In clear, concise chapters, Johnson offers a casual, reasoned and
scientifically sound evaluation of the support for Darwinism--from
fossil records to molecular biology. In a new afterword, he responds to
his critics and their arguments. 'Unquestionably the best critique of
Darwinism I have ever read'.--Michael Denton, author of Evolution: A
Theory in Crisis.
Synopsis
"Contending
that science has distorted research rules to exclude Divine Creation in
explaining the diversity of life, Johnson {seeks to} challenge the
tenets of natural selection and the evolutionary evidence from fossils
and genetic and molecular sources. In the closing chapters, he deals
with Darwinism in education and in religion, stating that the
evolutionary theory is protected for its 'indispensable ideological role
in the war against fundamentalism.'" (Libr J) Index.
Publisher
The controversial
book that rocked the scientific establishment! Why? It shows that the
theory of evolution is based not on fact but on faith--faith in
philosophical naturalism. Philip Johnson argues courageously that there
simply is no vast body of empirical data supporing the theory.
In this new edition Johnson responds to critics of the first edition,
inlcuding Stephen Jay Gould, and also expands the material in chapter
five.
With the intrigue of a mystery and the gripping detail of a court
trial, Johnson takes readers through the evidence with the lawyer's
skill he learned as a Berkeley professor of law specializing in the
logic of arguments.
Library
Journal
Dissecting the
writings of Gould, Futuyama, Darwin, and Dawkins with a trenchant sword,
law professor Johnson uses an attorney's reasoning to scrutinize the
scientists' logic in defining the theory of evolution. Contending that
science has distorted research rules to exclude Divine Creation in
explaining the diversity of life, Johnson challenges the tenets of
natural selection and the evolutionary evidence from fossils and genetic
and molecular sources. In the closing chapters, he deals with Darwinism
in education and in religion, stating that the evolutionary theory is
protected for its ``indispensable ideological role in the war against
fundamentalism.'' While the book presents a skewed view of the
scientific process, occasionally losing all pretense of objectivity, it
may be of value to lay readers seeking a creationist perspective on
evolution.-- Frank Reiser, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Doug Bandow
- National Review
Phillip Johnson has
written a provocative book, but you aren't likely to see it reviewed in
the Washington Post or The New York Review of Books. For Johnson, a law
professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has takenon
perhaps the most bloated of sacred cows: evolution. The very cogency of
his arguments ensures that the mainstream press will greet his book with
silence. . . . Evolution raises numerous legitimate scientific
questions. Johnson lacks a technical background, but he makes up for
that deficiency with his ability to deconstruct poor reasoning. . . .
Johnson dispassionately exposes the pretenses of science's high priests,
and he does so in the name of truth, not dogma. 'Falsification is not a
defeat for science, but a liberation,' he concludes. 'It removes the
dead weight of prejudice, and thereby frees us to look for the truth.'
And such a search would benefit all of us, believers and atheists alike.
Publisher's
Weekly
In his own era,
Darwin's most formidable opponents were fossil experts, not clergymen.
Even today, according to the author, the fossil record, far from
conclusive, does not support the presumed existence of intermediate
links between species. A law teacher at UC-Berkeley, Johnson deems
unpersuasive the alleged proofs for Darwin's assertion that natural
selection can produce new species. He also argues that recent molecular
studies of DNA fail to confirm the existence of common ancestors for
different species. Doubting the smooth line of transitional steps
between apes and humans sketched by neo-Darwinists, he cites evidence
for ``rapid branching,'' i.e., mysterious leaps which presumably
produced the human mind and spirit from animal materials. This evidence,
to Johnson, suggests that ``the putative hominid species'' may not have
contained our ancestors after all. This cogent, succinct inquiry cuts
like a knife through neo-Darwinist assumptions. (June)
