Product Description
How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable. In the book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, a group of experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine explain the fundamental methods of science, document the overwhelming evidence in support of biological evolution, and evaluate the alternative perspectives offered by advocates of various kinds of creationism, including "intelligent design." The book explores the many fascinating inquiries being pursued that put the science of evolution to work in preventing and treating human disease, developing new agricultural products, and fostering industrial innovations. The book also presents the scientific and legal reasons for not teaching creationist ideas in public school science classes. Mindful of school board battles and recent court decisions, Science, Evolution, and Creationism shows that science and religion should be viewed as different ways of understanding the world rather than as frameworks that are in conflict with each other and that the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. For educators, students, teachers, community leaders, legislators, policy makers, and parents who seek to understand the basis of evolutionary science, this publication will be an essential resource.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 15 reviews)

Sadly biased

This book has regrettably the stamp of officialdom while on one hand propagating unreservedly one side of a real controversy about science, and on the other hand trying to pacify the wide religious community with a contrived dismissal of any conflict between it and the scientific contentions.

The actual controversy is mainly about part of Darwinian evolution, though the book paints opponents with the broad brush of creationist antievolution. It does make distinctions among opponents, but all are depicted as religion-based anti-scientists.

The concerned part of evolution is its mechanism. The book unquestioningly accepts it to be undirected: "the biological changes that provide the raw material for evolution are not directed toward predetermined, specific goals" (p.50). They are not? This is the fundamental mistake of Darwinian evolution, the allegation that the adaptation of organisms results from changes in them not directed toward any goals. The exact opposite is true. The activities in organisms are glaringly known to persistently be directed toward specific goals, namely self-preservation and corresponding adaptation.

Despite its shortness, the book abounds in other faulty platitudes heard from Darwinists, and I shall endeavor to list some.

The book purports to give "the reasons why only scientifically based explanations should be included in public school science courses" (p.xi) and "why nonscientific alternatives to evolution such as creationism (including intelligent design creationism) should not be part of the science curriculum" (p.xii). "Creationism" connotes various beliefs in a creator of the universe, but irrespective of these beliefs the issue is science. "Intelligent design (creationism)" in particular lays claim to science, and in view of the above major error of replacing goal-directedness with its opposite, the question is how good a science is Darwinism.

"Intelligent design" proponents are said to (p.40) "argue that certain biological structures are so complex that they could not have evolved through the process of undirected mutation and natural selection". Omitted is that it is the biological functions of those structures that are claimed to require the complexity. By the above, again, the undirected process is false already, with no other argument needed. The book nonetheless continues that biologists have shown how the systems "could have arisen through natural processes" and illustrates (p.41) how, e.g., the human eye could have evolved from those of other species. The argument is that evolution requires gradual mutation, with each stage serving some function. "Intelligent design" missed, however, another counterargument. It isn't enough to show that such as the eye could without a needed component have a function in another species. The whole organism must in that absence of the component be taken into account, since assumed to otherwise remain whole. And it is evident without further searches that the organism then fails to function as required.

Another issue concerning science is its method. The book lumps together all scientific findings as "theories". For instance, it likens Darwinian evolution to "the theory of gravitation" (p.11). Newton's remark that he feigns no hypotheses suggests the difference between the two methods. His conclusion of universal gravitation and its inverse-square law was not a hypothesis but a generalization based on repeated observations, in a long-recognized inference from the particular to the general, contrasted with inference from the general to the particular in logic. Instead, elevated recently is the method of hypothesizing (hence "theory") an explanation for observed occurrences, and if the hypothesis appears to lead to those occurrences, it is to some measure accepted. A rough comparison of the two methods is: in the first is repeatedly observed that A leads to B, and in the second is found that a hypothesized A leads to B.

The second is of course exemplified by Darwinian evolution, where its hypothesized random mutation and natural selection appear to lead to adaptation, and the hypothesis is accepted correspondingly. I should note again the inconclusiveness due to a fallacy. If A leads to B, it doesn't follow that B leads to A. The fallacy is absent in the generalization, where A is observed rather than hypothesized.

September 03, 2008

Nothing New Here...Same Ambiguous Language Renamed as Evidence!

