Customer Reviews

Darwin And Intelligent Design (Facets Series)

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I am grateful for a book on the evolution/ID controversy that is so clearly and understandably written for a general audience. This is a complex subject that often goes over the heads of those without an extensive scientific background. The message presented over and over again is that scientific laws and "theories" are not in conflict with personal religious beliefs. I was particularly taken with the idea that a benevolent and loving God could not be held responsible for the deformities of newborn children or the ravages of disease. This book and those listed in the "Additional Resources" give rational and reasoned approaches to scientific issues as they relate to religious beliefs and vice versa. I, for one, am weary of the fundamentalist drumbeat regarding evolution, stem cell research, global warming, and other hot-button issues. I find peace and comfort in the ideas and arguments outlined in this book: religion and science can not only coexist, but complement each other; religious beliefs should not curtail the pursuit of scientific explanations for the natural world; acceptance of scientific laws and theories need not exclude belief in God and the richness of religion. This makes common sense to me.

The well thought out arguments and logical way of looking at things should bring comfort to those who are religious and irreligious alike. I am half way through the book and am thoroughly enjoying every bit of it. It is very well written and it is on a short list of books that have changed the way I look at an issue. The basic premise is that religion and science can (and should) co-exist, but that they each occupy separate spheres of thought. Ayala draws a clear line between the roles of science and religion in a way that allows one to believe in both and avoids confusion between what they can and cannot explain. As a non-scientist, I thought this was written at just the right level.

As an aside, I was dumbfounded at some of the negative reviews, but if you bother to check (I did), some of these guys write negative reviews about lots and lots of science related books - not just this one. Don't be turned off, this is a great book dealing with a controversial subject. You will enjoy reading it.

Judging from the modest length of this book (a little over a hundred pages) and from the clear, straightforward prose, and from the fact that it is part of the Facets series of the Fortress Press, I would say that the purpose is to inform public opinion at the most elementary level. Since the Fortress Press is "the ministry of publishing for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America" one can expect a Christian perspective. What is interesting is that that perspective is clearly in acknowledgment of the truth of evolution and the nonscientific nature of Intelligent Design.

The author, Francisco J. Ayala, who is a professor of both biology and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, presents the ideas and arguments in a way that even junior high school students can understand. He is fair and he is unmistakable. He argues that science and religious beliefs need not be in contradiction. He believes that the way to achieve this understanding is to avoid reading the Bible or other religious works in a literal sense, and leave the science to the scientists and the scientific method. This is the position of most educated people that I know of, a position advanced by both religious leaders and scientists. His purpose, as he expresses it in the Prologue, is "to convince" the reader "that we may accept" the scientific evidence for the truth of biological evolution "without denying the existence of God or God's presence in the universe..." (p. vii)

In short this book represents a "middle of the road" position in the evolution versus ID debate. Richard Dawkins, et al., are not going to be convinced that one can believe in a personal God who watches over us while at the same time acknowledging the truth of Darwinian evolution. Similarly, most conservative and evangelical Christians will not be pleased since the text rejects a literal interpretation of the Bible while favoring a seemingly purposeless evolutionary mechanism.

Personally, I greatly favor Ayala's position and approach. I think it is essential that we understand that science need not impinge on matters of faith; and that religion should not pretend to scientific truth. Science is a method for achieving a better understanding of our world and how it works, and as a guide to the development of ways to better manage our environment to our advantage. Religion is a method for guiding us toward an understanding and appreciation of questions that cannot be addressed by science.

Many scientists are religious and have no problems with either mainstream science or their faith. They put their science hats on at work and their faith hats go on at church. Science and religion operate in different realms and don't have to be viewed as incompatible. With the evidence that is available from mainstream science, there's no reason not to believe in evolution. On the other hand, there's nothing in science that proves the existence or lack of existence of God. Science offers no emotional solace to the stricken during the inevitable tragedies of life and death, yet this is where clergy and laity of virtually all churches excell.

That is the basic viewpoint of this very reasonable author, along with millions of Christians who do not feel compelled to take the Bible in a completely literal sense - after all, it is supposed to be about faith.

This book is simply amazing: it is clear, simple and explain the basis of the debate between evolution and creationsm: after reading this book you will understand the differences between belief and science, religion and evolutionism.

"Darwin and Intelligent Design" will describe pretty much nothing new for anyone familiar with biology or who has followed the Intelligent Design controversy over the past two decades. However, there are many who are not in those categories, and for them, this book is exceedingly helpful. It is a very basic overview of evolution and its importance in modern biology, as well as tracing the Intelligent Design movement from its foundations with Paley.

Ayala makes it exceedingly clear how the arguments of the Discovery Institute are merely rehashed from Paley's original watchmaker hypothesis. What is intriguing is the little sidebits- like that it was Paley who first got Darwin interested in the design of life, because Darwin was initially won over by Paley's arguments. How natural selection is actually an answer to the problem of the design argument, a theory specifically designed to answer that argument, 150 years before the Discovery Institute came along to try to bring up old arguments. How natural selection - an idea generally accepted by all Literal Creationists - is Darwin's actual theory, and evolution was something already out there in the ether among biologists before Darwin, the guy Literal Creationists love to hate. Indeed, Darwin always referred to natural selection as "my theory", not evolution.

