University of New England

UNE neuropsychologist Kilian Garvey to speak on creationist and evolutionary beliefs Oct. 26th

University of New England scholar Kilian Garvey, Ph.D., will speak on "A Neuropsychological Exploration of Creationist and Evolutionary Beliefs," at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 in the St. Francis Room, Ketchum Library, University Campus, Biddeford.

The lecture is sponsored by the UNE New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology. It is free and open to the public.

Background
Garvey, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, explains that more than 75 years after the famous Scopes trial, the battle between evolutionists and creationists continues to rage in the United States.

He asks why is it that the theory of evolution by natural selection, arguably the strongest theory in the history of science, generates so much skepticism and suspicion?  Perhaps science can go some way towards answering this question. In this presentation, Garvey will use a number of psychological and neuroanatomical studies to explore possible reasons for this.

He will suggest that there are at least two neuropsychological attributes that lead some people to form an incomplete assessment of evolutionary theory: (1) a relatively inefficient  interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain due to differences in the corpus callosum, the band of nerve tissue that connects them,  and (2) an overactive sympathetic ('fight or flight') nervous system that results in a false sense of danger. Along the way, he will consider a range of phenomena including right- and left-handedness, right-wing authoritarianism, the tolerance of ambiguity, the need for cognition, the need for cognitive closure, the emotions of fear and disgust as we explore the cognitive styles and motivational needs of creationists.

Kilian Garvey
Kilian Garvey  took his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Toledo. His graduate research focused on the cerebral laterality of episodic, semantic, and false memories. While working on memory he became interested in the cerebral laterality of other kinds of cognitive functioning, specifically extreme political beliefs and the acceptance or rejection of the data supporting biological evolution.

(Press release issued July 17, 2006)