Science and Creationism

"Science deals with the world of nature, the discovery and ordering of the world of facts and their relations, with concepts that have been tested by the facts. What the creationists attempt to do is to measure the facts by their conformity to Genesis, and this is absurd." --Ashley Montagu, Introduction, Science and CreationismThe late Ashley Montagu (1905-99) was a British-American anthropologist who earned his Ph.D. in 1937 from Columbia University. He was also a prolific and popular science writer of over 60 books. He is well known for discrditing the notion of race in the editions of his book, Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942, 6th ed. 1998). His selections of essays for Science and Creationism range from the philosophical to the legal, historical and scientifically technical. The essayists in this collection include such academic luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, and others. The essays highlight the opposite methodology of scientists and creationists.Scientists collect and investigate data and then attempt to formulate explanatory theories. Those theories are always subject to revision or even replacement in the face of new data. They often publish their research in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and their data, hypotheses, and theories are subject to independent verification and replication. Crationists, on the other hand, have an entirely different methodology.They start first from their desired dogma that the Bible must be inerrant, infallible, and then work backwards to the data. They engage in campaigns of propaganda and political lobbying to pass legislation that either censors objectionable scientific theories or mandates "equal time" for "scientific" creationsim whenever objectionable theories are taught in the science curricula of public schools. Their dogma that the Bible is inerrant and infallible is not subject to revision or replacement in the face of disconfirming data, and they neither do any real science nor publish in peer-reviewed science journals. Thus, contrary to their claims, their dogma and their agenda are religious rather than scientific.The essays also refute many creationists' errors. For example, creationists claim that the second law of thermodynamics, the law that says systems run "downhill," proves that biological evolution is impossible. However, as explained in Asimov's essay, "The 'Threat' of Creationism," the second law applies to "closed systems." The earth, however, is an open system inundated by energy from the sun. As the sun runs "downhill," it provides the energy necessary to allow the relatively small subsystem of earth to evolve life in the "uphill" direction. Thus, evolution does not defy the second law because it is not a process running "uphill" in a closed system. Moreover, as far as we know, the only closed system is the universe as a whole.Although this book contains an excellent collection of essays, it lacks a description of the credentials of its contribu

If you're looking for a book boasting big names and eqally big answers to the never-ending debate between rationality and dogma (namely evolution vs creationism), then you have found it. The late Ashley Montagu has assembled a force to be reckoned with in this volume containing 20 essays by some of the biggest names in Science to date. Just to name a few we have: Ken Miller (of _Finding Darwin's God_ fame), Stephen Jay Gould, Isaac Asimov, Laurie Godfrey and the list goes on. The purpose of such an assembly of genius? To refute the largest hoax in history: the movement of the "Scientific" Creationsts. At the time that this volume went to press there was a lot of controversy and heated debate surrounding creationism. Many creationists wanted to get their theory taught alongside evolution in public science classrooms. It is no surprise that this decision was overturned in a district court in 1982. This volume contains the landmark decision by Judge William Overton as well as numerous essays defining science, comparing it to creationism as well as debunking common myths perpetuated by the creationist movement. There are many books available that similarly debunk creationism _The Blind Watchmaker_, _Abusing Science_, _Sciene on Trial_ etc., however this book is a necessary volume in anyone's library as it contains insights from many brilliant minds on all aspects of the debate. It is therefore an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to get an introduction to this topic. For those who are still seeking more, each essay contains an extensive list of references to articles and books that will quench the curiosity of the most academically inclined reader.

This book, along with Douglas Futuyma's SCIENCE ON TRIAL and Richard Dawkins' THE BLIND WATCHMAKER, was one of my first books on creationism and evolution. Overall, I think the book is excellent; however, I found the individual essays to be of varying quality. In my opinion, Ken Miller's essay, "Scientific Creationism versus Evolution: The Mislabeled Debate," is probably the most useful essay in the entire volume. Ken Miller, a Catholic biologist, is arguably the best pro-evolution debater today. (See his recent book, FINDING DARWIN'S GOD.) Also of value were Robert Root-Bernstein's essay on demarcation criteria for distinguishing science from pseudoscience, both of Stephen Jay Gould's chapters, Isaac Asimov's illuminating chapter on the "threat" of creationism, and the text of Federal Judge William Overton's decision in the historic Arkansas case. However, other chapters were lass valuable. In particular, I think Roger Cuffey's bibliographic essay, "Paleontologic Evidence and Organic Evolution," will be worthless to almost everyone except specialists. Similarly, I was also disapppointed by the contributions of Sidney Fox and L. Beverly Halstead; I was left wishing they had each written essays more accessible to laymen. But despite these flaws I think the book is an important one. Creationists, evolutionists, and anyone else interested in the creation/evolution controversy will want to be familiar with this important book.

This collection of essays concerning the scientific method (as it relates to biogenesis, evolution, and Evolutionary Theory) and the religion called "Creation Science" is perhaps the best out of nearly 100 similar books I have read. The essays at the start of the book explain in good detail why evolution is a fact, and why Evolutionary Theory, which describes that fact, is not a fact--- a distinction that few Creationists CHOOSE to understand. One essay discusses why young-Earth Creationists believe what they believe; another explains biogenesis (which is seperate and distinct from evolution--- biogenesis covers how life began, while evolution is the process of changes among that life afterwards); two essays discuss the latests "monkey trials" whereby Creationists attempted to bypass the rules of science and used politics instead to force their religion into public schools. All in all, an EXCELLENT book.