’s legacy in the era of modern medicine and technology-based societies?
MC: Professor Ross Crozier, James Cook University
Theme leaders: Professor Chris Austin, Professor Bart Currie, Associate Professor Karen Gibb, Charles Darwin University, and Dr John Woinarski, Northern Territory Government
Since Charles Darwin established the basis for the scientific understanding of the natural world, there has been an explosion in our ability to manipulate and transform the biological world. In the modern era, where will this take us? And who will benefit? Theme one considers a range of frontier sciences, and their ethical implications.
Topics include: the molecular genetic basis of evolution; the role and implications of genetic engineering; the arms race between medical advances and evolution of disease; the unravelling of the genetic code and deconstruction of what makes life; the extent to which humanity has moved past natural selection, and the extent to which the actions of humankind now replaces natural selection as the force governing evolution of the earth’s biota.
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Day 3: Theme two
Understanding the controversy between Darwinian science and religious reactions
Theme leader: Professor Keith Christian, Charles Darwin University
In the decades immediately following the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species by Natural Selection, the topic of evolution became as much a religious topic as a scientific one.
The previously existing religious vision of creation included the idea that nature exhibits a divine design. With the introduction of Darwin's theory of descent with modification, however, no design or guiding purpose within nature could be scientifically discerned. In the century and a half since, we have seen the rise of anti-Darwin forms of religion, anti-religious forms of Darwinism, and religious forms of Darwinism.
The implications of evolutionary theory for the concept of divine design in nature is an intersection between science and religion that fuels controversy and conflict on the one hand, but also provides a starting point for scholarly endeavors and philosophical debate. Just how should we understand the various positions taken in this worldwide controversy? Are the bounds of science and religion clearly defined? Is there scope for compatibility between science and religion? These issues will be discussed in a historical context, and in the social and political context of the modern world.
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Day 3: Theme three
Social Darwinism and indigenous nations: The origin of socio-political policy
MC: Steve Larkin, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Theme leader: Professor Wendy Brady, Charles Darwin University
This theme is an examination of how Darwin's Origin of Species alongside his later work, The Descent of Man were used to construct policies in relation to indigenous peoples.
Social Darwinism was a re-interpretation of Charles Darwin’s theories by Herbert Spencer whose focus was ‘survival of the fittest’. Social Darwinism, ‘survival of the fittest’, became the fabric upon which colonial and modern government policies, legislation, and social controls were constructed. The speakers in this theme will consider how social Darwinism has impacted upon Indigenous Australians in the past and present.
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