Book Discussion: Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species by Means of Nat. Sel.

In this year of remembering Charles Darwin and his publication of On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, I'd like to invite others to join me in a book discussion about that book.

We already had Manuel's booked for Saturday, the 25th at 7PM, so we'll have the discussion there instead of trying to hold it somewhere else earlier in the day. Sorry if this throws a wrinkle in your plans.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT SINGLE TAB PER TABLE
Our group has grown so large that it's making it difficult for Manuel's to keep individual tabs, so please be accomodating and allow Rebecca (she usually serves us) to do a single tab-per-table to make things faster for them and for us. Just keep track of what you ordered and split it up by individual credit card or cash at 10.

I'm sorry if this seems like an inconvenience to you, but I want us to be considerate of Manuel's. It's already great enough that we don't have to pay a fee just to reserve the entire room.

I appreciate everyone's cooperation and understanding in this

Agenda
7 - 8: Dinner, Drinks, Socializing
8 - 10: Open discussion on the book

Reading / Listening Materials
I plan to use the free LibriVox audio book to listen to the book. It's 24 hours in length. I'm budgeting about 30 minutes a day for the next two+ months to get through it.

LibriVox Audio version:
http://librivox.org/t...

You can read the entire thing from the Project Gutenberg edition here:
http://www.gutenberg....

Of course, you can buy or borrow a copy if you like too.

Questions to Keep in Mind as You Read

- What surprises you about Darwin's writings and his viewpoints?
- Assuming you have not read this book before, how did it change your view of him?
- How do you see the relevance of his writings from 150 years ago reflected in today's scientific world, and in the culture at large?
- Based on your reading, do you see any misinterpretations of Darwin in our world today?

More about the book from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.o...

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in scientific literature and a landmark work in evolutionary biology.[1] The book's full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In the 6th edition of 1872 the title was changed to The Origin of Species.[2] It introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. Darwin's book contains a wealth of evidence that the diversity of life arose through a branching pattern of evolution and common descent – evidence which he had accumulated on the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s and expanded through research, correspondence, and experiments after his return.[3]

The book is readable even for the non-specialist and attracted widespread interest on publication. The book was controversial because it contradicted religious ideas that underlay the 19th century theories of biology, and it generated much discussion on scientific, philosophical, and religious grounds. The scientific theory of evolution has continued to evolve since Darwin's contributions, but natural selection remains the most widely accepted scientific model of speciation. Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, political and religious challenges to the theory of evolution continue to this day in some countries.