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Denyse O'Leary

By Design Or By Chance?: The Growing Controversy On The Origins Of Life In The Universe Paperback – June 9, 2004

by Denyse O'Leary (Author)

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O'Leary provides by far the broadast overview yet of the ID movement. she quotes ID leaders such as Phillip Johnson, William Dembski and Michael Behe. she also quotes their sternest critics, including Richard Dawkins, Stephen J. Gould and Michael Ruse. She writes about the Wedge movement, DNA, the age of the Earth, the search for extraterrestrial life, the teaching of ID in schools, and the monarch butterfly. She anticipates the culmination of the ID revolution by writing that Darwinism "was part of our folklore." Yet the evolutionary tales she relates are still widely taught as fact in many schools. This well organized guidebook of O'Leary's journey through the world of Intelligent Design has the potential to lead many of the next generation away from the evolutionary fables that now pass for science. Her book is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the history and significance of the Intelligent Design movement. It also belongs in college and even high school classrooms. Forrest M. Mims III, U.S. science journalist Denyse O'Leary has been a freelance writer since 1971. She specializes in science news of interest to faith communities for such publications as Christianity Today, Faith Today, and the Christian Times. She is the author of several titles including Faith@Science: Why Science Needs Faith in the Twenty-First Century, and it the Faith and Science columnist for ChristianWeek. She has written for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and trade jounals, including the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, and Canadian Living.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Castle Quay
Publication date

June 9, 2004
Dimensions

5.51 x 0.79 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1894860039
ISBN-13

978-1894860031
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Denyse O'Leary is a journalist who writes on topics related to science, religion, and faith. She is the author of several titles including Faith and Science: Why Science Needs Faith in the TwentyFirst Century. The faith and science columnist for ChristianWeek, O'Leary has also contributed articles for Christianity Today, Faith Today, and Christian Times.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Castle Quay; First Edition (US) First Printing (June 9, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1894860039
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1894860031
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.79 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,370,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,549 in Christian Systematic Theology (Books)
- #1,853 in Science & Religion (Books)
- #4,143 in Evolution (Books)

Customer Reviews:
23 ratings

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Denyse O'Leary

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I am a Toronto-based journalist, author, and blogger. I first became interested in these issues becaue materialist, mechanist interpretations of the universe and life do not make any sense. There must be design behind it all.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

23 global ratings

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Travisimo

Is Darwin going the way of Marx and Freud?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 30, 2004

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In the introduction of her exceptionally researched book, Denyse O'Leary asks this bold question about the fate of Darwin's legacy (see review title). Though the presumption might seem unlikely given that Darwinism is the established theory in both mainstream science and the public school system, she reminds the reader that Darwinism would not be the first casuality of changing paradigms in history (Newton --> Einstein). Given the reaction from the Darwinist camp, I'm not so sure this is going to happen any time soon, but the fierce reactions they have given are perhaps an indication that things aren't so solid in evolutionary theory as most of us were taught!
The journalistic style that Denyse uses is appropriate and useful. I found the numerous side-bars extremely relevant, and the notes at the back of the book contain a wealth of information for additional research. Denyse has no problem laying out the controversy from various points of view - clearly demonstrating the implications of Darwinism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design. The book is both historical and contemporary in nature, which makes it a good introduction for those who want a well-balanced introduction. However, it's clearly thoroughly researched and plenty thought-provoking for those who are already familiar with the concepts.
I was personally a bit confused on the ultimate difference between the "post-Darwinist" and the "theistic evolutionist" positions. Surely in this debate, we have to fully clarify our terms. To me, a theistic evolutionist is someone who believes God set evolution in motion and since then, it has happened naturally. This seems to reduce God's role to that of a "first cause", but no longer active in the universe after the creation event. Denyse seems to call herself a "post-Darwinist", which apparently is someone who believes evolution has occurred, but does not believe Darwinism (natural selection) has explained it. However, she does not elaborate on exactly what alternative would explain it then? Even the Intelligent Design camp seems to have varying viewpoints on what the implication of design really means? Some believe that if there's design, there must be a Designer. Others perhaps believe that design may be more like a law or force which seems to be to be about the same as natural selection? After reading several books on Intelligent Design, I thought I understood the debate fairly well, but after reading this book, I admit I'm a bit muddy on certain viewpoints.
At any rate, I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in Darwinism, Creationism, or Intelligent Design. It will give you a decent history on the issues as well as some contemporary thought on where it is all going...

