Science Denial: What Causes it, and What Can Be Done About It?

Location

UCLA Anderson Business School

110 Westwood Plaza - Entrepreneur's Hall - Room C - 106-A

Los Angeles, CA 90095

USA

Cost

Alumni

free

Science Denial:
What Causes it, and What
Can Be Done About It?

Professor Ken Miller '70 
Professor of Biology
Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence 

Public opinion in the world’s leading scientific nation continues to demonstrate a surprising unwillingness to embrace the scientific consensus on issues affecting the wellbeing and prosperity of the country and the world. While it might seem logical to attribute the prevalence of anti-science attitudes to religious dogma or factual unawareness, the roots of this problem go far deeper, and relate to popular perceptions of science and scientists. I will consider multiple aspects of science denial, and suggest how the scientific enterprise and science education need to change to reclaim the cultural high ground in American society.

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Ken Miller '70 is Professor of Biology and Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence. After graduating from Brown, he earned a Ph. D in 1974 at the University of Colorado. He then spent six years as Assistant Professor at Harvard before returning to Brown in 1980. He is life sciences advisor to The News Hour on PBS and coauthor of the nation's leading high school biology textbook. In addition to his research work in cell biology, he has written extensively on evolution, and in 2005 he served as lead witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial on evolution and intelligent design. His books include Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution (2009) and Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul (2008). His most recent book, The Human Instinct: How we evolved to have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will (2018).

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