Evolution, Anti-Evolution, and SciCre
[Books] |
[Online Resources] |
Last updated: 981006
Page by Wesley R. Elsberry
Let's examine the origins controversy, shall we?
The first step is to identify the players. I use a classification
scheme that helps me sort out who is doing what for which reason.
Please have a look at my Viewpoints on Evolution,
Creation, and Origins page.
In recent years, a group of people has been desperately trying to undermine
science education in public schools by the introduction of religiously
motivated pseudoscience into the classrooms. I speak here of Scientific
Creationism (SciCre for short) as promulgated by the Institute for Creation
Research.
The various apologetics of the ICR include the claims that their version
of SciCre is as scientific as anything in biology. This is the claim that
I and others would refute.
Activism
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I presented a paper at the "Naturalism, Theism, and the Scientific Enterprise"
conference on 970221. Visit the web
site and take a look at the papers online. The invited speakers included
Michael Ruse, Fred Grinnell, Phillip Johnson, and Alvin Platinga.
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Textbooks in Texas. How to make a difference
in the process of textbook adoption in the large Texas market.
-
960225: NBC aired "Mysterious Origins of Ancient Man". If you want to tell
NBC what you thought of the show, click here.
If you want to tell the show's producers what you thought of it, click
here. If you want to see Glenn
Kuban's Paluxy web page rebutting several of those claims, click here.
Resources
Creationist Links
Walter Brown, the ICR, ISKCON, and all the rest. Click here
for the list.
[Top]
What does that logo mean?
The logo represents the scriptural basis of SciCre as opposed to the empirical
basis of biology. The partially filled circles are a standard method of
representing allele frequencies in populations spread over a geographic
region.
Books of interest
Below are some books of interest. If you order online, part of the
purchase price comes here to help make this site better.
Evolutionary Biology by Douglas Futuyma.
Futuyma's text is readable and gives an excellent introduction to the
breadth, if not the depth, of evolutionary research.
Evolutionary Biology by Eli
C. Minkoff. I haven't seen this one, but several other people have
recommended it.
Growth of Biological Thought:
Evolution and the Diversity of Life by Ernst Mayr. This is a
solid but readable tome written by one of the giants of the field.
Sometimes Mayr is a little too close to the action, but it is
difficult to imagine someone else doing a better job of it.
On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile
of the First Edition by Charles R. Darwin. The book that changed
natural history into biology. There is some argument over which edition
the reader should tackle, with most arguing for either the first or
the sixth edition. To me, the first edition is preferable. By the
time of the sixth edition, Darwin had made too many allowances for
various criticisms, which in the future would often prove less valid
than Darwin's original insights. Note that the etext of the first
edition is available online as well.
Evolutionary Biology of
Hearingby Douglas B. Webster, Arthur N. Popper, and Richard
R. Fay. I'm into acoustics, so this one has to go into the list even
if it is rather pricey.
What Is Creation Science? by
Henry M. Morris and Gary E. Parker. An interesting little book that
never seems to get around to answering the title question. I have a
few comments about it here.
Biotic Message; Evolution Versus
Message Theory by Walter ReMine. Walter says that evolutionists
don't want you to know about his book. I wonder what that makes me...
Trial and Error: The American
Controversy over Creation and Evolution by Edward J. Larson. A good
review of the legal skirmishes over creationism in the schools.
World's Most Famous Court Trial,
Tennessee Evolution Case: A Complete Stenographic Report of the
Famous Case. If you ever wanted a transcript of the Scopes'
Trial, here's your chance.
Darwin on Trial by Phillip
E. Johnson. Johnson plays agent provocateur with this book. Johnson
poses as a skeptic, but lets the cat out of the bag on p.165: "My
primary goal in writing Darwin on Trial was to legitimate the
assertion of a theistic worldview in the secular universities." I have
a commentary in progress here.
Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic
Imperative by Christian De Duve. A hot book on the topic of
abiogenesis.
Major Transitions in Evolution
by John Maynard Smith & E. Szathmary.
Constructing "the Beginning":
DisCourses of Creation Science by Simon Locke.
Of Pandas & People by P. Davis and Dean
Kenyon. A supplemental "two-model" style textbook hawked by anti-evolutionists
as a way to get their agenda into your high school biology classroom.
Titles
These may list more than a single book.
Authors
Michael J. Behe. The maven of
"irreducible complexity" as an anti-evolutionary tactic.
Peter Bowler. Historian of
science and especially evolutionary biology.
Charles Darwin. Naturalist and
co-discoverer of natural selection. Anyone who hasn't read "On the
Origins of Species" and claims to be able to critique Darwin is a lying
ignoramus. Of course, there's nothing that prevents some who have held the
book in their hands from being the same.
William Dembski. Mathematician,
philosopher, and theologian, inventor of "complex specified information"
and "complexity-specification" as anti-evolutionary concepts.
Niles Eldredge. Paleontologist
and theorist, co-author of 1972 paper introducing the term
"punctuated equilibria".
Douglas J. Futuyma. Author of
the widely respected textbook "Evolutionary Biology" and active
in countering anti-evolution.
Duane T. Gish. Former biochemist and
stalwart SciCre author associated with the Institute for Creation Research.
Stephen Jay Gould. Paleontologist,
co-author of 1972 paper on "punctuated equilibria", and prolific essay
writer.
Alan Hayward
Phillip E. Johnson. Professor of
Law at UC Berkeley and active anti-evolutionist. Author of several
anti-evolutionary books.
Lane P. Lester. Formerly associated
with the Institute for Creation Research and Liberty College.
Ernst Mayr. Field ornithologist and
biological theorist, author of many seminal books and one of the
contributors to the Modern Synthesis.
Henry M. Morris. Founder of the
Institute for Creation Research, author of several anti-evolutionary
books and even more volumes of religious commentary.
George M. Price. Why bother with
johnny-come-latelies? The old titan of creationism just keeps getting
recycled.
- Walter ReMine. Self-published author of "The Biotic Message" (see
above).
George G. Simpson. Paleontologist,
author of several books on evolutionary biology, contributor to the
Modern Synthesis.
Steven M. Stanley. Paleontologist.
Alfred Wallace. Naturalist and
co-discoverer of natural selection.
Jonathan Weiner. Journalist
whose reports on field research in evolution are quite readable.
Sewall Wright. Geneticist and
contributor to the Modern Synthesis.
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