I gave two talks yesterday. The first was at a luncheon for ASUâs chapter of Sigma Xi. A small crowd of largely retired scientists and engineers heard me give the same talk I gave in Norman last week. Naturally, given the comparative size of the audience (400+ versus 16) the dynamic was different and Iâm not sure folks really got what I was saying.
I spent the early evening at Science Cafe over at the Arizona Science Center discussing "Evolution and Faith Revisited: Can the two be reconciled?" After presenting a brief set of talking points (which I had hoped the audience would pick up on), and having a colleague who is a philosopher of religion do the same, the floor was opened up for 30 minutes of questions which unfortunately largely ignored what I had been saying and concentrated instead on (what I felt to be) tangential points addressed to my colleague. A somewhat unsatisfying experience overall.
Next up is a conference here at ASU discussing âUnchallengeable Orthodoxy in Academia and Scienceâ where Iâll be discussing creationism. At least that is a month off.