COURSE: By Design or by Chance? An introduction to the intelligent design controversy

This is the course I will start teaching Tuesday at St. Mikes at the University of Toronto.

Enrollment is here. Campus map is here.

SESSIONS

Why is there an intelligent design controversy? and Why doesn’t it go away. Join Toronto-based author and journalist Denyse O’Leary, author of By Design or by Chance? and her guests for a series of entertaining evenings.

Session 1. The Big Bang: Blowing up a safe, tidy cosmology Tuesday October 23, 2007

Guest: Robb Mann, chair of physics, University of Waterloo. He asks - could there be other universes? Can we know? What difference would it make?

[Note: I heard Mann's prsentation on time (as in time and space) last night at the Agincourt Mall, and it was great!]

Session 2. From molecules to man: How did it happen? Tuesday October 30, 2007

Guest: Don Wallar, director of the Biosimilars Program with a large Canadian-based pharmaceutical company, explains why life’s origin is such a difficult problem.

Session 3. Creationists: Are they crazy or what? Tuesday November 6, 2007

Guest tba Creationism (young earth or six-day) originated in the United States post-World War II. It has now spread to the European Union, which regards it as a serious threat. Why? How?

Session 4. The universe: Bottom up or top down? Tuesday November 13, 2007

Either mind comes from matter or matter from mind. What difference does either view make to our understanding of consciousness and free will?

Session 5. Intelligent design: What the ID proponents actually say (and don’t say) Tuesday November 20, 2007

Michael Behe, author of Edge of Evolution (2007), sees actual design where, for example, Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker, sees the illusion of design. Who’s right? Are they both wrong?

Guest: Kirk Durston, biophysics PhD candidate at the University of Guelph.

Session 6. Why media routinely flub key events in the controversy Tuesday November 27, 2007

Join Denyse O’Leary and the Ottawa Citizen’s David Warren for free donuts and an insiders’ look at mistaken analysis and wrong predictions.


Where, when, and how much? Six evening sessions at Carr Hall, 100 St Joseph’s Street, at the University of Toronto, over six Tuesdays, Oct. 23 – Nov. 27 2007, at 7 – 9pm.

More info: 416) 926-7254 or continuinged.stmikes@utoronto.ca Register by phone here: Phone: (416) 926–7254. Payment by VISA or MasterCard only.