felixsascha379

Several times I found myself liking then hating the author, so he must have struck a chord with me. First I have become interested in ID over the last 10 years so I am always interested in a fresh perspective. I bought this book knowing I might not agree with the author but that was intentional. To start with I was very pleased when Mr. Slack admitted his prejudice in this affair, that he is an atheist and even if evolution was proved incorrect he would still have "faith" that there is a naturalistic explanation for everything, we just haven't found it yet. The setting of the book is the Dover School Board trial in 2005, where members of the board were sued after introducing a one page statement to be read at the beginning of freshman biology to the effect that evolution does not answer all the questions about the origin of life and that students may find more information in the reference section of the library, specifically in "Of Pandas and People". We learn how badly the case was botched by the Board's defense team (with a lot of help from board members who lied under oath) and how the Judge then ruled beyond the fact that the Board was doing this to impose their religious view, which they were, but that Intelligent Design was not science. I agree with the author and the judge on the first point but have trouble with the second, and there is where the authors pointed prejudice most bothered me. there is a real interesting part where we meet a fellow journalist from Italy covering the case. His perspective was most illuminating in that while he did believe in natural selection but also thought that the evangelical movement in the US was doing so much good in protecting the country and even the world from the slide into humanism that he sees in his own country that you feel is routing for the IDers Slack, by the way believes Christians of all types are destroying the world and evangelicals are just the worst of the group. Oh well, it is a good book for conversation starters, but best be with friends who can debate without rancor.

2022-10-29 03:25