"{T]he leaders of the Intelligent Design movement, as we shall see, are so incredibly dishonest that they could cause a veteran heroin addict to blush - not out of any moral objection on the part of the addict, but rather out of embarassment that anyone could be do damned bad at lying." (Kindle Edition, loc. 40)
Brown and Austin's book, "Flock of Dodos" is a crass and mocking work of rhetoric against creationism and intelligent design. Anyone wanting a scholarly and measured discourse should look elsewhere (there are scores of good anti-ID books at the scholarly level). Anyone wanting a smoking hot and comedic look at lunacy, this is the place for you!
The book starts off making fun of the most easy to make fun of: the "scientific" creationists like Ken Ham and Henry Morris (oddly, Kent "Dr. Dino" Hovind is not mentioned. Maybe its because he is in jail.) Our authors make fun of their (as always) futile attempts to find, much less explain the possibility of, Noah's arc, their ignorance of any type of science, and their explanation of last resort - "then, a miracle happened."
Next, we go onto another crew, that of intelligent design. These guys are a bit harder to make fun of - they are creationists who wear ties and speak like scientists. That, of course, doesn't keep our authors from trying their dangdest. This chapter is a more funny and condensed version of Forrest and Gross's "Creationism's Trojan Horse," where the ID crowd is rightly accused of double speak. When talking to scientists (rather, yelling to get their attention), they speak of "irreducible complexity." When talking to Christians (as they do constantly!), they speak of Jesus.
The next several chapters are a humorous but forceful critique of the dangers that creationism in any form poses to science and culture. If a strange brand of Christians can force the courts to demand that a view be taught because it is more friendly to scripture (this has not happened yet), there is no telling what the next move would be. And if Christians can force the courts to decide what is and is not science, then science ceases to be indepenendent.
The authors conclude that "[r]ather than a new and exciting theory, the Intelligent Design movement is nothing less than an attempted coup by which a contingent of Constantne's hopes to overthrow the legitimacy of the Enlightenment." (loc. 1011)
If this sounds like an extreme judgment, bordering on caricaturization, that is because - at least to my eyes - it is. Other reviewers have complained that this book is just an empty work of biting and alarmist rhetoric. Okay. It is certainly no worse that Ann Coulter's "Godless," let alone Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," both of which were gobbled up by the ID crowd in droves.
Rhetoric and humor can be good. It is sometimes fun to laugh at people that deserve to be mocked. This book is proof. (Now, we just need to find that pesky proof of evolution...)
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