The Science Of Evolution And The Myth Of Creationism

This clear, lively, and systematic presentation examines the scientific evidence for evolution and reaches for the widest possible audience—from scientific minds to those with no science background at all. Forcefully rejecting creationist objections to evolution and including a critique of Intelligent Design, it argues that they are part of a larger social agenda. With discussion that celebrates the fascination to be found in studying the diversity and complexity of life, this examination suggests with some urgency that the science of evolution is crucial to the existence of science itself.

Gives a description of evolutionary theory and analyzes the arguments of the creationists.

Polls show that 45% of the American public believes that humans were created about 10,000 years ago and that evolution is non existent. Another 25% believes that changes in the natural world are directed by a supernatural being with a particular goal in mind. This thinking clashes frontally with scientific findings obtained in the past 150 years. A large portion of the general public espouses the views of creationists and their descendants, and ignores or is unaware of scientific advances. Critical thinking about the natural world within a scientific framework is lacking in the USA and many parts of the world. This manuscript provides a multidisciplinary explanation and defense for the science of evolution (not just Darwinism) as it is being challenged by arguments for "intelligent design" and other creation myths. It draws in the life, physical, and social sciences, and recent studies of human evolution that rely much on the idea of change over time, which is evolution writ large. It puts the evolution/ID issue into international perspective by including opinions held in world religions other than Christianity. It is clearly written and also can easily be used as a guide for those with some science background. The authors make a convincing case that other books do not achieve this as much as they do in this work. The book is written for a whole spectrum of educated people including teachers and teachers in training who are interested in the broad issues of the origins of the universe, life, and humans, and who may not quite grasp the potential magnitude of the negative influence on all of science education of people embracing creationist and ID thinking. This includes high school teachers and people on boards of education and in municipal governments--anyone involved in education. It could be used also in college courses such as "contemporary social issues" and "Science and Society" -- sometimes team taught by sociologists and scientists. The authors show that when they are teleological, dogmatic, or politically inspired, religious and creation myths threaten scientific efforts. The book does not require any extensive knowledge of science. The principle of change over time pervades all of science, from cosmology, to the search for the origin for life, to human physical and cultural evolution. The book educates readers on scientific matters that overwhelmingly support the idea of evolution, not only in the living world, but also in physical and social science. It explains too how evolution -- physical and biological -- is a random, unguided process whose roots can be already found in quantum physics.

Using the tension between evolutionists and creationists in Kansas in the late 1990s as a focal point, Deloria takes Western science and religion to task, providing a critical assessment of the flaws and anomalies in each side's arguments.

The postulate of molecules-to-human evolution by natural selection (evolutionism), like creationism, cannot be demonstrated empirically. Therefore, the creationism-evolutionism controversy offers a choice between intelligent design by God and unintelligent design by evolutionary selection. Scientists are split on philosophical grounds since events in the immaterial realm are outside the purview of science. In reality, designers claim products; no product of a process, can account for how it was designed or for its ontology. Accordingly, Scientific American Editor John Rennie suggested that one way to override a purely evolutionary worldview is, if the creator/s appeared and claimed credit. Author Michael Ebifegha's previous book The Death of Evolution provides the historical details of Gods ancient claim for creating the universe before an audience. Dawkins, in his The God Delusion, failed to address this historical event; hence, his statement that There almost certainly is no God is flawed. The Darwinian Delusion discusses the fossil record, the role of natural selection; the mystery of the origin of life and Gods affirmation of agency in world history. Ebifegha argues that both the scientific and philosophical analysis point to God as the Creator and hence the delusion as such is not about God, but about the Darwinian paradigm of materialism.