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Title: The Triumph of Evolution: And the Failure of Creationism by Niles Eldredge ISBN: 0-8050-7147-4 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: December, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (36 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Disappointing...
Comment: Eldridge's book is primarily for the "already converted" (of which I am one) who are convinced that evolution occurred. His book gives a cursory overview of the arguments that creationism uses against evolution, but his book really breaks no new ground in this argument. What he states in this book has been already stated numerous times by other authors. Perhaps it is because there doesn't seem to be any NEW arguments for creationist theory (unless you count Behe's molecular irreducible complexity hypothesis). However, from one of the pre-eminent "deans" of evolutionary theory, I would have thought that he would have given more specifics from the scientific literature, including discoveries of feathered dinosaurs, amphibian transitional fossils with gills AND lungs, and the step-by-step transitions of land mammals to whales. I was hoping for more details about new findings on the lineage of hemoglobin, and the development of the clotting cascade and krebs cycle (of which Behe is so fond of)... Eldridge describes in adequate detail the evolutionary lineage of humans, but most of his rebuttal arguments for evolution and the facts supporting it are are very general. Instead of explaining how isotopic dating works, he merely states in essence that "scientists have done it and it works". When explaining the nuances of horse evolution, he summarizes by telling us that individual species got bigger and some of their toes got smaller. He does not show us... only tells us this happened and then trusts us to believe him and scientific data.
Unfortunately, this may not work well in the popular literature. Many other books attacking evolution have relied on statistic after statistic showing the improbability of the origins of life from naturalistic resources, and have drawn on many sources from the scientific literature that supposedly show the validity of their cause. Ultimately, most of their statistics are erroneous, and often their quotes form the literature are out of context. However, the sheer volume of "scientific literature" that they use (if inaccurately) often sways the decision of the reader. Niles Eldridge shows examples where he has been deliberately misquoted by creationists with their own agendas, but without more detailed analyses of data supporting evolution, people may just give up and say "the data support intelligent design" because more hard data, even if erroneous, was offered by creationists.
Eldridge's book is well worth reading as an overview of the arguments against creationism, and a primer on the political aspects of creationism. However, more comprehensive scientific data for evolution can be found in "Scientists Confront Creationism" by Godfrey, and "Finding Darwin's God" by Miller.
Rating: 4
Summary: Science and Dogma
Comment: The author's summary of evolution, along with his presentation of the historical evolution of that theory, presents the disparate elements in a very concise manner. The short text of the book (<200 pages) provides a clear view of where the theory of evolution started and where it is now. Any reader should appreciate Dr. Eldredge's understanding of the science along with his ability to communicate that understanding. Geared towards the "casual" scientist's interests, this book is a fine accomplishment and an engaging read.
At first, I was somewhat put off by the attacks on creationist dogma. Although its presence in the title is more distracting than the instances throughout the book, I felt the book's function as an overview of evolution would be more useful than as a rebuttal to the beliefs of a subset of the religious community. Presenting the facts clearly should be enough to defend evolution. However, seeing other readers' reviews, I'm reminded that a battle exists, and it must be addressed along with any presentation of the theory itself. While it would be correct to be put off by a book on physics or geometry that felt the need to address religious beliefs -- sciences that are inexplicably left alone by the religious community -- it's unavoidable with a book on evolution or biology. One area of science is demonized over others that follow the same principles. Because of this, evolutionists are forced to defend themselves, too often, not against their peers but against laymen.
As the external battle spills over to book reviews, I'm reminded of some of the benefits of excessive scrutiny pointed out by Dr. Eldredge. Although this scrutiny generally comes from scientists themselves in order to work out the thesis/antithesis/synthesis of ideas, external scrutiny may be no less productive to drive science forward.
Read the book. It's quick, thorough, and inexpensive. Above all, it's a very readable presentation of a very important science.
Rating: 3
Summary: There is a war
Comment: Having read, reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed Niles Eldredge's 'Reinventing Darwin', I was looking forward to his account of the creationism controversy. Although an interesting read, I found unfocused and disappointing.
Much of the problem is that Eldredge writes what are in essence several different books. We have discussions of the Scientific Method, primers on evolution, the fossil record, patterns of life and punctuated equilibrium, attacks on young earth creationism, and a reply to Intelligent Design Creationism. All this in a framework (expressed in the introduction and the concluding chapter) claiming that religion, along with science, can solve the great challenge that lays ahead of us - the ecological crises and the threat to biodiversity.
Unfortunately, there are much better essays on each of these issues, and that the strength of Eldredge's arguments vary considerably between these issues.
