Creationism on Trial: Evolution and God at Little Rock (Studies in Religion and Culture) [Paperback]

Langdon Gilkey (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813918545 | ISBN-13: 978-0813918549 | Publication Date: January 1, 1998 | Edition: 1st University Press of Virginia pbk. ed

Creationism on Trial is Gilkey's blow-by-blow account of his experiences as a witness for the ACLU at the 1981 creationist trial in Little Rock, AR.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This fascinating work documents theologian Gilkey's participation as an expert witness in the 1981 trial over the constitutionality of the Arkansas law requiring that creation science be taught alongside evolution in the public schools. As a theologian, Gilkey argued that creationism is religion, not science, and therefore inappropriate to a science curriculum. As an account of the trial, the book is lively reading; more important, it is also a penetrating analysis of both the religious and the scientific case against creationism. Always erudite but never pedantic, Gilkey presents his ideas so lucidly that someone with the merest smattering of knowledge can follow them. Anyone who is concerned about the religious and scientific issues involved in the creationist controversy should read this book. D. Stephen Rockwood, Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Md.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press; 1st University Press of Virginia pbk. ed edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813918545
• ISBN-13: 978-0813918549
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intensely personal and erudite, yet highly readable, September 1, 2000

By 

Michael Buratovich (Spring Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creationism on Trial: Evolution and God at Little Rock (Studies in Religion and Culture) (Paperback)

Creationism on Trial is but one of the many books by the highly acclaimed and superarticulate theologian Langdon Gilkey. In this book, Gilkey recounts his participation in the Arkansas "balanced treatment" case. The first part of the book reads almost like a novel as Gilkey playfully and skillfully tells his story of how the ACLU contacted him, and how he eventually came to be one of the major witnesses for the plaintiff in the 1982 McLean vs. The Arkansas Board of Education trial that struck down the 1981 action of the Arkansas legislature, Act 590. Act 590 required science educators to teach biological and physical origins from two different perspectives: From a purely scientific point of view and from a recent creationist point of view. Gilkey states that upon reading the act, he was immediately sure that this act required the teaching of religion in the science classroom, and he then spent his time preparing to articulate why this was the case. The next portions of the book recount his deposition, testimony and cross-examination during the trial, and impressions of the other witnesses for the plaintiff.

The portions of the book that cover Gilkey's deposition and testimony tend to read like a textbook on philosophical theology. Gilkey almost certainly relied on the court transcripts and one must salute his desire for accuracy. Abbreviation and summaries of some of this admittedly complex material would have made the book more readable, as would have interludes that revealed what was rolling around in his highly productive mind.

Of particular interest were Gilkey's impressions of the other witnesses in the Little Rock trial. His description of Michael Ruse and Francisco Ayala were particularly entertaining and lively. However, a major disappointment of this portion was that Gilkey did not see the creationist witnesses and compare them to the witnesses for the ACLU. Gilkey states that he did not stay for their testimony and therefore he was not able to comment on them, which is certainly fair and just. However, his perspective and comparison of the two groups of witnesses would have been worth their weight in gold.

Gilkey's description of the Little Rock trial also provides an interesting perspective relative to the other participants. For example, Michael Ruse's description of the trial in "But Is It Science?" provides a stark contrast to Gilkey's account, since Ruse sees himself as having narrowly escaped defeat during his testimony, while Gilkey sees Ruse as almost playing with the defense attorneys. Another interesting contrast can be found between Gilkey's work and the account in "The Creator in the Courtroom," written by Gilkey's counterpart, Norman Geisler. Geisler was the religion expert retained by the defense, who argued that Act 590 did not establish religion in the science classroom, but was somewhat embarrassed on the stand by his answer to questions about the nature and existence of UFOs. Geisler views Act 590 as being flawed legislation, but not fatally so. Geisler also saw genuine problems in the plaintiff's case, but he certainly did not convince judge Overton, whom Geisler argues, and not without some cause, was biased for the plaintiff. Nevertheless, amongst these other accounts Gilkey's description of the trial stands as one of the most elegantly written and beautifully crafted books on the McLean trial.

Having said all this and in light of the fact that I genuinely enjoyed the book I must offer one concern. Gilkey is a theologian in the liberal tradition and he tends to present a "two-house" view of the relationship between the sciences and religion. Religion, according to Gilkey, attempts of address ultimate questions, whereas science is interested in proximate origins. Therefore, these two fields of study occupy different domains of human inquiry and thought that should not impose on each other. While this view has much to commend it, and while Gilkey's explanation of it was nothing short of both perspicuous and cogent, I find this view a bit unsatisfactory. If, as a Christian, Gilkey believes that God made Himself known to people in a variety of ways, then this means that God has affected the physical world. If Jesus really turned water into wine, we should be able to verify that the liquid in the jugs is really wine and not just water. If God really became man, then we should be able to scientifically verify that the person lame from birth can now walk without help, or the person who could not see from birth can now see. The two-domain view really fails here, since it does not recognize that Christians believe that God has and in many ways continues to affect the physical world. Therefore, while science and religion do live in different houses, they do tend to visit each other from time to time, and they might even make statements about each other that can be challenged on the other's turf.

Despite this reservation, Gilkey remains a brilliant scholar who has written a wonderful and highly readable book.

5.0 out of 5 stars AN INTERESTING PERSPECTIVE FROM A PARTICIPANT IN THE 1981 ARKANAS CREATIONISM TRIAL, July 8, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creationism on Trial: Evolution and God at Little Rock (Studies in Religion and Culture) (Paperback)

Langdon Brown Gilkey (1919-2004) was an American Protestant theologian. He states in the Preface to this 1985 book that "This volume represents an account of my experiences as a 'theological' witness for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at the 'creationist' trial at Little Rock, Arkansas.... My hope is that it may add to our present self-understanding as a society dedicated in large part BOTH to science and to religion, and it will encourage these two communities---both of whom are in part 'to blame' for this controversy---to spend more of their energy and time seeking to understand each other."

He positively comments on the scientific credentials of those testifying on behalf of the creationist cause: "By any useful descriptive standard of science or of scientists ... these men and women represent the world of science. No remotely comparable list of representative theologians or Biblical scholars supporting creationism could be found."

Upon reading a transcript of a deposition given by famous evangelical apologist Norman Geisler (e.g., Christian Apologetics) detailing Geisler's belief in UFOs and demonic possession, Gilkey "hooted with delight, sprang to the phone," and advised the attorney, "Go after that whole sequence on the UFOs, the Devil, and Reader's Digest as if your life depended on it. When he states on the stand his dependence on that most unimpeachable of all sources of American folk wisdom, his status as an expert will have completely dissolved away!"

One of Gilkey's statements at the trial was, "Repeatedly, they maintain that there are only two models of creation. This is false. There are literally hundreds of different views of creation..."

He notes, however, that the evolutionary scientists testifying proved unable to explain WHY creationism was not "science." Gilkey writes, "It was also plain that the scientific community only endangered itself when it ignored as useless or meaningless the reflective question of what science is, of what the relations of science are to other disciplines and forms of cultural life..."