On Café Scientifique's "Understanding Darwin"

Yesterday I got to attend a small event by Café Scientifique (I didn't even know this existed) at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street: a conference over Skype with a biologist from the University College London, about Darwin and evolution. I was intimidated at first because it was full of old-ish people and I don't know shit about science, but there were free chocolate glazed Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee.

It turned out that the event was co-hosted by the Filipino Freethinkers, which made me excited a little, since I've been following them on the Internet. They recently held a forum within the Ateneo campus, though I'm really too allergic to congregations to even consider attending any of these things, and I've been pretty passive about my atheism lately anyway. (I'm probably more of what they would call an "apatheist.")

Back to the event, the hosts passed around pieces of paper for everyone to write questions to ask the speaker, though I preferred to just listen, while half the time expecting something that would cause the talk to degenerate into an evolution vs. creationism debate. I'm happy that it didn't, and everyone's questions allowed a lot of science to be covered, though it's apparent that evolution remains a touchy subject.

I'm not sure about the extent to which Darwin's work is properly represented in the country, but I suppose it's a little saddening that something as educational as this had to be put up by a bunch of volunteers, or a gathering of atheists and agnostics (as if science was a matter of belief against disbelief), instead of a school or university or something. Okay, so it was affiliated with the Mind Museum, "the Philippines' pioneering world-class science museum," but this thing doesn't even exist yet!

Anyhow, it was a pretty fun talk, and I'm happy to have learned about Café Scientifique and the other related parties involved in this event. I wouldn't mind getting off my ass and attending another one in the future.