After an interesting introduction, Eldredge treats us with a sound but all too brief discussion on scientific methodology. Eldredge explains how in science, we have a hierarchy of ideas - some extremely well established (like the 'fact' that the Earth is round and that life evolved) and some more speculative (like the superstring theory or the age of the universe). Thus the creationist regular chant that evolution is 'just a theory' is meaningless.
It is a good discussion, but more sophisticated accounts exist. My personal favorite is chapter four of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Intellectual Impostures ('Fashionable Nonsense' in the American edition).
Chapter three 'The Fossil Record' is probably the dullest chapter in the book. There is very little wrong with the discussion of the evolution of life in it - although it maybe stresses the ideas of Eldredges's 'Naturalist' school a little too much - but it is not very coherent. Eldredge simply is not the master of prose that Gould and Dawkins are.
Chapter four, which deals with Natural selection and punctuated Equilibrium is much better, in part because of its lovely history of evolutionary thought structure, and in part due to the eloquent 'Naturalist' account of evolutionary theory - with all the stress on Punctuated Equilibrium you would expect from its co-creator.
Chapter five is an attack on Young Earth Creationism. It deals mostly with Geology, and is both competent and unexceptional.
In Chapter Six, Eldredge argues that Creationists are often dishonest, and takes on the Intelligent Design movement headed by Phillip Johnson. For the most part he does a good job. Nonetheless, better criticism of Johnson's concept of 'atheistic materialism' appear in 'Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism' by Robert T. Pennock. The critique of Michel Behe's irreducible complexity, while true, is far from thorough (the best review on Behe is an on line article in the Boston Review 'Intelligent Design, Again' by H. Allen Orr).
Furthermore, on this chapter and on the next one, Eldredge bends over backwards to please the religious, especially Christians. The matter here is the association between evolution and atheism. While anti-evolutionists wish to equate evolution with atheism, biologists like Gould and Eldredge sometimes fall into the opposite trap ' pretending that there is no discord between evolution and religion. Actually, while evolution does not disprove Christianity (or religion in general), it certainly poses a challenge to Christianity which Christian apologetics should face if they wish to persuade us that Christianity is true or at least intellectually acceptable.
The tendency grows worse. In chapter seven, Eldredge falls deeper into the 'bending over' trap. Eldredge claims that he sees a great role for religion in the future ' religion is mankind's tool to fight off the coming ecological crisis.
Eldredge thinks that religion mirrors ecology ' 'religious traditions, especially as embodied in concepts of God, are deeply if not wholly ecological concepts as well' (p. 162). He 'demonstrates' this by an argument so thin ' using only two examples, one of them from the King James Bible and one from an African tribe ' that it barely requires refutation. What is the religious response for the current crisis ? 'the emergence of the economic impact of humanity on the biosphere as a whole is so new that it is perhaps to be expected that no religious traditions independently mirroring the relatively recent scientific understanding of the problem have yet emerged' in other words, even if you were to accept the ' extremely metaphorical ' connection between religion and the ecological niche mankind posses, the connection is obsolete. Nonetheless, there is hope. Eldredge observes 'a growing movement in conservative Christian circles, a movement that can only be described as 'green'' (p.167)
Now this is patently irrelevant. As much as the leftist and secular environmentalists may applaud that our religious brethren are finally opening their eyes to a danger that has been known since the 1970s, what does that have to do with their religion? If the religious wants to join the good fight, they are welcome to it, but it doesn't make the struggle for biodiversity religious.
Eldredge has redefined religion in such a way as to make it unrecognizable. The problem of religion will not go away so easily. Eldredge simply refuses to except that the existence or inexistence of God is an empirical question ' and he hides the differences between science and religion with obfuscationist rhetoric. Eldredge dares say that on the one hand 'we created God in our own image' but that does not say that 'the concept of God in question' does not exist in precisely the manner Christian theology specifies' (p. 166 note 12). Of course not ' but no one can take seriously the idea that we invented God in our own image and somehow miraculously captured the way God really is like.
Eldredge claims to respect all religions, but if religion is false it does not deserve respect. Rather, like any other false idea, it should be discarded, and whatever social role it plays must be taken over by an institution based on truth, not myth.
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Title: Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism by Robert T. Pennock ISBN: 0262661659 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 28 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism by Philip Kitcher ISBN: 026261037X Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 23 June, 1983 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins ISBN: 0393315703 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Defending Evolution: A Guide to the Evolution/Creation Controversy by Brian J. Alters, Sandra M. Alters, National Safety Council ISBN: 0763711187 Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Pub Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate by Tim M. Berra ISBN: 0804717702 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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