(Posted March 12, 2001)

Kenneth Miller, a cell biologist from Brown University and author of "Finding Darwin's God," will lecture on evolution, religion and science at 7:30 p.m. March 27 at Alumni Hall in the Brumbaugh Science Center on the Juniata College campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture is sponsored by the J. Omar Good speaker fund.

Miller will discuss his theory of how God has played a role in evolution. Miller's argument, outlined in his 1999 book, says that the theory of evolution presented by Charles Darwin is correct, but there is not an absence of God in the evolutionary process. He theorizes that evolution "would have given the Creator exactly what He was looking for -- a creature who, like us, could know Him and love Him, could perceive the heavens and dream of the stars, a creature who would eventually discover the extraordinary process of evolution that filled His earth with so much life."

"Kenneth Miller maintains that it is perfectly permissible to use the mind to confront the data of biology and relate it to the faith," says Margaret Towne, J. Omar Good Distinguished Professor of Evangelical Christianity at Juniata, who specializes in science and religion. "He says that using the data of biology from the perspective of science or theology is not threatening to faith. Miller's talk will show how God reveals insight through science and relate those perspectives to our faith."

Miller is a cell biologist who has done cutting-edge research on cell membrane structure and function. He joined the faculty at Brown University in Providence, R.I. in 1980 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and became full professor in 1986. He started his career as a lecturer at Harvard University from 1974 to 1976, and served as an assistant professor from 1976 to 1980.

He earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1970 from Brown University. He earned his doctoral degree in biology from the University of Colorado in 1974,

Miller is co-author of three high school and college biology textbooks and has received five major teaching awards.

This event is the second of two lectures in science and religion sponsored by the J. Omar Good Fund at Juniata College.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.