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At Issue Series - Creationism vs. Evolution (paperback edition)

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This slim volume contains 11 articles, six by evolutionists, five by creationists.

The creationist articles are atrocious, but they nevertheless represent the best creationism has to offer: (i) an exposition of the idea of "irreducible complexity" by Michael Behe; (ii) an argument by Duane Gish that creationism should be taught in science classrooms because it is just as scientific as evolution; (iii) the argument, here set forth by Ker C. Thomson, that evolution violates the second law of thermodyanmics; (iv) the argument by Dean L. Overman that life could not have originated without supernatural activity; and (v) a bizarre article by Jonathan Wells arguing that evolutionists believe in evolution only because of pure bias in favor of metaphysical naturalism, and that a designer could not, in fact, have created a world much different than the one we see.

The evolutionist articles are generally good: (i) Richard Dawkins discusses the evolution of the eye; (ii) the National Academy of Sciences offers its statement about evolution and the relationship between science and religion; (iii) Robert T. Pennock explains why evolution does not violate the second law of thermodynamics; (iv) Michael Ruse takes a scattershot approach against all sorts of creationist arguments and assertions; (v) David A. Thomas argues that the fossil record supports evolution; and (vi) Kenneth R. Miller explains why he thinks evolution is perfectly consistent with belief in God.

This book does not by any means cover all of the ground there is to cover in the debate (for instance, there are no selections concerning the age of the earth), and not all of the selections are exactly matched against one another in a point-counterpoint fashion (that is, half of a creationist article may be refuted in one evolutionist article, and the other half in a different one), but all in all, this is a decent starting point for new students of the creationism vs. evolution debate.