Convocation Address

Thank you, President Bienen for that kind introduction.

Good afternoon. When I submitted the title for this talk back in July I was thinking about this as an opportunity to describe origins. The origins of this year’s One Book project, the origins of Charles Darwin as a scientist, and the origin of your new adventure as college students. However, as I actually wrote the talk, it has taken on more of a theme of voyages so perhaps the title should have been “The Voyage of the Beagle 2012." So, let’s see how this talk “evolves.”

When Charles Darwin was a young man he took a multi-year voyage on Her Majesty’s Ship the Beagle that began the greatest transformation in his life. I am very happy to be here today to address you as you set sail on your own Beagle. Darwin’s transformation did not end when the voyage of the Beagle ended. It was the persistence of the habits acquired on the Beagle that resulted in a rather aimless young man, whose father had once told him he would be a disgrace to himself and all his family, becoming one of the greatest scientists in history. Although your voyage may originate here at Northwestern, we hope the consequences of your voyage also persist throughout your life.

Right now you are probably most concerned with whether, or not, you are going to find your classrooms on Tuesday. Once you overcome that hurdle you will probably be concerned with your performance in each of your individual classes. You will feel that the sky has collapsed if you get a “C” on your first midterm; don’t panic there are ways to put it back together. But that is not all that a Northwestern education is about. Regardless of which school you are enrolled in a Northwestern education is about being able to look beyond a single class... it is about being able to dig deeply into unfamiliar topics, about looking for evidence, about asking critical questions... and it is about being able to question your own preconceived ideas, something you will continue to do for the rest of your lives. As you do this, you will come to understand yourself and others more fully. You may decide to stand more firmly by your convictions because you now understand them better, but you may decide to change your mind about a few things as well. Be prepared as you go out those doors today, for beyond them, as the old maps say, in the uncharted places you will go, there be dragons.

In addition to the traditional classroom experience, Northwestern University has chosen to provide opportunities for you to develop very important navigational skills through a variety of interdisciplinary and extracurricular formats. One of those is the One Book One Northwestern project. By encouraging all of you to read the same book, you now have at least one piece of information in common to share and use to start a conversation, regardless of your major or where you live. Go ahead, make it an intellectual conversation in a social situation. As the label on my 12 year old’s Brain Quest game says “It’s okay to be smart.”

What is the origin of this particular One Book project? The short answer is simple, February, 12, 2009 is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin; so it seemed appropriate to suggest reading something either by or about Charles Darwin. But why Darwin? Charles Darwin is one of the greatest scientists of all time. Although many before him recognized the existence of Evolution, Darwin conceived of a mechanism, natural selection, by which it could occur and assembled the detailed data to support his theory. To quote another famous biologist, the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky,"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of Evolution." An understanding of evolutionary theory and the mechanism of natural selection is crucial to modern medicine, it explains the appearance of antibiotic resistant bacteria, new strains of HIV, it is essential conservation biology, it guides geologists in petroleum exploration, and its principles are used by computer engineers in the development of artificial intelligence and self repairing robots. An understanding of Mr. Darwin’s idea is not just an academic exercise, it is critical to our health, to our environment, and to our economy. After considerable debate concerning whether we should read “Origin of Species” or a biography of Darwin, we decided on The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. From the comments on the discussion board, it seems you liked our choice.

However, to really understand the origins of this year’s One Book Project, you have to dig into the back story, which is much more interesting. The study of Evolution is an interdisciplinary topic. At NU, faculty in many different departments, including, but not limited to, anthropology, biology (of which there are several different departments), earth and planetary sciences, physics and astronomy, history, engineering, and philosophy conduct research that is either directly or tangentially associated with Evolution. Despite this diversity, in the past there was no common forum through which faculty members and their students could interact. So beginning in about 2002 several of us started putting together a plan to form what is now known as the Interdisciplinary Committee on Evolutionary Processes, or "The Committee" for short. The Committee also offers an interdisciplinary minor for undergraduates who are interested in evolutionary processes. It took us about three years to put the whole package together and gain approval for the minor and the Committee from the appropriate administrative offices. Although the Committee and minor were approved at the end of May in 2005 we waited until the students returned in September 2005 to make a formal announcement.

The year 2005 was a tense time in the world of Evolution and education. Pressure was on from some religious groups to bring religion into the science classroom and the latest trial over the teaching of Creationism, what they called “Intelligent Design,” in public schools was about to start in Dover, Pennsylvania. We happened, purely by coincidence, to announce the Evolution minor the same week that the Kitzmiller versus Dover trial began, in September 2005. You will soon discover the publication known as the Northwestern Daily. As with all newspapers, make sure you check its facts. The Daily ran an article and an editorial about the new minor, both insinuating that the minor had been formed by faculty with an agenda against Intelligent Design. Nothing in academic administration works that fast, believe me. But, it is true we do have a secret agenda! We are secretly trying to educate you!

