Darwin Week wraps up with a variety of speakers

Darwin Week continued Wednesday as keynote speaker Mark Blumberg delivered a lectured titled "Developing Creations and Creating Development: Why Monsters Matter" at the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Multicultural Education. He gave this presentation based upon the book he wrote, "Freaks of Nature."

Blumberg made the point that the "monsters" in the world are evidence that evolution happened, and that all living organisms in the world are not products of intelligent design.

"If intelligent design was the case, then how come we have anomalies like conjoined twins or animals with two heads?" said Blumberg.

He also expressed his interest in researching the development of sleep, behavioral neuroscience and how sleep promotes brain development.

 When asked why he got interested in his field of study, he laughed, "That's my life... I  could go on for hours with that answer."

 "I really liked all the facts about Darwin and what Darwin said," said Shelby Bennett, a UNI sophomore majoring in social work.

David Wasserman, a sophomore music education major, said, "I thought it was very interesting. It involved concepts such as behavioral evolution that I've heard of and considered before."

On Thursday, Feb. 10, Tyler O'Brien, a UNI associate professor of physical anthropology, gave a lecture entitled "The Naked Ape: 7 Million Years of Hominid Evolution"

In his presentation, he lectured on human evolution from 50 million years ago when the first primates started showing up after the dinosaurs died out. Seven million years ago, humans and chimpanzees, our closest relatives, went their separate ways down the evolutionary path.

On the last night of Darwin Week, author Dan Barker was invited to give his presentation, "America Doesn't Have a Prayer." Formerly an ordained Christian minister, Barker is currently an atheist. His lecture was mainly about how he believes the National Day of Prayer instituted in 1952 is unconstitutional because of freedom of religion in the First Amendment.

"Christianity fails because prayer significantly fails," said Barker. "Christians count the hits, not the misses."

    Barker was an associate pastor for three different churches, a missionary in Mexico for two years, a cross-country evangelist for eight years and a Christian songwriter.

"My experience doesn't make me right, but it gets me halfway there because a lot of believers say you should try Christianity. They can't accuse me of not having tried it, because I've lived it," said Barker. "I think the (UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers) are evidence of what's happening in the world. No one person made this happen. It's all individual, free thought that's autonomous and not forced. The freedom to believe or disbelieve is a cherished freedom in America and UNIFI is underscoring that freedom."

Trevor Boeckmann, president of the group leading Darwin Week, UNIFI, was very pleased with this week.

"Darwin Week is great because it stands for everything college should stand for. It's intellectual growth, learning outside of the classroom and challenging cherished beliefs. That doesn't happen enough on college campuses, and I'm proud to say that, with the help of our speakers and classmates, we're able to provide it," said Boeckmann.

Boeckmann looks forward to future Darwin Weeks.

"I hope word of Darwin Week continues to spread. Every year, Darwin Week has more and more attendees and more and more buzz about it. There were over 1,450 attendees this year. If they all come back next year with a friend, the event will be unbelievable," Boeckmann said.