Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate

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Summary: BEST INTRODUCTION FOR JUNIOR HIGH KIDS!
Review: I bought this book for my sister back when she was in Junior High in 1994 because I wanted her to have the best introduction into the Evolution debate. I explained to her that in a science classroom she should expect to be taught science and science only. None of this anti-science, anti-reason, creationist propaganda that some teachers try to pass for SCIENCE. I explained that if she was interested in the creationist view of the origin of life on Earth she should attend sunday school - she never chose to do so. That's because there is something irrevocable about HARD EVIDENCE - it cannot be denied. To do so is to be willfully blind. Tim Berra eloquently explains and shows the reader why science is called that. Why anything that does not apply the SCIENTIFIC METHOD is NOT science.

Evolution and The Myth of Creationism explains its three related purposes: 1. To explain evolution to people who are genuinely confused by the claims of creationists, who try to pass fundamentalist christian beliefs as science. 2. Provide useful ammunition to the high school biology teacher or school board member who finds him or herself under attack by creationists. 3. To be a useful supplemental text for introductory college-level classes in biology, zoology, botany, or anthropology.

Tim Berra further explains that his book is blunt and to the point because "...scientists have, for too long, treated too lightly on the creationists, and have thereby fostered the impression that the creationists have a legitimate scientific voice. It is time for candor and clarity."

I would like to point out that in many instances, the fundamentalists pull quotes and distort them for their own purposes. To familiarize yourself with such tactics turn to the last section in the book - "Science, religion, politics, law and education." Here you'll read about a number of landmark cases and trials that show you that REASON does triumph. When you finish the book you'll understand that we may be living in the 21 st Century, but what we are going through is no different than what Christopher Columbus went through when the earth was thought to be flat.

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Summary: Remarkable for lay people
Review: I have read extensively on evolution and believe this book to be excellent for a lay person like myself. The many illustrations help to understand a very complex subject. Berra also gives a very brief history of the creationists and their insidious techniques for promoting themselves and weakening science education. This book has an extensive list for further reading in both evolution and creationism, as well as a very useful glossary of technical terms. The chapter on the rise of humans was exceptionally well-written. In this same chapter he introduces the subject of the molecular clock and DNA hybridization. These techniques in the last several years (after Berra's book was published) have revealed much about our human ancestral tree. This has given me a greater appreciation for how God chose to create through the process of evolution. I would highly recommend The Extraordinary Story of Human Origins by Piero and Alberto Angela on the subject of human ancestry.

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Summary: Some Good Basic Info but Amateurish and Flawed.
Review: I would like to start this review off by stating that I am a creationist, and I like to think of myself as an intellectual, open-minded one. Admittedly, there are alot of creationists out there who are not this way. Many creationists have no idea what the theory of evolution really is and simply choose to ignore it. While I do not believe it explains life's origins, I do believe it is important to understand what it really is before making an objective decision.

This book does provide some good basic facts describing what evolution really is, how it works, and what it isn't. However it is severely in need of an update. There's the infamous Berra's Blunder, which the author put in as evidence for evolution but accidently gave evidence for design. Oops. It also shows the embryo drawings made by Gene Hackl that are actually frauds. It also cites the Stanly Miller experiment, which is up for debate as legitately imitating Earth's early atmosphere.

The low point in this book was the chapter about Creationist Claims and then refuting them. The author builds a ton of straw men here, citing all the infamous absurd creationist claims used by uninformed creationists only, i.e "Darwin recanted on his deathbed" and "human footprints have been found next to dinosaur footprints". Informed creationists know these arguments are ridiculous but it has done nothing to disprove the theory or idea of creationism. I thought that was a cheap tactic.

For a objective, informed defenses of evolution check out "The Blind Watchmaker", probably the best book in defense of evolution.

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Summary: Not the Most Persuasive Critique of Creationism
Review: Several books published in the 1980s critiqued "creation-science," a movement of religious fundamentalists who maintain that science confirms a very literal, narrow interpretation of the Bible, and who aim to influence public school curricula. The Supreme Court struck down on such attempts in 1987, which is why I wonder what Berra had in mind by publishing this book in 1990. What audience was he aiming to persuade? My impression from reading the book is that he assumes the reader to be a near-scientific illiterate, for he gets heavily caught up in conveying very basic information on evolution, biology, and the history of Darwinism, all of which can be found in most textbooks. For instance, on the first page of Chapter 1, he writes: "When you walk into your bedroom and flick the light switch and nothing happens, what do you do next? Chances are, you will turn the switch on and off a few times. Even though you are not conscious of doing so, you have formed a *hypothesis*...." (asterisks indicate bold print). Sounds to me more like a documentary for high school students than a serious critique.

Berra is so caught up in overwhelming the reader with basic scientific facts, he doesn't pay enough attention to the logical reasoning that is so crucial to a polemic on any topic. For example, most critiques of creationism address the old criticism that the theory of natural selection is based on circular reasoning and that therefore explains nothing. Far from refuting this criticism, Berra's definition of natural selection unwittingly confirms it: "The creativity of natural selection involves the retention and subsequent stepwise refinement of variations that yield improved *fitness*. Fitness in the Darwinian sense means reproductive fitness--leaving at least enough offspring to spread or sustain the species in nature indefinitely" (p. 68). That statement amounts to little more than saying that organisms which leave more offspring will be more successful; hence, "the survivors survive," as critics of Darwinism often quip. This tells us nothing about what kinds of features are likely to spread through a population, let alone what sort of long-term evolution is ever likely to occur as a result of natural selection. By Berra's definition, genetic drift (the phenomenon of new features spreading through a population at random) is a form of natural selection. Where is the evidence for the ambitious proposition that natural selection possesses immense "creativity"? I've examined the literature on Darwinism and creationism thoroughly and have never seen a satisfactory answer to that question, although I have read more than a half dozen books providing a more persuasive defense of Darwin's theory than this inadequate, outdated treatise.

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Summary: cuts through all the confusion
Review: This is a great book, written in a straightforward style, that presents the scientific data supporting evolution, and then presents with equal clarity the various attempts by religious fanatics to oppose evolution on supposedly scientific grounds. By making each side of the argument clear, Berra makes it easy for the reader to see the difference between argument based on evidence, and argument based on a desire simply to oppose a theory that some find unpleasant. Even people with a strong education in biology may sometimes find themselves taken by surprise by various carefully crafted arguments that creationists have devised, and so it is really useful for everyone to see exactly what the most commonly dredged-up creatinist arguments are. Since many of these creationist arguments are based on incorrect or out of context information, one really needs to know about them in advance in order to be able to adequately respond to them.

So, this book is extremely useful for anyone concerned about the idea of special interest groups trying to force their religious agenda onto the public education system, and I therefore recommend it not just to scientists, but to everyone!