Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny [Hardcover]

Barrett Brown (Author), Jon P. Alston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

What is creationism? Is it science, theology, both, neither? Who's behind it?  And why should you give a damn in the first place? Ex-National Lampooner Barrett Brown and Professor of Sociology Jon P. Alston, Ph.D, answer these questions, and perhaps one of two more, in a superbly unorthodox, serenely offensive and splendidly hilarious look at the forces behind the most talked-about pseudo-theory in modern history.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Flock of Dodos is in the great tradition of debunkers with a sense of humor, from Thomas Paine to Mark Twain." -- Alan Dershowitz

"Jesus Christ and lesbian monkeys in the same book. Brilliant. `Smart' and `funny' in the same book. Genius." -- Cenk Uyger, The Young Turks, Air America Radio

"Simultaneously smart, insightful, and hilarious! Even though refuting creationism is like shooting tiny Noah's Arks in a barrel, Brown and Alston dissect the movement with a wholly unique wit and perspective. The best book I've read in years." -- Bob Cesca, The Huffington Post, Founder, Camp Chaos Entertainment

"Here's the problem with America's born-again wackos: only a gifted comic is capable of describing them, but no one with a sense of humor can stomach being around them. That's why there are so few books like Flock of Dodos. With their painstaking attention to historical detail and amusingly violent writing style, Brown and Alston have given the religious right exactly the righteous, merciless fragging it deserves. I wish I could tie James Dobson down and make him eat every page." -- Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, author of Spanking the Donkey

About the Author

Jon P. Alston is Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. He is the author of seven other books and more than seventy articles and anthology contributions. Barrett Brown has written for several national magazines including National Lampoon, Cracked, Jest, Wired, Playboy and for nerve.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Sterling & Ross, Cambridge House Press; First edition (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978721306
• ISBN-13: 978-0978721305
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #316,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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282 of 286 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very funny, very serious, April 19, 2007

By 

Lee Harrison (Adelaide, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny (Hardcover)

If you want to see an excellent example of how to derail creationist idiocy, read this book. If you don't want to see one, read this book anyway - it will be good for you.

It has become obvious that debates relying on actual science do not work on people like Behe, Dembski, et al - they simply disagree with it, dismiss it, don't like it and prefer to make up their own (highly spurious) version of it. Instead, try the approach taken by the authors of this book:

"This will not be a polite book. Politeness is wasted on the dishonest, who will always take advantage of any well-intended concession, and the leaders of the so-called "Intelligent Design" movement, as we shall see, are so incredibly dishonest that they could cause a veteran heroin addict to blush..."

In six short, visciously funny and easy-to-read chapters, Brown and Alston do to Creationism and the ID movement what Stetson Kennedy did to the Ku Klux Klan (See "Freakonomics" by Levitt and Dubner for an overview of how Kennedy ruined the Klan's reputation by joining them and leaking all of their dumb secret codes and passwords to the writers of a radio show 'Adventures of Superman' - "converting precious knowledge into ammunition for mockery")

Mockery is the key word here, but not the dishonest mockery of the kind so often engaged in by Dembski - 'Flock of Dodo's' has no need to sink to lies since the creationists' own words and ideas are more than enough to beat them with.

The book starts with a quick introduction to the ID folks (the above quotation about politeness (lack of) comes from this chapter) and the man-on-the-street's idea of it as exemplified by William Buckingham, the now infamous ex Dover school board member.

Moving on through Chapter 2, 'A Brief History of Nonsense', we come to chapter 3 - 'Dinosaurs and Exclamation Marks' where the young earth creationists are exposed to the light - Henry Morris, "...disingenuous dumbass,"; Ken Ham, "...just falls back on miracles,"; and others along with a wonderful section on 'Flood Geology'.

Willaim Dembski does a fantastic job of beating himself up in chapter 4 - 'Logos and Lesbianism' (wonderful title...) with a little help from an extended analogy to the song 'Uptown Girl'. Right there alongside him is Michael Behe exposing his own ignorance.

Chapter 5 - 'Constantine vs the Enlightenment' may test how broad minded Christian readers can be - as the authors stated, this is not a polite book. It beats up Christianity by way of Constantine, the Wedge strategy (the full text, so you know that nothing is out of context), the Discovery Institute and more of Behe's fun and games.

With regard to Behe, it was interesting to find myself swearing out loud as I was reading about the mendacity of the man - would you BRAG that your book had been peer reviewed by no less than five reviewers (the usual number is two) if, in fact, there were only four reviewers - three of whom panned the book, forcing you to find a different publisher with lower standards?

Chapter 6 - 'So You've Decided to Take a Stand For Science!' The authors say, "..if you're truly keen on fulfilling your patriotic duty to protect the Nation of the Enlightenment from the Legions of Tomfoolery, then you'd better bone up on the movers and shakers of the anti-evolution movement. To this end, I've prepared the following guide to some of the nation's most misguided medievalists." As you would expect, an overview of the usual suspects then follows.