23 people found this helpful

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JD

Great book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 18, 2013

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This book gives you all the arguments, from all sides, on creation. Where science has been on this subject and where they are going. It is very thought provoking. If you are the kind of person who wants to make up your own mind about creation, this book has a detailed accounting of each argument, giving you the opportunity to choose for yourself what you believe.

One person found this helpful

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CKDexter

O'Leary writes with great clarity, economy and just enough wit

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 31, 2014

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A sweeping review of the people and events that have shaped the evolution / creation debate over the last century and a half. Highly readable and unusual within ID / creationist literature. O'Leary writes with great clarity, economy and just enough wit.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2008

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This represents, to me, an objective view of the controversy and the reactions it spawns. It is thoroughly researched and documented. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in more than the typical emotional reactions on this subject.
Gerry O

6 people found this helpful

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Gail Turner

Burying the real issues in a pile of chaff

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 8, 2005

The question in the title of the book is an important one well worth a serious philosophical and theological analysis in light of modern science. Unfortunately, the reader will have to look elsewhere for that discussion. Ms. O'Leary's book is a rehash of Intelligent Design (ID) propaganda which promotes shoddy science, shallow theology and incompetent journalistic research.
The basic problematic of the book begins in the preface where Ms. O'Leary states: "I began to see clearly that Darwinism is a theory of evolution that explicitly denies design in biology in order to leave God out to of the picture." Although, in the body of the text, she does make some effort to discriminate between the scientific theory of evolution and a philosophy which she, following the ID lead, calls Darwinism, this is so muted that the average reader must be forgiven if they equate the diatribes against Darwinism as an attack on the science of evolution.
The first example of shoddy science shows up in the introduction where a side-bar defines the Big Bang as an explosion. The next page labels a highly improbable event as "impossible" even though it is part of probability that improbable, even highly improbable events can happen. There is the usual ID/creationist confusion of the theory of evolution with theories about the origin of life leading to inappropriate commentary on the Urey-Miller experiments. There is the usual ID/creationist quote-mining of Gould's defence of Punctuated Equilibrium and misrepresentation of what that thesis entails. And this merely scratches the surface.
A shallow theology also runs right through the book. It begins by equating evolution with chance, chance with nature and nature with athiesm. No supporter of modern evolutionary theory would agree that evolution is a matter of chance. Indeed a side-bar on page 172 quotes "arch-villain" Richard Dawkin' statement from Climbing Mount Improbable to the effect that designoid objects are not accidental but the product of a non-random process.
But the more significant theological error is to assume that a deity cannot or will not use natural, random processes to achieve its goals. There is nothing inherently atheistic about chance processes or natural processes. But the ID and creationist movements have convinced millions of sincere believers that there is. The effect of this theological error is that Christian organizations spend millions on combatting the wrong target: setting their sights on the science of evolution itself, rather than on the philosophies of materialism, naturalism and scientism which mistakenly claim to be the logically necessary conclusions of evolution.
Finally, there is the matter of journalism. Here I can offer some kudoes. Ms. O'Leary does a fine job of recounting the social history of Darwin's theory--of how it came to be associated with materialism, and of the key role played by the evolution=atheism propagandists such as Huxley and Mencken, Dawkins and Sagan. Her analysis of the film Inherit the Wind in comparison to the actual event of the Scopes trial is superb. Her brief history of the rise of creationism is also excellent.
But in contrast to these virtues, her recounting of evolution and science is appallingly bad. For example, the only mention of dinosaur-bird transitional forms is Archeoraptor, the hoax which embarrassed National Geographic. There is not a single mention of the dozens of legitimate finds of feathered dinosaur fossils. In this context, such an omission amounts to the very suppression of evidence which she alleges against supporters of evolutionary theory. She has uncritically accepted a perversion of Gould's punctuated equilibrium thesis when correct information is readily available. Twice she quotes, and once alludes to, Gould's comment on lack of transitional fossils, when a simple reading of the primary literature would indicate that Gould was speaking of transitional fossils at the species level, not transitional fossils in general.
One of the most striking features of the book is that it nowhere deals with the actual science of evolution. The focus is rather on the conflicting philosophies that have gathered around the science. Unfortunately, the implication is that the philosophies establish the truth of the science. This is simply not the case, and, ironically, it is a creationist scientist, Kurt Wise, who points this out. Unfortunately, while Ms. O'Leary is willing to accept that a creationist can still do good science, she does not accept the corollary that "Darwinists" can also do good science, in spite of their belief system.
There are many important matters that do need to be discussed in scientific, philosophical and theological circles around design and chance. Now and again Ms. O'Leary touches on them. But the serious weaknesses of this book preclude it as a significant contributor to this important discussion.