"Darwin and Intelligent Design" is however more than a biological treatise. It also delves into theology, for, as Ayala points out, ID is not only bad science, but also bad theology. Again, there is nothing new or in-depth for those who have studied evolutionary theology, in writings such as Haught, Edwards, and Falk. But there are some novel turns of phrase here, particularly as Ayala speaks of how evolution actually solves the theodicy problem in Christianity- Christianity without evolution, in light of modern biology, is a nigh impossible religion to take seriously.

This work is definitely a cursory treatment. But contrary to works such as Michael Denton's Evolution: A Theory In Crisis, quoting sources that were outdated by twenty years at the time of publication, to start a new anti-evolution movement- "Darwin and Intelligent Design" is rather astonishingly up-to-date in its research, quoting sources from even a few months prior to publication. This is not a place to take the next step in in-depth research into the the ID Controversy. But if you have been wondering what all this Intelligent Design fuss is about, and confused on what evolution is, this is a very suitable place to begin.

On page 105 the author writes, "Michael West, editor-in-chief, Fortress Press...asked me to consider crafting a short book for intelligent lay persons, explaining the role and status of evolutionary theory...and how that contrasts with the assertions and status of the intelligent design proponents."

Had the author complied with this request, this book might have been useful.

Instead, the author devotes most of the book to outlining evolutionary theory at the junior-high level, shorn of all nuance, ambiguity, and the deep controversies among evolutionists themselves (see, for example, Margulis, "Acquiring Genomes," or Gee, "In Search of Deep Time").

Although the author takes several potshots at the ID movement during the first five chapters of his book, he does not address "ID" directly until chapter 6; there he devotes less than 20 pages to something which he refers to as "Intelligent Design," but which he nevertheless entirely misunderstands and conflates with folk creationism.

The field of "Intelligent Design" covers a lot of ground, and there are many folks who fancy themselves as proponents of the theory; still, a distinguished scholar such as Ayala ought to be able to pick his opponents carefully enough to avoid the chaff. When the author does mention the name of an actual scholar such as Dembski or Behe, he wrongly attributes to them views they do not hold while wrongly chiding them for denying facts which, of course, they do accept. Many ID scholars accept, for example, descent with modification, and they deny that all biological diversity must be the result of intelligent activity as opposed to random. This sort of sloppy "attack scholarship" from someone such as Ayala is most disturbing, considering the stakes in this issue for public education.

Interestingly, the two times in the book (pp. 82-83) that Ayala addresses actual items of concern for Intelligent Design scholars, Ayala simply dismisses the flagellum issue with a wave of his hand, and then goes on to reference a second-hand source on Russell F. Doolittle (both Ayala and his second-hand source seem to be unaware that Dr. Doolittle--yes, that is his real name--had misread a scholarly report on blood-clotting).

As a result, in a book of 116 pages, Ayala does not give the readers even one example in which an actual item of concern for Intelligent Design scholars has been adequately addressed by any evolutionist in the entire world. The only thing Ayala does is poison the well of debate on this issue, and cause ID sympathizers to suspect that Ayala, deep down, knows that he has no answer to the claims of ID scholars.

This is by far one of the worst books on ID that I have ever read (and I have read most of them). On page 83 Francisco Ayala quoted Judge Jones. The Judge lifted the quote from the ACLU brief. The only problem is the quote is not accurate, as can easily be determined by reading the court transcript. This is a good example how incorrect information gets spread around. It was irresponsible for the ACLU, Judge Jones and Francisco Ayala not to check the original source. One always checks the original source, if possible, and in this case the court transcript is on the internet and would take a few seconds, yet none of these people bothered to do so. The original quote is in the Michael Behe transcript, afternoon session, October 19, 2005. This is only one of dozens of sloppy journalism examples that I noted in this short book. I once respected Francisco Ayala's work, but this book has caused me to seriously question all of his work. I know he had a bad experience as a Catholic Priest, but this is no excuse for his obvious ax to grind that resulted in this irresponsible work. All I can say is ID advocates will have a field day with this embarrassing book. It has a nice cover, though, but for SEM scans I do not like the artificial color technique used.

I agree with the two other reviewers. This book is terrible. Ayala quotes approvingly of Judge Jones' claim that "irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large" Oh really? Has gravity also been refuted? Ayala quotes Behe as defining irreducible complexity as a system that requires two or more parts to function, and if one of those parts is removed the system will no longer function. A clear example is carbon. A carbon 12 atom (not an ion) must have 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons to function as a carbon 12 atom. If it loses a proton, it becomes an ion of boron 11, and will not function as a carbon 12 atom. There is no way you will ever get any carbon isotope with 5 protons. You must have 6 protons. The only things in the universe that are not irreducibly complex are the fundamental particles (quarks, leptons, bosons etc, and even these particles may not be fundamental). To claim that nothing is irreducibly complex says one can get anything and everything from a single fundamental particle. I would like to see a Jaguar made from a single quark. Or better yet a human. True, as Dawkins says, I am arguing from ignorance, because it may be possible, but I really think if I applied for a grant to achieve these goals I would be flat out rejected. This book is full of such claims. I have to face students every day that have little respect for scientists because of such reasonings.