Geneticist Daniel Fairbanks starts his lectures on Charles Darwin's life with a hunk of clay.
As he speaks of Darwin's birth on February 12, 1809, in England, he makes a life-size bust of the father of evolution.
The art of simultaneously lecturing and sculpting is a Fairbanks family tradition. Fairbanks' grandfather, Avard, talked about President Abraham Lincoln, and his father, Justin, lectured on Moses, while they sculpted.
"It brings art and science together," Fairbanks said.
This month, Fairbanks is giving his presentation across the nation, including at Yale University, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's most famous book, The Origin of Species , on the theory of evolution through natural selection.
About 60 people attended Fairbanks' 90-minute lecture Sunday at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Salt Lake City.
Fairbanks is associate dean in the College of Science and Health at Utah Valley University and taught for 20 years at Brigham Young University. St. Mark's invited him to speak about Darwin after he sat on a panel on religion and science at the church in May, a panel that sparked a heated debate, said Bill Bynum, the church's library committee chairman.
The committee, which organized the event, figured it was a good idea to continue the conversation, he said.
As Fairbanks used tools to shape Darwin's face, he told the crowd about Darwin's father, Robert, a well-respected doctor who wanted his son to study medicine.
However, when Darwin started college, "he realized quickly medicine was not for him," Fairbanks said.
Darwin then studied to become an Anglican priest at the University of Cambridge.
He later got "an opportunity of a lifetime" to be a naturalist on the HMS Beagle, which toured the world for five years. During that time, he sent plant and animal specimens back to England.
Darwin eventually married Emma Wedgwood, his first cousin, and they had several children. His son, who had his name, died as a baby. He stopped going to church when his 10-year-old daughter Annie fell ill and died.
Darwin "didn't relish controversy," out of respect for his family, Fairbanks said.
When his origins book was published, it "instantly became popular" and sold out the first day it went on sale. Darwin's theory was perceived as a threat to religion, and the controversy "has existed ever since," Fairbanks said.
Richard Warren, a Mormon who lives in Salt Lake City, went to the lecture because he was "fascinated to see how a BYU professor would treat this subject." He was pleased with Fairbanks' two-sided, professional approach.
"I was just mesmerized," he said of Fairbanks' sculpting and talking.
Carolyn Ershler, a St. Mark's member and Darwin supporter, said the lecture was informative, interesting and entertaining. She continues to believe religion and science can go together.
"Nothing in science has ever convinced me there's no God," she said.
