For more than 20 years, Southern Adventist University’s Biology Department has been hosting an Origins Weekend each January.  The event was created as a way to further educate students on alternative viewpoints to evolution. Stephen Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture (CSC), will be the speaker for this year’s event, January 22-23.

Meyer is a founder both of the intelligent design movement and of the CSC, intelligent design’s primary intellectual and sci­entific headquarters. He is a Cambridge University-trained philosopher of science and the author of peer-reviewed articles in journals representing a variety of fields. This visit to Southern if funded as part of the E.O. Grundset Endowed Lecture Series.

Rick Norskov, professor in the Biology Department, believes the information students learn from Meyer could have long-term effects on their ability to defend the Christian worldview in an increasingly secular society.

“I would encourage each and every student to attend because when they leave here they will most likely be around evolutionary thought for the rest of their life,” Norskov said. “In order to remain intellectually honest, they need to learn credible alternative explanations.” 

On January 22, Meyers will present “Darwin’s Doubt” at 7:30 p.m. in Lynn Wood Hall.  He will sign his best seller, Dar­win’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design, after the talk. The January 23 presentation is titled “The Return of the God Hypothesis” and takes place at 11 a.m. in the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists. This lecture challenges popular atheistic beliefs by discussing a series of scientific discoveries.

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information call 423.236.2926 or email Rick Norskov.