Science, 299, Jan 31 2003: 664.
EVOLUTION AND EDUCATION:
The Emperor's New Design
A review by Kenneth R. Miller*
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Where Darwin Meets the Bible Creationists and Evolutionists in America
Larry A. Witham
Oxford University Press, New York, 2002. 338 pp. $30, =A325. ISBN 0-19-515045-7.
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Since the early 1990s, "intelligent design" has become the dominant
anti-evolution movement in the United States. Its advocates argue for
equivalence in the public square, claiming that design is every bit as
scientific as evolution. Their successes in Kansas and Ohio were reversed by
determined opposition from the scientific and educational communities. And
with funding such as the $2.5 million annual budget of the Seattle-based
Discovery Institute, the movement is poised to make plenty of trouble for
science education in the years ahead.
In an age of genomics, how can this possibly be the case? "Who are these
guys?" is a question I have heard from more than one of my colleagues, who
are incredulous at the continuing opposition to Darwin. The answer can be
found in Where Darwin Meets the Bible, by Washington Times writer Larry A.
Witham. His book is a virtual playbill that describes the principal actors
in this modern passion play.
Witham's even-handed approach is clear in his treatment of his cast of
characters. In one chapter, he gives us an up-close-and-personal look at six
"evolutionists": biologists Ernst Mayr and Francisco Ayala, paleontologists
Niles Eldredge and David Raup, philosopher Michael Ruse, and educator Joseph
McInerney. In another chapter, he profiles six "creationists": engineer
Henry Morris, geologists Kurt Wise and John Wiester, biochemist Michael
Behe, astronomer Owen Gingerich, and physicist Howard Van Till. It is
surprising to find the last two included in the creationist camp, because
Witham makes clear that both fully accept evolution and he even
characterizes Gingerich as a "Christian anti-creationist." This dissonance
is characteristic of the book's style; Witham frequently presents one view
and then, uncritically, offers a contrasting alternative. Nonetheless, the
author, an experienced journalist, weaves the isolated elements of the
conflict into a fabric that connects the flow of ideas, events, and
politics. Any scientist tempted to believe that the major figures in the
anti-evolution movement are half-hearted, insincere, or simply opportunistic
in their assault against mainstream science would do well to read this book.
Witham's most valuable insights come in the area of politics. Political
efforts led the Senate to pass in 2001 the "Santorum Amendment" to the
Education Act, which singled out evolution for special scrutiny in the
classroom. Sensible doubts about Congress's ability to write science
curricula, along with the opposition of scores of major scientific
organizations, resulted in the language being stripped from the Act before
final passage (though a watered-down remnant was included in a conference
committee report). As Witham explains, the politics of anti-evolution are
alive and well--witness the sad spectacle of the most recent presidential
election, in which neither major-party candidate would speak in support of
mainstream science if the word "evolution" was involved.
In contrast to its utility as a political primer, the book is at its weakest
in dealing with science itself. Not a biologist, Witham tells us that "al=l
creatures that walk the earth" have a "common bone structure," an
observation that will surprise entomologists. His explanation of cladistics
completely misses the importance of shared, derived characteristics, and his
understanding of molecular biology seems to have no source much deeper than
Jurassic Park. (Indeed, he quotes author Michael Crichton's views on the
status of evolutionary theory.) He laments the "apparent decline" in "young
people's interest in biological science," claiming that "innovation in
biology is being stopped" by "fears that creationists will capitalize on
disagreements among evolutionary biologists." One is left wondering if he
has attended scientific meetings or spoken with biologists who struggle to
keep up with the dizzying pace of discovery in their field.
Witham's unfamiliarity with science is matched by a surprising willingness
to accept claims that evolutionary biology is primarily an ideological
movement. He writes that "a liberal society has been the aim of
evolutionists since 1933, the year of the first Humanist Manifesto," thereby
imprinting a single political stamp onto every evolutionist--a view that his
own interviews demonstrate is completely wrong.
A more important flaw is Witham's failure to weigh the validity of the
claims he presents. As a result, readers are left to ponder former
presidential candidate Pat Robertson's mistaken statement that the U.S.
Constitution speaks of "inalienable rights" (the phrase actually appears in
the Declaration of Independence) along with assertions that there is
abundant physical evidence of a young Earth, that the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado was formed by Noah's flood, and that living organisms bear
scientific evidence of design. Eager to build a case for equivalence, Witham
overlooks the most essential element of the process of science: the manner
in which it tests competing ideas with respect to their explanatory power
and their concordance with data. This is the test that design creationism
has failed time and time again. Alas, such failures are reported nowhere in
this book. Witham, it seems, is unwilling to tell his readers that the
emperor has no clothes.
Despite these shortcomings, members of the scientific community will find
Where Darwin Meets the Bible worth reading, if only for Witham's willingness
to take the new anti-evolutionists seriously. Those who would prefer to work
quietly in their laboratories and field stations while waiting for the
recent unpleasantness to blow over are fooling no one but themselves--a
point this book makes with disturbing clarity.
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The author is in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and
Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
E-mail: kenneth_miller@brown.edu
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2003-10-05 20:46:39