Kenneth R. Miller @ KSU

Tomorrow (Thursday)at 7:00 p.m. Dr. Kenneth R. Miller will be giving a lecture at Kansas State University. The lecture, which is sponsored by K-State's Center for Understanding Origins, will focus on evolution and the "Intelligent Design" movement.

For the past 12 years, Dr. Miller has been on the front lines of the conflict between religion and evolution. In his 1999 book Finding Darwin's God, Miller (who is a devout Roman Catholic) made a compelling case for the idea that religious faith and scientific materialism can co-exist. Since then, he has been one of the most public voices speaking out in support of evolution, appearing on numerous programs and in countless places (including an appearance on Comedy Central's popular The Colbert Report). As the Brown Alumni Magazine put it in 2005:

Miller has become one of evolution's most visible defenders. Newsrooms call him up whenever a school board tries to undermine the teaching of evolution. When President Bush remarked in August (2005) that public schools should teach intelligent design along with evolution "so that people can understand what the debate is about," within hours NewsNight with Aaron Brown and The O'Reilly Factor had asked Miller to comment live on the president's statement. Today, as well as shows on ABC and NPR, were next in line. In addition, his best-selling high school biology textbook has been the focus of a federal court case in which a judge ordered the board of education of Georgia's second-largest school district to remove the creationist-inspired stickers they'd inserted in the book. Six months later, after the New York Times published an op-ed by Cardinal Christoph Schšnborn that seemed to challenge previous Vatican statements that evolution is compatible with Catholic doctrine, Miller, a practicing Roman Catholic, joined prominent scientists Lawrence Krauss and Francisco Ayala in publicly asking the Pope to clarify the Church's stance on evolution and to continue Pope John Paul II's legacy of support for science. And this fall (2005) Miller was the first witness in a high-profile Pennsylvania court case filed to prevent the Dover school board from requiring the in-class reading of a statement casting doubt on evolution's validity.

That landmark court case, Kitzmiller v. Dover, not only ruled that it was unconstitutional to require the reading of the Intelligent Design friendly statement, but also opined that Intelligent Design should not qualify as science, and therefor has no business in high school science classrooms.

Last year, Miller publish Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, which specifically attacks the Intelligent Design movement and examines the danger that it poses to both science and society. (Coincidentally, that book begins with Dr. Miller reflecting on a trip several years ago to give a lecture at K-State.)

In February, Dr. Miller was presented with the 2008 Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of "his sustained efforts and excellence in communicating evolutionary science." (NCSE)

Miller, along with Joseph Levine, is the author of one of the most popular high school biology textbooks in the United States. I have mentioned Dr. Miller a couple of times previously (here and here).