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Review Summary: An awesome expose of Intelligent Design. |
Date: 2008-12-26 |
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Details: I read this book shortly after rejecting creationism and intelligent design for evolution. Although I had read a number of the works by various ID luminaries, this book definitely put things into perspective. Bottom line is that intelligent design just doesn't cut it and the fact that it is really warmed over creationism doesn't make it any better for them. Forrest and Gross are to be commended for this awesome tome.
I was amused at some of the negative reviews I read here, the IDers are indeed upset. |
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Review Summary: Forrest: The pot calling the kettle black? |
Date: 2008-11-29 |
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Details: There is an overwhelming desire by people in the field to demolish anything not Darwinism.
Are we not to question in science? Is Darwinism really bulletproof like Forrest and others want us to believe?
I thought it profoundly interesting that Richard Dawkins should draft a review for the author. In Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled," you see Dawkins openly suggesting intelligent design is a viable option for the origin of life.
This text from Forrest is disappointing and void of balance. |
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Review Summary: An outstanding book by a key figure in the debate over ID |
Date: 2008-08-17 |
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Details: One author, Barbara Forrest, was one of the key witnesses in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board case. The ID-supporters tried to suppress her testimony, but the judge allowed her to testify, and her testimony was devastating to the ID-side.
Her testimony was basically a summary of the chapters she wrote for this book, so reading the book will help you see for yourself just how damaging her testimony was.
The other author, Paul Gross, provides a couple of chapters about ID's complete failure in science. Gross is a respected biologist, and the explanations he provides are both detailed and very easy to understand, even for laymen. The book is a few years old, so some recently discovered evidence against the ID-ists' arguments isn't included here; but ID arguments themselves haven't progressed at all since this book came out, so the arguments against them that Gross describes are still valid. In fact, some of the arguments that Gross describes were also used during the Kitzmiller trial, again with devastating effect.
This is an excellent book for understanding both the religious motivations behind ID and its shortcomings in science. |
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Review Summary: The Definitive Account On the Aims and History of Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Supporters |
Date: 2008-06-30 |
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Details: The barbarians are at the gates, threatening to destroy all that is noble and just in Western Civilization, especially America's preeminence in science and technology. In his new book "Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul", Brown University cell biologist Kenneth R. Miller contends that we are embarked upon a titanic struggle for America's soul; a desperate intellectual struggle with advocates of Intelligent Design creationism and their sycophantic supporters, who are, indeed, the very barbarians lurking before the gates of reason, seeking to supplant the centuries-old scientific method with their own peculiar, more expansive, "definition" of science, that would represent nothing less than an instant return to the superstition and sorcery of the Dark Ages. How have these advocates for the mendacious intellectual pornography known as Intelligent Design succeeded in gaining the sympathy and support of many Americans? In their exhaustive, extensive overview of the origins and history of Intelligent Design creationism and especially, its infamous "Wedge Strategy" document, philosopher Barbara Forrest and biologist Paul R. Gross have rendered the most authoritative account yet on the Intelligent Design movement, "Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design", and one that deserves to be read by a broad readership, if only to emphasize the political, cultural, as well as scientific, dangers to American - and indeed, all of Western - Civilization which this movement poses. While Forrest and Gross don't answer directly my question - one that is also an underlying theme of Miller's book - their superb scholarly account suggests some possible reasons for this sympathy and support.
"Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design" is noteworthy for these reasons. Forrest and Gross do an admirable job "dissecting" the "Wedge" document, discussing its scientific "interest" in the context of its underlying political and cultural values. They also provide an extensive examination of leading Intelligent Design advocates Michael Behe and William Dembski's reluctance to publish their "work" in long-established mainstream scientific venues, most notably in peer-reviewed scientific journals, demonstrating instead an utter contempt for longstanding scientific practice. Moreover, despite claims to the contrary, they also observe how, especially in Dembski's case, these advocates do not shy away from the Christian religious implications of their "work" on Intelligent Design. Forrest and Gross also document a compelling history of lies and other obfuscations practiced by Intelligent Design advocates like biologist Paul Chien's "examination" of the so-called "Cambrian Explosion", as well as a well-documented trail of extensive ties between the Discovery Institute - Intelligent Design's "think tank" - and various Fundamentalist Protestant Christian groups, again casting doubt on the claims of Intelligent Design advocates that their "theory" is a genuine scientific alternative to evolution that lacks any religious connotations, period. Much to their ample credit, Forrest and Gross ask whether Intelligent Design is truly a valid, superior, alternative to contemporary evolutionary theory in explaining the history of life on Planet Earth; not surprisingly, the answer is a resounding "No". There is of course extensive discussion on the political battles waged by Intelligent Design advocates towards injecting Intelligent Design into American science classrooms, including a new closing chapter devoted to the 2005 Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial (in which Barbara Forrest's testimony on behalf of the plaintiffs proved to be most important) and some other, more recent developments. Anyone who reads "Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design" should be impressed by the extensive scope of the Discovery Institute's crypto-Fascist agenda as defined within its "Wedge" document, and the substantial commitment that it has still towards seeing its agenda become an important part of American culture, and thus, ultimately, of all of Western Civilization too; truly theirs is a clarion call in defense of reason and the scientific method which should not fall upon deaf ears at all.