You should not, however, get the idea that the whole book is simply ridicule and insults. If that were the case, I admit that I would still find the book funny but I wouldn't be giving it four stars. The book earns its rating because the necessary details are there (even if there are not so many as I might like), the facts are there, the arguments and the counter arguments are there. Ridicule is simply the appropriate response!

The assault on science that the creationist/ID movement represents is serious - this book amply demonstrates, however, that their arguments are not.

277 of 287 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What You Get When You Put a Humorist and a Sociologist Together to Write a Book on Creationism, March 21, 2007

By 

Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny (Hardcover)

Let me start by saying that if you believe in Intelligent Design, or Creationism, or if you are a fundamental Christian, skip this review and this book. You will be offended! If, on the other hand you enjoy a good laugh and can laugh at subjects that can hit close to home, keep reading.

With that said, this book takes apart the Intelligent Design movement piece by piece using their own thoughts and words. The authors wrote the book in a humorous style, and in many places it is laugh out loud funny, although it does push the envelope with the jokes. As a very liberal Christian, I was right on the edge of being offended on several occasions. That is the only reason I gave it 4 stars rather than five.

The book begins with a look at the Dover, PA School Board trial and some of the characters involved. And, in the process, poke fun at some of the players. It then moves on to the Scopes Monkey trial, with its staged cast of characters. They describe, briefly, how the Scope's trial came about and what the outcome was, and how that has an effect on the controversy today.

Much of the book, however, is written to debunk the current Intelligent Design and it takes on the likes of William Dembski, Michael Behe and the Discovery Institute. The authors use books printed by Dembski and Behe, as well as documents from the Institute's web site to show what the Intelligent Design movement is about and how they plan to try to integrate our public schools with this material.

Throughout the book the authors are irreverent and funny. They leave no person untouched, (even Bill Clinton gets a jab thrown his way) but the humor regarding Christianity can get a little close to home.

231 of 241 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dodos Bested by Bonabos, March 26, 2007

By 

Carl Flygare (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny (Hardcover)

Laughter really can be the best medicine. If your head throbs after wading through creationist-on-crack buffoonery, or you suffer waves of nausea after exposure to the latest 'Intelligent Design' PR campaign gambit, read "Flock of Dodos." Relief will be immediate and long lasting.

Anyone who wiles away the hours wandering Wal-Mart aisles waiting for the rapture should probably avoid this book - it will raise holy hackles - born again Christians are not the target audience. I was born right the first time, and would really appreciate it if faith-based fanatics would quite insulting my mother, so none of the content was objectionable to me.

Highlights include a ribald deconstruction of 'The Discovery Institute (for the Renewal of Science and Culture),' which never intends to actually discover anything - hardly news to the reality-based community. From the infamous "Wedge Document" to a rag-tag claque of dysfunctional disciples (William Dembski, Michael Behe, Phillip Johnson, Stephen Meyer, and Jonathan Wells - a veritable bestiary of shills, flacks, sycophants, lawyers, unindicted co-conspirators, and Moonies), the anti-enlightenment agenda of the Disco Institute is satirically shredded, with the assistance of an elite troupe of lesbian Bonabo Chimpanzees. On behalf of rationalists everywhere, I would like to personally thank the Bonabo's for their help (design that Billy).

The wholly hilarious hijinks behind Kitzmiller v. Dover, where Team Disco, aided and abetted by an Oxycontin-addled William Buckingham (in the best tradition of Rush Limbaugh), and the Thomas Moore Law Center connived to engineer a spectacular train wreck, are also mercilessly lampooned. After this court decision Intelligent Design's 15 minutes of fame have come and gone, and gone, and gone, and gone, and gone like some perversly inverted Energizer bunny.

Slapstick and shoddy 'scientific creationism,' from the Millerite movement non-events surrounding October 22, 1844, to George McCready Price (failed preacher, delusional author of "Flood Geology"), and latter-day luddites such as John D. Morris and Ken Ham are next on the agenda of absurdaties.

Morris invented the instant-onset Alzheimer's disease necessary to sustain a Young Earth Creationist (YEC) worldview, while Ham's feverish antics, military jargon-laced howls, and lycanthropine facial foliage really do resemble what happens when werewolfs encounter full moons - although in my opinion Ham more closely resembles the dogmatic Dr. Zaius from the original "Planet of the Apes" movie. Note to Ken: quit showing the chimpanzee 'who's your grandfather and grandmother' slides - the resemblance is simply too striking to deny.

"Flock of Dodos" is laugh out loud funny. Highly recommend on every account. Excellent companion books include Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul by Edward Humes or 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman or Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris.