The movie Flock of Dodos, which takes a look at the evolution-creationism struggle, will have a free showing on Monday in New Haven, Connecticut. I'll be there as part of a panel discussion after the movie, moderated by Michael J. Donoghue, the director of Yale's Peabody Museum. The panel will also include Randy Olson, the director of "Flock of Dodos"' John Hare, a theologian at the Yale Divinity School; and Richard Prum, a Yale evolutionary biologist who specializes on the evolution of birds. Not having seen the movie, I can't offer a review, but I certainly am curious to see it.
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Last night I drove into New Haven, Connecticut, to catch an advanced screening of Flock of Dodos, a movie about evolution and intelligent design. Afterwards I took part in a panel discussion. It was an interesting evening, not only because the movie was quite good, but because it provoked a noisy…
Carl Zimmer tells us that there are going to be showings of Randy Olson's Flock of Dodos all across the country next week—do you know where your nearest exhibition will be going on? Here it is for us Minnesota people, along with a little rebuttal of a Discovery Institute hissy fit:
SCIENCE ON…
*N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences
/Downtown Raleigh/
**Thursday, January 18
"Flock of Dodos" screening with filmmaker, Randy Olson
7:00 p.m. Museum Auditorium
Free
*Filmmaker and Evolutionary Ecologist , Dr. Randy Olson, presents his
new film */Flock of Dodos/*: /*The Evolution / Intelligent…
The Discovery Institute is stepping up their smear campaign against Randy Olson and Flock of Dodos, and the biggest issue they can find is their continued revivification of Haeckel's biogenetic law. They've put up a bogus complaint that Olson was lying in the movie, a complaint that does not hold…
Sweet, it's in walking distance. Sounds like an interesting film, count me in.
Being that I live in Australia, I'm not in a position to see this film. If the opportunity arises, I will. However, based on what the film maker says, and comments in reviews, I have to question his motives.
I have read several quotes from the movie that seem to portray IDiots as reasonable people and scientists as arrogant elitists.
It seems to me grossly unfair to accuse scientists of failing to compete with a extremely well-funded PR machine such as the Discovery Institute. One review I read said that the DI "hired a PR firm". The DI IS a PR firm, that's all it is and all it does. To expect a working scientist to compete with that is ridiculous.
All communication from the scientific community to the general public has to run the gamut of mainstream media science reporting. To call that inadequate is a massive understatement. But it's the only channel that science has. Books like yours, Carl, can only help where people are interested enough to pick up said book and read it. Most people get all their information from the TV.
The one question I would like to ask Dr. Olson is if he is so concerned about the short comings of communication from the scientific community on evolution, why did he not make a film to rectify that, instead of one which perpetuates the myth that there is a controversy at all.
Dr. Oslon's film addresses the fact that there IS a controversy, in the public's eye. The public is swaying towards Intelligent Design, despite the fact that there's no evidence to support it and the attacks on evolution are completely unbased. I haven't seen the flick, but reviews point out that Dr. Olson's message seems to be "Hey science, you're right but ID is winning the popularity contest. What are you going to do?"