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Review Summary: Connecting the Dots. |
Date: 2008-04-07 |
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Details: Undoubtedly, this is a book that needed to be writen. In Creationism's Trojan Horse (CTH) Forrest and Gross attempt to show readers, via many angles, that Intelligent Design should not be allowed (and actively is not allowed) into the world of science. They do this not only by exposing the flawed, and woefully "mistake"-laden, works of those like Michael Behe and William Demski, but also by linking just about all major proponents of Intelligent Design to evangelical christian missions. If a person was only allowed to read one book to state the case against ID, this should be it.
The first chapters focus on the 'science' of the whole thing. One chapter, for instance, is devoted to Intelligent Design's very strange claim that the Cambrian Explosion should be causing a major problem to evoltionists. How can all of these forms just suddenly appear out of nowhere, the ID theorists ask? To ask this of course is to woefully misunderstand what is meant by "explosion." These forms did not suddenly appear, that is, unless by "suddenly" we mean over millions of years! Evolutionists have known this for quite some time, but it is news to the ID crea. And what about the absence of pre-Cambrian fossils? Not quite true, of course (and this is why evolutionists are not worried on this score, rather than ID's charge that it is a cover-up conspiracy.) The fossil record here is not as rich as would be liked, but it exists. These fossils not only didn't come from nowhere; any responsible - key word, that - should have known this.
We also get a thorough treatment on two of ID's stars - Michael Behe and William Dembski. The chapter on Behe shows us a man who simply seems rather oblivious to most critics. Forrest and Gross meticulously document the thorough rebuttals Behe has recieved and his thorough lack of response to these. Many of Behe's claims that certain organisms are irreducibly complex - that there is no way they could have evolved piece-by-piece - have shown false, and there is no reason to think that this trend will not continue. (To his credit, of course, he DOES make falsifiable predictions that just as often happen to be falsified, but at least that is somewhat scientific.) Dembski is given the same treatment. Though he is acknowledged to be more responsive to critics than Behe, we get to see some devastating criticisms (many by mathemeticians) of his work.
Perhaps the most damaging chapters, however, are those which show Intelligent Design to be the insignificant blip on the scientific radar that it is. As of Forrest and Gross's writing, not one peer-reviewed article had appeared in any scientific journal mentioning Intelligent Design theory as something other than a failed hypothesis. Only one of its books - one of Demski's - had been published by an academic press, and most had been published by InterVarsity prses (affiliated, of course, with the very sceince loving InterVarsity Christian Fellowship). Dembski, Behe and the others do most of their responding to critics (that are published in peer reviewed journals) on websites. (This is why Intelligent Design felt it necessary to create their own 'peer reviewed' journal.) (In 2004, there was an article supporting the design 'hypothesis' that appeared in a journal. It was nothing more than a literature review that was poorly cited and very swiftly critiqued by the scientific community.)
The latter chapters in the book offer meticulous proof and documentation that ID is a thinly veiled attempt to bring God back as a sceintific hypothesis. We are shown that according to the Wedge document (which the Discovery Institute reluctantly admits that they wrote) that ID aims at speaking to a Christian audience, which is, according to the document, their 'most natural' base. We are shown speech after speech after speech where a proponent of ID, when in the comfort of non-scientifically educated laypersons, proclaim the relationship between ID and the Christian God. As this book shows, ID theorists are caught in a bind - they need to drum up enthusaism to their 'natural' Christian base by selling the idea of ID as a defender of the Christian worldview while at the same time trying to convince science and the law that any association is coincidental. Avoid doing the one, and half of the support withers. Thus, they must engage in both and hope that neither side connects the dots.
Well, Forrest and Gross did connect the dots. At times - this is my only criticism - the book can seem like it engages too much in ad hominems; guilt by association. But the problem is that ID theorists opened the door to this by repeately asserting that they only 'happend to be christian,' and that ID was free of an agenda. As CTH shows, it certainly is not free of an agenda; its agenda is to fight for, and make room for, a christian worldview in a field of science that is actively making that harder and harder.
Well, one can do that in one's personal life, but when one is doing science, one neeeds to keep within the confines - yes, confines - of science. We cannot look for a supernatural cause in science, because to do so is to foray into an area not testable by empirical methods. (If we could not find a reason why a drug acted a certain way on a person, would be be able to make a hypothesis out of the 'miracle hypothesis'? No. Science looks for natural answers.
Anyway, read it. It is not a balanced, unbiased treatment. But anyone who says that Forrest and Gross are lying are themselves probably lying. This book is meticulous in its documentation and very careful to support all of its assertions. It would be a good model for ID to follow. |
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out of 41 Reviews