It is very unfortunate that the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies are even mentioned on this book as if the explanations contents of this book had been conclusive or validated scientifically. What an embarrassment to the science community of the United States. This book offers nothing new nor does it offer anything but the use of rehashed ambiguous language creatively to give the illusion of substance while void of a plausible process. As it is within a totalitarian system of government, no competing system of thought is debated or even considered because they fear the freedom that allows people to make up their own minds after being confronted with the hard scientific evidence. Save your money on this one.
September 01, 2008

Looking to explain the fundamentals of evolution as well as the arguments of creationism

How did life come to be on this planet? This question is discussed at length by "Science, Evolution, and Creationism". Looking to explain the fundamentals of evolution as well as the arguments of creationism, "Science, Evolution and Creationism" is a wide reaching look at all perspectives on the subject. Highly recommended for community library religion and science collections.

August 17, 2008

Pope JP II Advocates Evolution in School

This book took almost all of the headache out of trying to teach evolution to an ultra-Christian audience. I simply let parents and students read quotes from religious leaders and scientists alike who found no contradiction between religion and science, and the tension eased immediately. They all learned how relgion and science can coexist peacefully in their hearts and minds.

Downside: The binding busted the first time I opened the book. I had our librarian spiral-bind it for me.
August 04, 2008

A Brief, But Richly, Illustrated Guide Explaining Why Evolution Is Science and Creationism Isn't

"Science, Evolution and Creationism", published jointly by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, does an admirable job in explaining succinctly why evolution is science and creationism isn't. In less than 70 pages, it summarizes the key evidence on behalf of biological evolution, and dismisses the claims of creationists, including Intelligent Design advocates, noting correctly that their dissent is religiously, not scientifically, based. It does not assume scientific knowledge of the reader, especially of biology, since important concepts like speciation are defined briefly outside of the main text. Those responsible for this well-illustrated book were part of a joint National Academy of Sciences - Institute of Medicine committee consisting of fifteen biologists, geologists, secondary school science teachers, a philosopher of science and an astrophysicist. Notable members of this committee included its chairman, University of California, Irvine evolutionary geneticist Francisco Ayala, University of Arizona ecologist Nancy Moran, evolutionary geneticist Michael Clegg (Ayala's colleague at the University of California, Irvine), Michigan State University philosopher of science Robert Pennock, University of Michigan professor of internal medicine and public health Gilbert S. Omenn, Washington University plant geneticist Barbara Schaal, Missouri Botanical Garden director and Washington University botanist Peter H. Raven, University of San Francisco biochemist - and former National Academy of Sciences president - Bruce Alberts, and Hayden Planetarium (American Museum of Natural History) director Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Comprised of four succinct chapters, "Science, Evolution and Creationism" wastes no time in defending the scientific validity of evolution, while also emphasizing that both science and religion are mutually compatible, still important, means of viewing our world. Chapter One "Evolution and the Nature of Science" summarizes the major evidence supporting biological evolution and the nature of science itself. It also includes a well-reasoned explanation why science doesn't need to be incompatible with religious belief, quoting statements from major American religious leaders and religiously devout scientists like Brown University cell biologist Kenneth R. Miller. Chapter Two "The Evidence for Biological Evolution" opens with a brief discussion on the origin of the universe and the age of the Earth. Then it summarizes the extensive evidence that exists in support of evolution, including not just biogeography, homology and paleontology, but also recent molecular data from research in molecular systematics and evolutionary developmental biology (Hox genes). Chapter Three "Creationist Prospectives" discusses the major varieties of creationism, giving special emphasis to Intelligent Design creationism and its key concepts like "Irreducible Complexity", while also offering terse, but well-reasoned, explanations as to why they are not scientific and why they should not be taught in science classrooms alongside valid science like biological evolution. Chapter Four "Conclusion" is a terse, one page explanation why we need to be taught valid science like evolutionary biology, and it is followed immediately by a Frequently Asked Questions section devoted to questions on evolution and whether "alternatives" to evolution like Intelligent Design creationism should be taught in science classrooms. A short, but excellent, bibliography is also provided as suggested additional reading, featuring books written by the likes of noted evolutionary biologists such as Ernst Mayr and Stephen Jay Gould, and religiously devout scientists such as biologists Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller.

July 22, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
by Neil Shubin

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters
by Donald R. Prothero
by Carl Buell

Scientists Confront Creationism: Intelligent Design and Beyond
by Andrew J. Petto, Laurie R. Godfrey

Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA
by Daniel J. Fairbanks

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul
by Kenneth R. Miller