The Battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side Is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate

Rating:
Summary: Ideology or Science?
Review: Christianity Today Book Awards chose this as the number seven book of the year for 1997. The book's goal is to expose the philosophical fallacies in the arguments of both creationists and evolutionists in their criticisms of each other. The author himself avoids taking a position for either side, saying "I do not pretend to know which is correct" (p. 12) or "what the proper resolution to the creation-evolution dispute is" (p. 8). Rather, he seeks to show that many of the "arguments from both sides against the other fail because they are themselves defective or because no one holds the views against which they are directed" (p. 12). As Ratzsch shows, both camps spend enormous amounts of time attacking positions that no one actually holds and that have never been a part of Darwinian theory or creationist theory. (Ratzsch is a professor of philosophy at Calvin College specializing in philosophy of science.)

This book outlines popular creationists' misunderstandings of Darwin's theory, and evolutionists' misunderstandings of creationist theory. Many of the creationist criticisms of evolution are irrelevant because they are based on misunderstandings of that theory, and visa versa. Ratzsch argues, convincingly, that debaters in both camps simply do not understand the philosophy of science.

Perhaps the main message, besides getting a good understanding of the fallacies in the arguments, is that one must do an awful lot of homework before one steps into the ring of debate on this topic. There are way too many people in both camps who engage in the arguments who simply don't know what they are talking about. One needs to understand the philosophy of science. Since few in either camp take the time to study that, we may be doomed to continue to listen to fallacious debates for a long time to come. This book will help lay people sitting in the audiences of those debates to at least smile as they hear the illogical arguments. (Thomas N. Headland)

Rating:
Summary: The best book on the subject of creation vs. evolution?
Review: Del Ratzch has written a book called, "The battle of beginnings: why niether side is winning the creation-evolution debate." This is one of the best and most objective books I have seen on the creation vs. evolution debate (including books from BOTH sides). I strongly recommend this book to be read before one wishes to criticize creationism or evolution. In it, he writes about misconceptions of what people have about both theories (they are tragically common even in science textbooks and seriously inhibit real progress) and refutes some popular arguments both sides have of accusing that their opponents' theories do not qualify as genuine science. I give it 5 stars relative to other books I have seen on this issue.

Rating:
Summary: The myth of the creation "debate"
Review: First of all this book does not really add anything to the "debate", worse yet one of it's writers is a theistic evolutioist, an oxymoron in principle and practice if you've ever heard one. Second of all people who disregard logic, reason and critical thinking should not be even given a chance to be heard. The fact is creationists ignore the flaws and outright lies in the book from which they espouse their theory of "creation". This is what makes everyone who's rightfully studied the bible and many religions very mad. It is their willful ignorance in adhering to a book full of lies and myths and that have been demonstrated to be so countless times. Remember any flaw in the bible contradicts the the idea of inerrancy and perfection, not to mention omniscience, if god wrote it he wouldn't make gross blunderous errors about the nature of disease and reality.

There is no real "debate". The fact that this book does not recognize it is sickening. Theistic evolution is an oxymoron, theistic evolutionists are basically atheists who don't have the courage to get rid of their psychological addiction to social ritual and the promise of eternal life then at the same time rejecting the bible, especially the first two chapters of genesis as "symbolic" read: Divine myth. There is no such thing as a god inspired mythological truth, you mind as well believe in allah or the hindu gods because their is no objective standard to measure 'divinity' or test mythological claims as to the veracity of their origin. In short anyone who claims to be christian and is not a young earther is living in fantasy world created by reading into the bible their own modern ideas.

Next,unless you believe demons cause disease, (see: Mathew chapter 8:30-34) where jesus excorcises demons into pigs and the pigs die. You have a severe problem here Jesus pretended to excorcise them therefore sinning and disqualifying him as being "God in the flesh" or even an honest man through bearing false witness and propogating ignorance, that is, promoting the backward and incorrect idea that demons cause disease.

The only reason the "debate" carries on is because people refuse to accept that the bible is a mythological work written by men and who's writings are not divine in origin. Unfortunately we have to wait out their ignorance until they die and teach the younger children and make them immune from such backward ideas and uncritical thinking performed by their equally ignorant and backward parents.

Rating:
Summary: Another book on science by a non-scientist
Review: The fatal flaw in Retzch's thesis is stated explicitly in the first chapter where he admits that he does not present a positive case for either biological evolution or for creationism but rather considers only the critical arguments from each side against the other. Biological evolution was, and continues to be widely accepted by the scientific community because of the positive evidence collected by Darwin and the multitude of scientists since him. Other than showing how creationist arguments against this positive evidence are flawed, Retzch ignores this body of evidence and only considers the negative arguments from each side. With this sleight-of-hand, Retzch takes 99+ percent of the evidence for biological evolution off-the-table and declares that "neither side is winning the debate".

Evolutionists won this debate among scientists over a hundred years ago and Retzch implies this in chapter 12 where he defends Theistic Evolution (evolution directed by God). Apparently, Retzch feels that the positive evidence for evolution is strong enough that he has to incorporate it into his belief system but refused to mention this throughout the rest of the book.

Retzch's arbitrary decision to look at only negative evidence while ignoring positive evidence can lead to some logical lapses. For example, in chapter 8, he criticizes evolutionists for asserting that creations have "no consistent explanation for fossil stratification - without even mentioning creationist explanations involving ecological zonation and so forth. Such explanations may not work, but one cannot simply ignore them". In other words, Retzch criticizes some evolutionists for erroneously stating that creationists don't have an explanation for fossil stratification but downplays the fact that their explanation doesn't work! One could argue that an explanation that doesn't work is no explanation at all. I gave this book a 3 because dispite of its logical flaws, the book is interesting and well written.

Rating:
Summary: A good read for both sides of the debate
Review: This is an excellent examination of strawman arguments that are formulated by both sides of this debate. Given the nature of the subject-matter of the book, it is difficult to find any books at all that are truly objective. Darwinists will enter into the subject with presuppositions that their theory is correct and will many times ignore any evidence to the contrary. Creationists will many times believe in a literal reading of the book of Genesis and will reject the ideas of anyone who says otherwise. Both sides accuse the other of being closed minded and practicing bad science. To a degree, perhaps both are right. This book does about as good a job as one could ever (objectively) do to clear up some misunderstandings that both sides have in regards to the other. The reviewer from California has obviously made up his mind which side of the fence he has sat on, and that is fine. However, to merely say that there really is no debate at all & that the Darwinists have already won is, I think, a mistake. Anyone who is as closed minded as that need not read this book, for the whole point of the book is to take a disinterested look at the (many times fallacious)ideas of both sides. And if the argument is so clear cut as the Californian says, why is it that none other than the Harvard paleontologist Stephen J. Gould has written that "the extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record" are the "trade secret of paleontology"? Darwin himself said that if there was even so much as one instance where transitional forms were not found, his theory would prove null and void. The great physicist Richard P. Feynman once said that the "core of science" is this: "When you find an exception to a rule, the rule is wrong." What is it that makes Darwinism exempt from this principle, I ask? Moreover, if Darwinism is so very straight forward, why do Gould and Niles Elderidge feel it necessary to resort to such an ad-hoc theory as punctuated equilibrium? Now, to be fair, the creationists for their part have used a multitude of logical fallacies and fudge factors over the years to make their idealogies "work." That is the point of Ratzche's book; to point out the flaws of each side. All that I am saying is that reading this book with a closed mind (either way) would be a waste of time. Reading this book thoughtfully would be time well spent.