Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer

For weeks before our event in September of 2009, outspoken evolutionary biology students and an atheist student group, both egged on by militant off-campus bloggers, had threatened to disrupt the screening. Members of the biology faculty pledged to come, so that well before the official start time a large crowd had gathered. The museum and the geology department, not wanting to complicate matters in their own minds by watching the film first, decided to launch a preemptive first strike by issuing a disclaimer and scheduling an official lecture designed to rebut the film. In the disclaimer the museum stated that, given its public funding, it had no choice but to rent the auditorium to groups irrespective of their “religious beliefs” or “scientific literacy.” The disclaimer further noted that the Sam Noble Science Museum did “not support unscientific views masquerading as science, such as those of the Discovery Institute.” The museum flyer also announced the lecture of one of their curators, a paleontologist from the university, and mocked the topic of the film—the Cambrian “explosion”—with carefully placed scare quotes. The lecture’s start time of 5:00 P.M. also ensured a confluence afterward of the audience made upset by the lecture and the more friendly audience coming to see the film.