Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul Kindle Edition

by Kenneth R. Miller (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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ISBN-13: 978-0670018833

ISBN-10: 067001883X

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A highly regarded scientist’s examination of the battle between evolution and intelligent design, and its implications for how science is practiced in America.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

" Demolishes the assertions of advocates of Intelligent Design."
-The Baltimore Sun

" A grass-roots defense of good science education . . . a useful overview of a perilous political attack on the nature of science."
-P. Z. Myers, Nature

" Powerfully argued . . . Miller's perspective as a devout believer will allow his case to resonate with believers and non-believers alike."
-Francis Collins, Director, the Human Genome Project --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. His research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 50 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL, Nature, and Scientific American. Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of four different high school and college biology textbooks which are used by millions of students nationwide. He has received 5 major teaching awards. In 2007 he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Exploratorium's Outstanding Educator Award. He lectures widely and has appeared on NPR’s Science Friday and The Colbert Report. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0015DWKXG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (June 12, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 12, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2276 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 268 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 067001883X
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,210,442 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #487 in Creationism
- #757 in Science Reference
- #958 in Religious Studies - Science & Religion

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Ernie Vilela

Excellent resource to understand Intelligent Design and Evolution

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2019

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Miller beautifully explains Intelligent Design, and evidence that supports Evolution as a theory. He masterfully fleshes out both concepts, and helps you determine which of both concepts can be critically and empirically tested as the best explanation for the diversity of life in the natural world. This book is a must read for any person interesting in Biology.

2 people found this helpful

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Laird Taylor

If I were to recommend one popular book on evolution and creationism

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2015

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If I were to recommend one popular book on evolution and creationism, this would be it. It is NOT just another critique of creationism and intelligent design (although it is very effective in this regard) but also offers a wider motivational analysis of the anti-evolutionists. The critique itself tends to be more technical than most, emphasizing DNA evidence.

For example, some of the most convincing evidence is demonstrated by the genetic flaws of evolution. Although most mammals can synthesize Vitamin C, humans cannot and this is a clear disadvantage. Do we lack the gene for it? NO. We possess the GLO gene but it has been corrupted by mutations and no longer performs its task. Moreover, the gene is similarly corrupted in our closest relatives among the other primates! Intelligent design??

Similar evidence is given in that humans have only 23 pairs of chromosomes whereas other primates have 24. And evidence of the awkward fusion of two pairs is shown to be very obvious.

Echoing Daniel Dennett concerning Darwin and evolution, Miller wickedly comments “If I had to give a prize for the best idea that anyone in the antievolution movement has ever had, I’d award it to whomever came up with the term “intelligent design.”” He points out this term effectively masks what has historically been a religious appeal; moreover, it appeals to our hopes for purpose and meaning.

But Miller makes a real effort to understand and sympathize with opponents. “Evolution strikes at the heart of who and what we are… Does evolution mean that we are nothing more than beasts?” Unfortunately, “it’s simply not a scientific question.” p 135

So, could we simply give in and dispose of evolution? No. “evolution is … the glue that binds the biological sciences together.” p 195

Miller sees a connection of intelligent design with post-modern critiques of the sciences, although the former is associated politically with the right, and the latter with the left. As Alan Bloom did in The Closing of the American Mind, he interprets the relativism of postmodernism as a fundamental attack on science and “the power of reason to seek truth.” Not so far from the aims of “intelligent design.”

One quibble. IMHO the “quote” from St. Augustine on p 160-161is just too good to be true, too reminiscent of Darwin’s last sentence in The Origin of Species. Moreover, the reference to Only Six Numbers by Martin Rees ( p 103 in my edition NOT p 115 as cited) is a dead-end as Rees gives no reference. Couldn’t find it anywhere. If you find it, please comment.

7 people found this helpful

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B. C. Goode

Absolutely Brilliant!

