Main Page
From History of Evolution
INDS 391: Evolution and Creationism
Contents |
Wiki Syllabus. This is canonical!
Rough Course Outline
Introduction
In a narrow sense the evolution/creationism controversies of the last 150 years center around one core question:
- The Central Question (phrased three ways):
- How did biological structures that have functional utility arise?
- What is the source of the apparent functional design in biological organisms?
- Do natural processes or artifice produce the complex adaptive functional structures of organisms?
The last phrasing captures the core: is the functional complexity of organisms and their parts due to natural causes or to the work of some intelligent designing agency?
In a broader sense the question is whether life on earth, and human life in particular, was intended by some supernatural agency or is the product of contingent natural processes.
This Wiki accompanies an interdisciplinary course, INDS 391, on the scientific, socio-cultural, legal, and religious controversies surrounding the theory of evolution over the last two centuries. The course encompasses four main chronological periods:
- the 19th century preceding Darwin's 1859 On the Origin of Species, starting with Paley's 1802 Natural Theology;
- the 19th century after OOS to the rediscovery of Mendel's genetics around the turn of the century;
- the first half of the 20th century, including the 'eclipse' of natural selection and the subsequent modern synthesis, up to Watson and Crick's publication of the structure of DNA (pdf) in 1953; and
- the 20th and 21st centuries since Watson and Crick, including the rise of molecular biology and evo-devo.
Within each of those major chronological periods the material is roughly divided into the content areas mentioned above, though obviously there are not sharp divisions among them. Essays summarize the general nature of the issues, and references and links to source material on the web are provided.
Through the course students are expected to provide content and editing of essays on the various topics, and the class is jointly responsible for the content of the Wiki. Content bears the names of the students generating it, and students are aware that the Wiki will be made world-accessible at the end of the course.
It is our hope that at the end of the course this Wiki will serve as a resource for teachers, local administrators and boards of education, and the general public to complement the more science-focused material about evolution available on the Web like the Berkeley Understanding Evolution site and NESCent's videos on macroevolution.
The links below connect to essays summarizing the state of affairs in the indicated topics. Students will write extensions, elaborations, and new material building on those essays.
Pre-Darwin Religion
Pre-Darwin Science
Darwin's Theory
Early Responses to Darwin
Late 19th and early 20th Century Developments
This website was funded by an HHMI Undergraduate Science Education Program award to Kenyon College