104 people found this helpful

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David Olson

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 19, 2015

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good

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Dr. H. A. Jones

Scientific facts marshalled in support of Intelligent Design

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 17, 2010

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By Design or by Chance by Denyse O'Leary, Augsburg Books, Minneapolis, MN, 2004, 352 ff.

Scientific facts marshalled in support of Intelligent Design
By Howard Jones

The author of this book, who describes herself as a journalist working in Toronto, Canada, says she set out on this project with no particular religious viewpoint to present. However, it's very difficult to present this subject objectively. O'Leary admits to being a Christian, so belief in a Creator Designing God is almost a given. Atheists, which I suspect would include a majority of scientists and philosophers, would begin from an assumption of the non-existence of a designing, creating deity and would interpret the data accordingly.

The author leaves us in no doubt that the evidence she presents supports the idea that there is some designing purpose behind the universe. Although the interpretation of the facts is therefore strongly biased, there is still much interesting information here. The book is well written and makes a highly readable case for ID through the agency of the God of western religion. The clarity of presentation is helped by good typographic design with highlighted Boxes and Tables dispersed throughout the text.

O'Leary argues that an eternal universe would dispense with the need for a Creator God, and that without God there would be no basis for morality - though neither conclusion follows from the premise! This does not have to be the God of Christianity, though clearly to create such a structure as the universe would require god-like qualities. The book espouses the cause of so-called `young earth creationism' as advocated by evangelical Christians in North America, of whom O'Leary is apparently one. O'Leary continually brackets Darwin (a troubled agnostic) with Freud and Marx, both of whom were avowed atheists, in order to discredit him. We can see where the book is going from the opening chapter.

Part One sums up the `best arguments' for creation by design and by chance, and includes discussion of the Big Bang and Steady State theories of creation, the Anthropic Principle and the Multiverse models. Michael Behe and, surprisingly, physicist Paul Davies are called in to support design. Part Two is about Darwinian evolution. O'Leary says quite correctly that human existence and relationships cannot be reduced to pre-twentieth century materialist physics, and that even Darwinist biology does not provide all the answers.

The fact that a fern has more genes than we do tells us that the whole answer to human existence is not written in our genes. However, O'Leary states that `Believing in Darwinism is not the same as believing in evolution' - but evolution by the spontaneous emergence of complexity, which is the predominant current theory, does not negate Darwinism. It is also nonsense to suggest that Darwinism is simply a form of atheism. To regard Darwinism (based on experimental observation and reason) as a religion (which is based on the man-made and largely fictional texts of scripture) is quite untenable. Darwin says nothing about the origins of life: he simply presents a mechanism by which it developed, a mechanism that has been verified experimentally countless times over during the past century.

Part Three is devoted to Creationism and Part Four is specifically on Intelligent Design. If you have the religious belief that the God of Christianity created and designed the universe, and that the Earth is 10,000 years old or less (like O'Leary), then no amount of commentary or rational argument on these sections will persuade you otherwise. It reduces to the question of whether you regard the Bible as fact (like O'Leary) or fiction (like an increasing number of enlightened theologians). Eastern mystical belief or even atheism can include a spiritual component in the ways of the world, not necessarily God.

The book ends with a generous Notes section of some 80 pages and a detailed Index.

Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

Evolution as a Religion (Routledge Classics)
Darwin and God
Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith (Philosophy in Action)

One person found this helpful

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