Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction
by Eugenie C. Scott
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eugenie C. ScottForeword: Niles Eldredge
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-12
ISBN: 0520246500
Number of pages: 298
Publisher: University of California Press
Book Reviews of Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction
Book Review: If a tree falls . . . ?
Summary: 5 Stars
. . . one can only hope someone is listening. Actually, it's a bit depressing to reflect on the number of trees felled in convincing certain people that their notion of divinely granted life is false. We can forgive Scott her use of more paper. She has produced the most effective and comprehensive work on why evolution is our guide to the natural world to date. Her organisation is excellent and presented in a clear, effective prose style. With her objectives so well outlined and stated, Scott offers a useful synopsis of the struggle educators face in dealing with the creationist crisis.
Scott breaks her presentation into a triad of subjects: science and how it works, the multi-pronged counter-attack of creationists on Darwin and other scientists, and what creationist writers say about evolution by natural selection. The opening section is a vivid presentation of scientific methods and the avoidance of dogma. Science, Scott declares, is "truth without certainty". Science is more than a "collection of facts", but it is the analysis of facts to explain the universe we inhabit. Scott shows how science's lack of absolutes results in a cleft the creationists use as an entry point in their attempts to refute science from astronomy to zoology. Their main thrust, however, remains our biological heritage.
In the second part of her book, Scott traces the history of thinking about the universe and life on Earth. She makes clear that "stasis" wasn't the theme adhered to by early thinkers. Variety was in evidence, but poorly understood. The Aristotelian "ideal" became the standard by which life and its processes were considered. Change was obvious and during the Enlightenment the means of bringing it about over time was sought. From "special creation", which many religious adopted as a supernatural mechanism to explain change, to Lamarck, who thought living things changed traits during their lifetime, a means for explaining the evidence was sought. Once Darwin provided the real insight into life's mechanism, confirmed by the fossils and genetic evidence alike, change was seen as essential for life to proceed. Creationists, fearful that natural selection would undermine their view of divine origins, if not of life, then at least of humanity, have challenged evolution on a wide, but constantly shifting, front.
In presenting their case as completely as possible, Scott is forced to reveal that a significant bloc of contenders against "evolution" refused to allow their works to be cited. It's an interesting conflict when the assaulting force suddenly vanishes. Their presence is still made visible by Scott's other sources reviewing their publications. Compounding her task is the reality of "creationism's" almost infinite spectrum of views. They stretch from those accepting Ussher's date origin of the universe six thousand years ago to those accepting all of science's findings from cosmology to human evolution, but who still insist a deity is "the originator of it all". That's a wide range to address, but Scott pairs these expressions with counter findings in nature. The book concludes with a string of creationist writings answered by scientists in appropriate fields.
The book is a fine summation of positions and meets well its subtitle of being "An Introduction" to the issues. Her references are by chapter, always a useful means of focussing on topical entries rather than a general bibliography where you must search for the appropriate entry. There is a fair amount of material on legal decisions and school board pronouncements. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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