Darwin's birthday, Hollywood style

At 12:01 A.M. on February 12, 2006, Center for Inquiry-West Executive Director James Underdown began reading page one of the Origin of Species at the CFI in Hollywood. Eighteen and a half hours (and sixty readers) later, actress/writer Julia Sweeney read the final pages of Charles Darwin's conclusion to a crowd of eighty cheering supporters of science.

Since Darwin's Theory of Evolution has been under such attack over the past few years, the CFI-West staff wanted to make a statement on a scale befitting the revolutionary nineteenth-century scientist. So Chief Operating Officer Bob Ladendorf came up with the idea to read the whole book ... aloud.

Invitations went out to dozens of writers, scientists, and performers. The response was immediate and overwhelming. When word spread that the Center was looking for people to read Darwin, the morning and afternoon reading slots were gobbled up in short order. Ann Druyan and Ed Begley Jr. sent their regrets, but many well-respected names were able to participate.

Authors who read included M.G. Lord, Aimee Bender, Judith Freeman, and Margaret Wertheim. We saw screenwriter Robin Swicord (Memoirs of a Geisha) and TV writers Mike Reiss (The Simpsons), Alan Katz (M*A*S*H), and Jay Kogen (Fraser). Academy Award nominee Robert Forster read, as did film directors David Twohy, Stephen Vittoria, and Jonathan Lynn.

Distinguished professors and scientists on hand included Leo Braudy of USC, Joe Manson of UCLA, Alan Harris of the Space Science Institute, and David Pieri of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The festivities celebrating Darwin's 197th birthday included cake, food, music, and a diaper-clad spider monkey. Well over a hundred people attended the nineteen-hour event.

The Center for Inquiry thanks all who attended, with special gratitude to all the readers--famous or not--who took the time to read from the Origin of Species.

James Underdown is Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry/West.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning