Update on Facebook group and campaign

Darwin150 Facebook group update:

As we approach the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" on November 24, we'll start updating the status of the group.

Our goal is 1 million by November 24.

Here are the stats:

- Members: 257,285 (as of 6:24pmET, Sun 11/1)
Help us reach the goal - ask people to join and invite everyone they know. And remember that for the Darwin birthday campaign we got to 200,000 folks in 12 days - with a rapidly accelerating rate as we got very close to the birthday (i.e. in the remaining few days).

- Discussion topics:
     - 139 topics
     - many thousands of posts

- Database of articles
       552 links to articles about Darwin, evolutionary biology and related topics.

- Videos
     - 15 videos uploaded (not including many links to videos in the links database)
     - Links now to videos from the Darwin150 lecture series

- Wall posts
There are something like 10,000+ wall posts but Facebook does not give a way to count the number of wall posts in a group (or we haven't found one).

Thanks for all your support. Let's keep up the effort to reach the goal and make a large cultural statement about the breadth and depth of support for the importance of evolutionary biology.

- Phil Terry

Help!

Creationists continue to mount attacks on our Darwin150 campaign and we need your help.

How can you help?

1. Join our Facebook page (250,000+ members)

Join our Darwin150 group on Facebook and get as many friends, colleagues, faculty, students, church members to join with you. Show we can continue to grow even in the face of their concerted illegal attacks.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123 

2. Organize a group to watch a live webcast

Organize a group viewing of an upcoming live webcast either with scientist Sean Carroll, E.O. Wilson or the New York Academy of Sciences. Let's bring the words of these top scientists out to groups all over the world. This is a free and wonderful resource.

Register free here:

Wednesday, Nov 3 @8pm ET with Sean Carroll (great writer, scientist and speaker)
http://darwinlecture3.eventbrite.com

Tuesday, Nov 24 @1pm ET with E.O. Wilson (great time for high school and college classrooms to watch together this legendary biologist)
http://darwinlecture4.eventbrite.com

Tuesday, Nov 24 at 6pm ET with New York Academy of Sciences
webcast link coming soon

3. Consider volunteering

We need volunteers to help us build the campaign and continuously manage/clean-up from the creationist attacks. E-mail Phil at pterry at reading odyssey dot com, if you'd like to volunteer.

Why do they attack us?

We know how to reach mainstream Americans through the web and that it is a real threat to the creationist camp. We have more than 250,000 Facebook members making us the largest Darwin/evolution group by far. The size of our group shows the breadth and depth of support for evolution and it means all of our online activities are a target for continuous 24/7 attack by creationists. 

Plus we have free webcasts with some of the top scientists talking about Darwin and evolution. Fun but serious and compelling talks by the likes of Sean Carroll, E.O. Wilson, Jonathan Weiner and others threaten the creationist community. 

Look forward to your help!

Phil 

P.S. Why are we going public now with the attacks? We have been under daily 24/7 attack since we began in January 2009 with a Darwin birthday celebration. But the small group of extreme creationists that attack us have stepped up their efforts as we get closer to the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species."

P.P.S. Why don't we detail the attacks? We don't want to help more creationists attack us by giving ideas out. Our all-volunteer campaign just keeps working and striving to stay positive and focused on what's important (and btw - we do *not* condone nor want illegal counter-attacks on creationist websites).

National Geographic covers Darwin150 campaign

national geographicNational Geographic just wrote an article about the Darwin150 campaign "Darwin Devotees Make 'Father of Evolution' Facebook Superstar!"

You can see their positive write-up here. Among other things, it really underscores what an incredible volunteer effort the Darwin Facebook Group has become.

Who would've thought a just-for-kicks Facebook campaign to wish Darwin a Happy Birthday would turn into a quarter of a million people within the general public showing support for Darwin and science, and even starting a multi-part lecture series with some of the most prominent scientists in the world?