John Nichols

This is the Age of Paine

Sunday, April 18
3:30 p.m.

     Tom Paine was 200 years ahead of his time, and he paid a steep price for being a man of vision. Many of the public figures of his day did not accept him, and he was written out of the history of the republic for the better part of a century, comments John Nichols, the political writer for The Nation magazine who has written extensively on Thomas Paine in particular and the founding of the American experiment in general. Yet, it is clear now that Paine was the greatest of the founders. And it is clearer still that his passion, his ideas, and above all, his radicalism remain the most vital characteristics for those who still believe that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again."

     Nichols has argued in his books and essays that the radicalism of the American revolution needs to be renewed, along with our understanding of this country as a rebel state founded in opposition to empire and in embrace of the enlightenment. Of Nichols, Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."

     Nichols has worked as a daily newspaper journalist and magazine writer for 25 years, reporting from more than 25 countries and interviewing every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter. A pioneering political blogger for The Nation, he is the magazine's Washington correspondent. He is also the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. A co-founder of Free Press, he appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, and other broadcast and cable networks. His current book written with Robert W. McChesney is The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.

Co-sponsored by the Thomas Paine Society of Pasadena.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

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John C. Avise

Inside the Human Genome:
The Case for Non-Intelligent Design

Sunday, May 16
4:30 p.m.

     Proponents of intelligent design focus on the many beauties of life, claiming that smooth-working biological traits prove direct creation by a supernatural deity. However, natural selection combined with genetic processes also can produce complex biological systems that usually function well. So both natural selection and intelligent design are consistent with the appearance of biological craftsmanship. Serious biological imperfections, on the other hand, says Prof. John C. Avise, a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of California, Irvine, can be expected of evolutionary processes but they are troublesome to rationalize as overt mistakes by a fallible God.

     How do believers reconcile a loving God with a world of evil and flaws? Can evolution emancipate religion from the shackles of the problem of evil? The blame for biological flaws falls squarely on the shoulders of evolutionary processes, thus relegating religion to its rightful realm - not as a secular interpreter of the biological minutiae of our physical existence but rather as a counselor on grander philosophical issues.

     Avise, who received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, studies animal behavior, ecology and evolution primarily, as well as the relevance of evolutionary and molecular genetics to human affairs, including religion. He has received many academic honors and distinctions, including being elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he has published more than 300 refereed articles in scientific journals and 18 books, including his new one, Inside the Human Genome: The Case for Non-Intelligent Design.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

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