One faculty member, Dr. Cristina Traina from the Department of Religion, was terribly misquoted in the paper. Let me read you the erroneous quote:

“Traina said she was skeptical about both evolution and intelligent design theories. 'Both of them are faith claims,' she said. 'It is a claim about a truth that cannot be proven scientifically.'" Daily Northwestern, Sept 23, 2005.

That was the sentence that ended the article. Dr. Sageman, from Earth and Planetary Sciences called me up and asked “Do you know this person!? Can you believe what she said about Evolution?” “I’m going to call her up and find out what she really said!” The overall experience highlighted all too well the common tendency of the Evolution issue to become clouded by emotions and misunderstandings.

Why should Dr. Traina’s statement cause so much concern? It was an issue of logic. As a point of logic, scientists tell people all the time that science never “proves” anything, but that science just has an explanation for the observed facts under the conditions at the time. This point comes from a long discussion about statistics and the probability that someday conditions may change, and no matter how many times Newton dropped the apple it might go up instead of down, but to equate it with faith was a logical fallacy.

The concern was over what philosophers call the nature of knowledge, or epistemology. What constitutes scientific knowledge and what constitutes faith are very different types of knowledge. Scientific knowledge is based on empiricism, interaction with the natural world, and objective measurements. Scientific knowledge is as materialistic as it gets. “Faith” on the other hand, is the result of spiritual communion and requires no material evidence. Faith is the antithesis of materialism. Some describe it as grace. To equate “Evolution” with a “faith claim” is logically incorrect. While it may not be possible to “prove” Evolution, it is certainly possible to test it, which is all scientists ever claim they can do.

But good things came of this. Dr. Sageman did call Dr. Traina. It turns out what she said was something very different and they had a perfectly amicable phone call. The end result is that now a group of faculty from the sciences, engineering, and religion has been having lunch together approximately every month since the fall of 2005. During those lunches we discuss things we have read, everything from Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion to William James’ The Variety of Religious Experience. We also talk about how to better teach the sometimes challenging topic of Evolution. The topic provides an unparalleled opportunity to encourage critical thinking, to understand the differences between scientific and non-scientific modes of thought, and most importantly, to learn about approaches to the teaching of material that students may find controversial. This is where those of us who teach Evolution and religion find we have common issues and sharing these challenges helps us to be better teachers.

As our discussions unfolded in parallel with the trial over the teaching of religion in science classrooms in Dover, Pennsylvania, the members of our group asked how we could best make a contribution to the NU community and beyond. The desire was to make a positive contribution to the discussion of religion and science, and to help educate the community about Evolution. The idea developed to submit a proposal to sponsor a One Book One Northwestern project during the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. We specifically chose not to take the obvious track of mounting a debate between someone in favor of Evolution and someone in favor of Intelligent Design. Such debates tend to fail both sides of this issue as they emphasize the divisions between people rather than bring them together. Instead we decided to focus on critical thinking. On behalf of the committee I pose the following questions to you now:

• Why do you think the subjects of Evolution and religion are repeatedly framed in public debate in either/or terms?
• Is there something to be gained politically or culturally by phrasing the question in such divisive terms?
• How can the relationship between science and religion be discussed in a more constructive manner?

Please think about these questions. I will post them on the One Book Discussion Board later today. The questions ask you to consider both the technical side of the issue - what is science and what constitutes good science, as well as the theological side of the issue and they represent the level of thinking to which you should aspire while you are at Northwestern University.

The One Book Committee has organized a series of lectures to provide more information about the science and history of Evolution. There are resources available for fireside programs in residence halls on the public website, and many faculty members have developed classes around the theme of this year’s book “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin." We are very fortunate that David Quammen, the author of the book, will be speaking on campus on February 5th. All of these events are designed to encourage you to hold discussions of the issues - scientific, historical, philosophical, and theological. We have a group of upper division students, the Darwin Scholars, who are available to help facilitate discussions in residence halls and colleges with the goal of modeling the process of respectful disagreement and encouraging productive dialogue about sensitive topics. We encourage you to hold these discussions in person, but we will keep the BlackBoard site open until the end of February, at least, so you can continue to express yourself there.

As your voyage begins, what should you as young Darwins be prepared to do?

Pay attention to the evidence,

look for new meaning in what you see,

be respectful of others,

write down the details,

and join in the conversation.

Thank you.