With all the media excitement of the U.S Primaries you might have missed the fact that February saw the 199th annivesray of Darwin's birthday, and throughout the United Sates various groups were holding events for 'Evolution Weekend'

Evolution Weekend was started in 2006 as 'an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science'. One important goal is to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic - to move beyond sound bites. A second critical goal was 'to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith'.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the celebrations is the fact that it was a group of clergy that got the ball rolling. See http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.htm

It has been clear for some time to many Christians and Scientists (especially people who fall into bith camps) that lack of knowledge of each others arguments has put unecessary conflict between science and faith. This growing group of more than 800 clergy aims to reduce the friction by promoting understanding of the principles of Evolution and the evidence for it, and a list of scientists who are willing to anwer clergy questions on this subject has been compiled.

We can hope that this will lead to some progress towards reconciling science and Christian faith, but there are some passionate views on both sides.

Boffin.