Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory (édition 2007)par Niall Shanks (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreGod, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory par Niall Shanks
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. It is almost impossible to mention evolutionary theory without hearing echoes of the creationist ideology. In a country where opinions and ideas are tragically polarized, so too are theories on the creation on the universe and the beginnings of the human race. The interesting middle ground of the evolutionary debate is the rise of the idea of intelligent design. The central tenet of intelligent design is that the existence of Earth, its inhabitants, and the universe around it are best explained by the presence of some intelligent creator or cause. Traditional science holds that life emerged from an interesting, fortuitous, and random combination of proteins in the primordial soup of Earth around a billion years ago which then developped over the ages into the variety we see all around us. Intelligent design does not hold to the randomness of evolutionists, but rather to ascribes the origin of life to a guiding hand. Niall Shanks’s God, the Devil, and Darwin takes a look at the arguments of those who support intelligent design and argues for a different interpretation of their beliefs. The one thing Shanks does very well is to thoroughly lay out all the arguments and beliefs of the supporters of intelligent design. Because his ultimate goal is to show through rational dialogue and measured arguments where the hypothesis of intelligent design is flawed, he gives intelligent design its fair day in court. Each argument of the proponents of intelligent design, unfortunately, simply does not hold up when set against actual experimentation and evidentiary exploration. In the end, intelligent design’s base argument that some molecular structures and biological events are too complex to be completely natural does not hold water. Shanks accomplishes a two-pronged feat: a fair and complete rebuttal of proposed pseudoscience AND manages to keep a level head while doing it. An interesting and detailed read. This is certainly the best analysis of ID -- and of Creationism in general -- that I've come across. Shanks has actually, as an evolutionary biologist teaching at East Tennessee State University, fought in the front lines against Creationist claptrap -- you can find his very funny essay about these experiences, "Fighting for Our Sanity in Tennessee", by googling. He brings some of that battle-hardenedness to this far more sombre work; although there could hardly help but be a few moments worth chuckling over, his intent here is deadly serious. He also manages to explain the principles of ID more clearly than any IDer I've read! I'd shyly suggest this is a very important book, and, if you care at all about trying to push back against those forces who'd like to see us enter another Dark Age of ignorance and deprivation, one you should put on your reading list. Overall, a good review of Intelligent Design and Evolution. The author covers familiar ground for those who have read on this topic; for those who haven't, this probably isn't a good starting book, because it's a bit technical at times. The mathematics, while limited, could be offputting for someone who wants to get a grip on the controversy. The book is also a bit dated, but the information is general enough that there are only a few spots where that matters. Overall, it's a solid entry into the genre, but the author could have benefitted by leaving off his paeans to the free market. These fall off after the first few chapters, but it's a bit disconcerting to have a biology book that states flatly, as though it were accepted by all, that the market is basically an organic entity that evolved and was not intelligently designed. This is by no means certain, and even if it did evolve, it is not certain that natural selection is as good an analogy as artificial selection. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, Intelligent Design Theory (ID) proposes an alternative to accepted accounts of evolutionary theory: that life is so complex, and that the universe is so fine-tuned for the appearance of life, that the only plausible explanation is the existence of an intelligent designer. For many ID theorists, the designer is taken to be the god of Christianity. Niall Shanks has written the first accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new intellectual movement. Shanks locates the growth of ID in the last two decades of the twentieth century in the growing influence of the American religious right. But as he shows, its roots go back beyond Aquinas to Ancient Greece. After looking at the historical roots of ID, Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, discussing modern understandings of thermodynamics, and how self-organizing processes lead to complex physical, chemical, and biological systems. He considers cosmological arguments for ID rooted in so-called "anthropic coincidences" and also tackles new biochemical arguments for ID based on "irreducible biological complexity." Throughout he shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations. While ID has been proposed as a scientific alternative to evolutionary biology, Shanks argues that ID is in fact "old creationist wine in new designer label bottles" and moreover is a serious threat to the scientific and democratic values that are our cultural and intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)213Religions Natural Theology and Secularism Creation and Evolution (religious aspects)Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |
Yes, If i see a watch i would still believe someone has created it. William Paley’s example is still valid centuries after he discussed it. Niall and most atheists ignore the simplest logic that Paley has presented brillianty. It's a simple founded logic that is hard to refute. Niall also totally ignores the most important question the source of life itself. What is driving all the creatures in the universe? The essences of life that until today science theories fails to answer. Resting the answer that we still have gaps in our knowledge is not satisfactory enough. What Niall misses and his fellow atheists writers that believing in an intelligent creator for the universe is not necessarily against believing in evolution. My faith in a creator is well established through science. Science presentes how complex, integrated and massive is the human body and the universe that simply no mindless nature can create.
( )