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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive Squashing of Creationism, January 8, 2000
This volume edited by the late Ashley Montagu is a superbly well-rounded collection of essays that expose modern creationism as pure pseudoscience with one foot stuck in religious dogma. The essays range from well written and straightforward refutations of the common creationist arguments to what are perhaps the most interesting contents-- serious examination of what the creationists actually say about themselves. The essay by Robert Root-Bernstein contains extensive citations of creationist literature that demonstrate that creationism has nothing to do with science. For example, despite the creationist claim that what they do is science, Root-Bernstein found this statement by Henry Morris which shows that creationists have have no interest in experimentation or the scientific method, but rather insist that the Bible be used as a science textbook:"The main trouble with catastrophist theories is there is no way to subject them to empirical test...There seems to be no restraint on imagination or speculation when catastrophism is espoused, and this is one reason why it has been in such poor repute for over 100 years. And yet catastrophism, as we have seen, is necessary. It is NOT necessary to speculate, however, since the Biblical record has provided a clear description of the causes, nature, and results of true catastrophism: The Noahic Flood.... We cannot verify it experimentally, of course, any more than any of the various other theories of catastrophism {eg. Velikovsky}, but we need no experimental verification; God has recorded it in His Word, and that should be sufficient." -- Henry Morris, Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science, Craig Press, 1970, p. 30 Other essays discuss the poor theology of creationism, its social context in America and there is even a sadly funny essay by Michael Ruse about his experience in the courtroom in Arkansas in the early 1980's where the creationists had attempted yet another "balanced treatment" law. Ruse shows that the law was scuttled as much by the enormous blunders of the creationists themselves as anything else. Science and Creationism is a wonderfully rich exploration of the issue that covers such a diverse array of topics that both scientist and theologian will find something enlightening. By the way, you might note that one of the Amazon reviewers above confused the book "Science and Creationism" with the book "Scientific Creationism" by creationist Henry Morris (the man who claimed science does not require experiment in the quote above). The clear fact that the reviewer reviewed the wrong book is more ironic in regards to the intellectual bankruptcy of creationism than volumes of text could possibly demonstrate.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Anthology Refuting Creationist Propaganda, May 19, 2000
By A Customer
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.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unlike people, fossils don't lie., December 31, 1996
By A Customer
This is a collection of 21 essays by various scientists, philosophers, historians, theologians, etc., about the relationships between science and creationism. A few of the essays are bad: Sidney W. Fox's essay, on research into the beginnings of life from inanimate material, is far too technical for this volume, and badly written--a fatal combination. And I have no idea what the point of Kenneth E. Boulding's "Toward an Evolutionary Theology" is supposed to be. There are other minor annoyances (mislabeled diagrams, etc.), attributable to the editing, or lack of it.
But most of the essays are very fine, and thought-provoking. It is often pointed out, for example, that by any modern definition of Science, "Creation Science" isn't Science. But George M. Marsden, in "Understanding Fundamentalist Views of Science", argues that creationist thinking is similar to--and has its roots in--Baconian science of the 17th and 18th centuries. (Personally, I think that Francis Bacon would be horrified by the bungling of "Creation Scientists".)
Included in the book is the "Decision of the Court", by Judge William R. Overton, who ruled in 1982 that Arkansas' "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act" was unconstitutional. This is simply a spectacular piece of writing, which should be required reading for anyone on either side of the Creationism/Science debate.
Creationist writers all promote some variation of the statement, "no transitional forms are found in the fossil record". False. In "Paleontologic Evidence and Organic Evolution", Roger J. Cuffey lists *hundreds* of examples of continuous sequences of transitional fossil forms, across species, genera, families, etc., referenced to over a hundred scientific papers. No one who has even glanced at paleontologic literature could make the "no transitional forms" mistake. (Similarly, no one who has read Brent Dalrymple's book, _The Age of the Earth_, could make the "10,000-year-old Earth" mistake.)
This is a great book for anyone interested in the facts, but Creationists will not be interested. As Isaac Asimov writes in "The Threat of Creationism", his contribution to the book, "However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their 'scientific' and 'philosophical' points, they would be helpless and a laughing stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for--or even against--evolution, march in the army of the night with their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason." Amen.
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