Kirk Cameron and his friends will be handing out 50,000 up to 200,000 free copies of Darwin's Origin of the Species on Thursday, November 19th at the top 50 100 universities in the US. I'm assuming that includes UMN. Copies will contain a 50-page introduction by evangelist Ray Comfort (aka banana guy) that contains: "the history of evolution, a timeline for Darwin's life, Adolf Hitler's undeniable connection with the theory, Darwin's racism, his distain for women, and Darwin's thoughts on the existence of God," plus a "balanced view of creationism with information from scientists who actually believe [sic] that God created the universe, such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Bacon, Faraday, Louis Pasteur, and Johann Kepler." The text, however, is supposedly printed in its entirety and various people have recommended just taking the free copy and cutting out the introduction. Woohoo, free history of science book!
I would be curious to hear what happens if these people do show up at UMN. Would any of you consider using this as a teaching tool or is that just inviting confusion? Personally, I think I would be inclined to stick to the historical controversy, but then I'm an early modernist and try to stay away from the 20th century let alone the 21st.