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2010

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Having read Dr. Kenneth Miller's wonderful book "Finding Darwin's God", I had high expectations for this book---and I was not in the least disappointed! I have already decided to purchase copies for my 3 sons, just as I did of "Finding Darwin's God". Having studied biology at MIT, and having taught college-level biology for 30 years, I found "Only a Theory" wonderfully interesting reading. It describes the intellectual/spiritual battle between "intelligent design" and evolution, reveals the weaknesses in ID's theory of "irreducible complexity", clearly presents irrefutable chromosomal/genetic evidence linking gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans to a common ancestor, and so much more! Dr. Miller's well-chosen examples and clearly-written explanations make it possible for anyone to understand the overwhelming evidence for Evolution, and yet he leaves open the possibility of faith.

5 people found this helpful

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A New Testament to Evolution

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2009

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If you are looking for a book that explains the theory of evolution thoroughly and debunks each and every argument of intelligent design, this is the book you should read. Author and Professor of Biology at Brown, Kenneth Miller writes with passion about science, writes in the vernacular and in a style that is engaging to the reader.

He first provides a background of science and how it was so compatible with the independence of the United States. With the old European social order discarded and an American one yet to be defined, Americans felt the freedom to explore and discover the mysteries of science as well as their frontiers. Science provided the basis for achievement based on individual creativity and industry, and Americans provided scientific discovery decade after decade.

A competing phenomenon is the faith of Americans that he describes in a Harris poll of 2005 where most believe in evolution when asked if plants and animals evolved. It was all the more striking when people responded negatively to evolution when asked if humans evolved the same way. Sixty-two percent of the respondents disavowed evolution, leaving the United States with the highest percentage of non-believers in the industrialized world with the exception of Turkey. The Harris poll is the kind of reaction Charles Darwin expected when he wrote, "The Origin of the Species," which might explain why human development is not described anywhere in the book. Only at the insistence of a friend did he put those thoughts to publication years later.

Professor Miller comes from a long list of distinguished scientists who felt that their work and results spoke for themselves. They refused to get in the political debate over intelligent design, leaving the Discovery Institute to champion I. D. not through observation and evidence in the laboratory but by making a full court press in the legislature and with school boards.

The actions of the Kansas school board in 1999 where they introduced intelligent design, and again in 2005 where they attempted to redefine science, plus the trial in Dover, PA. prompted him to write this book and challenge the Discovery Institute and I. D. head on. The Washington based institute created a strategy that came to be known as the wedge document. It was a political strategy for not just competing with the theory of evolution but eventually suppressing it and supplanting it with intelligent design in the classroom. Their proponents used relativism as their tactic. All truth is relative, and is based upon what one believes.

This is where Professor Miller's passionate writing goes into overdrive. In clear, non-scientific language he tells the reader about the Cambrian period in which there was an explosion of organisms that evolved in the millions of species that exist today. Vertebrate embryos in fish, frog, chick, and mouse bear a striking resemblance in structure that was uncovered through the science of molecular genetics. Skeletal bones bear a striking resemblance between fish, bird, or human proving Darwin's theory that animals branched out into different species where many withered on the vine of extinction while other branches survived, changing constantly to keep up with an ever-evolving environment. The development of the eye, long a contention of the I. D. faithful, or so-called proof of a designer's complexity showed how the law of optics was driven by natural selection. Kenneth Miller also takes on Martin Behe's contention of "irreducible complexity" just as he did at the trial in PA showing how such organisms could adapt and change with the loss of one or more of their component parts. As designers have advocated, enzymes are highly specific, and cannot adapt or change because of the chemical compounds they process. This was debunked with nylon, whose compounds remain. Bacteria in these ponds of nylonase did exactly that; they evolved and fed off the nylon waste with perfect adaptation. One commentator was kind enough to write me, "I guess we just have to wait around a few million years, eh [for proof of macroevolution]. And meanwhile just accept those are true based on -- faith...." Actually, no we won't, and we have more than just faith. "We already know enough about the mechanisms of evolutionary change to account for the large-scale changes that produce genuine novelty," according to the author.

