Fla. Museum hosts evolution vs. intelligent design documentary screening

February 5, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History is sponsoring a screening of the film “Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus” at 7 p.m., Feb. 12, at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (352) 846-2000, ext. 275.

A panel discussion follows the screening, including Frederick Gregory of the UF Department of History and Bruce McFadden, Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology curator.

The documentary provides an entertaining look at the evolution-intelligent design debate. The Florida Museum is one of more than 30 museums across the country showing the film on Darwin Day, the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday on Feb. 12, 1809. Darwin provided the first coherent theory of evolution by means of natural selection and his name is used for events that seek to acquaint the public with the theory and its importance to biology.

Filmmaker and evolutionary biologist Randy Olson humorously examines the debate between proponents of the concept of intelligent design and the scientific establishment that supports evolution, including what Olson believes is poor communication with the public about evolutionary science.