This coming Sunday Dr. Julie Wade will conclude her series on the evolution on the brain with more discussion on the evolution of the frontal cortex, modern consciousness and our natural inclination towards religion and spirituality.
Please be warmly welcome to join us for this interesting and exciting discussion.
As ever, loving childcare is provided.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Our brain keeps evolving
Next Sunday Dr. Wade will continue her presentation on the evolution of the human brain. Last Sunday was the cellular anatomy and physiolgy. Upcoming is evolution and functional development. It'll be good as we approach the hard questions. I think we set a record with 56 folks in attendance. Please join us for more.
As ever, loving childcare is provided.
As ever, loving childcare is provided.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The evolution of the human brain: Dr. Julie Wade
This coming Sunday we are very pleased to present Dr. Julie Wade speaking on the Evolution of the human brain. She wrote the following:
"The field of biology was revolutionized by Charles Darwin who helped us understand how living organisms have evolved over millions of years and are still evolving today. His theory of natural selection described descent with modification which was driven by environmental pressures. His work has become the central underlying paradigm in the field because he provided so much data to support his theory. This theory first published in 1859 has yet to be refuted by scientists and has been made even stronger by more recent research involving DNA.
Studies of the evolution of the brain and behavior are difficult because we cannot study either internal soft tissues or behavior using fossils. These studies are based on investigations of contemporary organisms that are closely related to their fossilized ancestors. Fossilized skulls are used to extrapolate brain sizes at a given point in evolutionary time but are relatively hard to find.
In his book “The Accidental Mind—How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God”, neuroscientist DJ Linden does an excellent job of describing the serendipitous evolution of our brains that has given us our humanity. He dismisses the fact that the brain is a paragon of design by describing it as inelegant and inefficient, and he points out that if it were built today by modern engineers, it would look and function very differently from its current design. My presentation will be based on his book which describes how our earliest ancestors have contributed to and laid the foundation for our twenty-first century brains and much of our behavior."
Dr. Julie Wade is a retired Biology Professor and Pre-Professional Health Advisor who taught at Pennsylvania State University (3 yrs) and Milligan College (24 years). She taught a wide variety of courses including comparative anatomy, animal physiology, human anatomy and physiology, cell and molecular biology, endocrinology, histology, and research seminar.
Please join us, Sunday at 9:45. It will be a delightful time. And as usual, excellent and loving childcare is provided.
"The field of biology was revolutionized by Charles Darwin who helped us understand how living organisms have evolved over millions of years and are still evolving today. His theory of natural selection described descent with modification which was driven by environmental pressures. His work has become the central underlying paradigm in the field because he provided so much data to support his theory. This theory first published in 1859 has yet to be refuted by scientists and has been made even stronger by more recent research involving DNA.
Studies of the evolution of the brain and behavior are difficult because we cannot study either internal soft tissues or behavior using fossils. These studies are based on investigations of contemporary organisms that are closely related to their fossilized ancestors. Fossilized skulls are used to extrapolate brain sizes at a given point in evolutionary time but are relatively hard to find.
In his book “The Accidental Mind—How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God”, neuroscientist DJ Linden does an excellent job of describing the serendipitous evolution of our brains that has given us our humanity. He dismisses the fact that the brain is a paragon of design by describing it as inelegant and inefficient, and he points out that if it were built today by modern engineers, it would look and function very differently from its current design. My presentation will be based on his book which describes how our earliest ancestors have contributed to and laid the foundation for our twenty-first century brains and much of our behavior."
Dr. Julie Wade is a retired Biology Professor and Pre-Professional Health Advisor who taught at Pennsylvania State University (3 yrs) and Milligan College (24 years). She taught a wide variety of courses including comparative anatomy, animal physiology, human anatomy and physiology, cell and molecular biology, endocrinology, histology, and research seminar.
Please join us, Sunday at 9:45. It will be a delightful time. And as usual, excellent and loving childcare is provided.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Atheism Tapes with Denys Turner
Jonathan Miller, one of the brightest minds of our time, together with BBC created a series of six interviews in 2004 that aired under the title of "The Atheism Tapes." The interviews were compiled from material left over from Miller's 2003 series entitled, "A Rough History of Disbelief."
All of the "Atheism Tapes" interviews were conducted with well-known atheists, except for the one with Denys Turner, Chair of Theology at Cambridge, and that's the one we will view and discuss this coming Sunday.
The Turner interview begins on the point of "why is there something instead of nothing," but along the way it reels across atheistic fundamentalism and dips into questions that are genuinely appropriate to ask and disingenuously wise avoid. At times the point of the conversation vanishes maddeningly into the thin ethereal air of philosophical obscurity, but in the end, it lands squarely and satisfyingly in pragmatic reality. It is a difficult conversation to follow, but it utimately resolves at a point happily within our reach. If you'd like a preview, click here.
This'll be good. I promise.
Please join us at 9:45. We'll be delighted to see you. And remember, wonderful childcare is provided.
All of the "Atheism Tapes" interviews were conducted with well-known atheists, except for the one with Denys Turner, Chair of Theology at Cambridge, and that's the one we will view and discuss this coming Sunday.
The Turner interview begins on the point of "why is there something instead of nothing," but along the way it reels across atheistic fundamentalism and dips into questions that are genuinely appropriate to ask and disingenuously wise avoid. At times the point of the conversation vanishes maddeningly into the thin ethereal air of philosophical obscurity, but in the end, it lands squarely and satisfyingly in pragmatic reality. It is a difficult conversation to follow, but it utimately resolves at a point happily within our reach. If you'd like a preview, click here.
This'll be good. I promise.
Please join us at 9:45. We'll be delighted to see you. And remember, wonderful childcare is provided.
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