Kenneth Miller brings his full weight of knowledge and intellect against intelligent design. Adaptation of light sensitive cells (for eye development) is proven. Evolution is only a theory? No, it's fact. Intelligent design in blood clotting is disproved. But his strongest argument against intelligent design as a science is its complacency that some things cannot be explained and as such should be attributed to an intelligent interventionist that cannot be explored, or should just be accepted as a supernatural phenomenon. To Miller, this is not a science but a dead end that brings discovery of medicine, naturalism, and who we are and where we came from to a dead end. Miller adds, if so many animals were intelligently designed, how come so many became extinct? Good question! But he admits that the greatest critics of evolution are scientists themselves. The "greatest hoax perpetrated on mankind in the past 150 years" according to Ann Coulter, Darwin's theory has been tested millions of times over in order to be proven wrong.

The central fear of proponents of I. D. is that humans have no purpose, structure, conscience, or higher calling if they are the same as any other creature on earth. This Miller opposes sharply with an explanation that is almost spiritual. The human being could never be recreated in its present form if we returned to the Cambrian period millions of years ago and started over again. It was developed through the perfect timing of weather, fate, replication, and adaptation that made it what it is today, the most survivable organism on earth. Therefore, it has a purpose to guard its atmosphere and protect other species from their destruction by keeping the earth with all its atoms, compounds, and cycles in harmony with a fragile environment that is man's to save or destroy alone. He quotes from the "Desiderata":

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

This book is a testament to the purpose of man, and a new testament to evolution.

Also recommended:

Coulter, Ann, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," Regnery Press, 2006. This book is a must read that contains about five chapters on evolution, and reveals how Ann Coulter got it all wrong through misinformation and disinformation. Compare her work with this one. Just make sure you get it from the library.

Humes, Edward, "Monkey Girl: Education, Religion and the Battle for America's Soul," Ecco Publishing, 2007.

Reviews by "Gen. J.C. Christian, patriot." A number of them are relevant, very tongue-in-cheek, well-written, and very witty.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

D. Thoenes

"Only a Theory", a crusade against dangerous ignorance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2011

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This is an excellent book, written with strong emotion and a good feeling for literature. It is about a problem that is rather typical for America, and that I, as a European scientist, was hardly aware of. It is about the battle between modern scientists and a movement of people that does not "believe" Darwin's evolution theory. Apparently, these people have a powerful lobby in the US, that does not shun all kind of unethical methods to forward their belief and to undermine the progress of science. From a scientific point of view, this belief is quite ridiculous. What was "only a theory" in Darwin's time around a century and a half ago, is now the basis of modern biology. Of course, there is a vast body of scientific knowledge that not only confirms Darwin's theory, but which has developed it to a large scientific structure. Miller's book may appear to be about a kind of interesting folklore, but it is much more than that. It is about a batlle of the ignorant against science in general, that has been raging in the Western world since Galilei in the sixteenth century. Miller demonstrates that America has known a great scientific tradition, that has furthered the development of modern technology, which acquired unprecedented heights. Of course, modern life leans to a large extent on modern technology. Think of the power of medical science and technology, the application of physics and chemistry in practically all industries which made technical acquisitions available to nearly everyone. This applies to the whole western world, but for a long time America had been leading in many areas of technology. This was possible thanks to the typical entrepeneural mind of the Americans. The movement against Darwin is actually a movement against science and modern technology in general. And this movement has been active in Europe as well, as was seen, e.g., in the opposition to genetic engineering and nuclear energy and "chemistry" in general in recent times. Miller gave his book the subtitle "Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul". It is a warning against the dangers of ignorance and against policies that are based on unsound ideas in general. This warning is worded very convincingly in Miller's book. It is written in a style that will capture every reader's attention. An excellent book!
Dick Thoenes
The Hague
The Netherlands

2 people found this helpful

Nita

Good until the point when he starts comparing evolution with ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2017

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Good until the point when he starts comparing evolution with market economy, arguing that spontaneously evolved is always better than planned. This simply is not true, as evidenced by the 2008 financial crisis.

P. McAleer

Smackdown on Creationism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2017

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Very accessible and enjoyable read. Includes specific detailed examples of evolutionary processes and rebuts misinformation from Creationists.

Baz the Pedant

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2015

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Not in the same league as Jerry Coyne, but OK.

Mr C. Walker

Five Stars