OU continued its yearlong celebration of Charles Darwin Thursday night with a lecture from Michael Ruse, philosopher and historian of science.
Ruse is widely known for his book, “Darwinian Revolution,” and his four decades of devotion to the subject. Ruse’s work suggests while much of the content of evolutionary biology has moved on significantly since Darwin’s time, natural selection still holds true 150 years after Darwin’s original suggestion of it, said Piers Hale, history of science professor.
Ruse compared Darwin’s theory in “On the Origin of Species” to the modern theory of evolution during the lecture Thursday night in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. He said he looks at the structure of Darwin’s theory and various parts of biology, like genetics, to form his opinions on the subject.
Although the theory is over a century old, Ruse said the structure of the theory has stayed the same.
He said the foundations for modern and traditional Darwinism theories are in the clues like basic instincts, fossils, geographical distribution, homology and embryology.
The discovery of the DNA double helix had the largest impact on the theory, because it helped fuel the genetics part of the theory, Ruse said.
“The evolution theory would have stood still for 150 years if people weren’t continuously questioning it and looking for more answers,” he said. “Even though the original pieces of the theory have completely changed, it is all so obviously Darwin’s theory. His genius is still with us, which is why it’s even worth celebrating today.”
The theory has changed with time, but common misconceptions haven’t, he said. Ruse said a common misconception of Darwin’s original theory is that some see “On the Origin of Species” as a series of arguments, but it was one argument from beginning to end. Darwin very skillfully put together the piece of work,” Ruse said. “It is all part of his genius.”
Ruse used analogies and anecdotes to help the audience better understand the theory.
“I never lost interest in what he was saying,” said Katherine Ryan, environmental science sophomore. “He had a good sense of humor and told stories to relate the old theory to how the world sees evolution now.”
Ruse’s lecture was the fourth lecture in the Presidential Dream Course series to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his book, “On the Origin of Species.”
Ruse will join intelligent design proponent William Dembski to debate the scientific merit of intelligent design at 8 p.m. in Catlett Music Center.
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JJanowiak 3 years, 2 months ago
This is a fine article, but the term "Darwinist" is nowadays more a dumb insult used by creationists rather than something scientists would think of themselves as. Even Darwinism doesn't really describe modern evolutionary theory, just the ideas circa Darwin's time. It would have been more accurate to describe Ruse as a scientist, because someone who accepts evolutionary theory as valid is simply pro-scientific method and doesn't need any extra labels.