Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails) - Softcover

Young, Matt; Strode, Professor Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813545501 ISBN 13: 9780813545509

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails) is an impassioned argument in favor of science—primarily the theory of evolution—and against creationism. Why impassioned? Should not scientists be dispassionate in their work? “Perhaps,” write the authors, “but it is impossible to remain neutral when our most successful scientific theories are under attack, for religious and other reasons, by laypeople and even some scientists who willfully distort scientific findings and use them for their own purposes.”

Focusing on what other books omit, how science works and how pseudoscience works, Matt Young and Paul K. Strode demonstrate the futility of “scientific” creationism. They debunk the notion of intelligent design and other arguments that show evolution could not have produced life in its present form.

Concluding with a frank discussion of science and religion, Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails) argues that science by no means excludes religion, though it ought tocast doubt on certain religious claims that are contrary to known scientific fact.

About this title

About the Author

Matt Young is a senior lecturer in the department of physics at the Colorado School of Mines. A prolific writer, he is the coauthor of Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism (Rutgers University Press).

Paul K. Strode is a biology teacher in Boulder, Colorado, and an instructor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a doctoral degree in ecology and environmental science.

Reviews

Starred Review. In this superb overview, academics Young and Strode tackle the most vexing issues in the public's understanding of biological evolution and earth history. With clear, readable text, Young and Strode detail requisite concepts while providing a conversational response to creationists' objections to evolution, which are frequently based on profound misunderstandings of how science works. Young and Strode provide a thorough explanation of the concept of biological fitness, showing that evolution, hardly random, is a process of interaction between organisms and the environment. Later chapters explain the science of evolutionary development and phylogenetics-how Earth's organisms are related through their genetic codes-as well as geological and astronomical methods for dating (including possibly the clearest explanation of an isochron ever written). They also take a good look at creationism, using the publications of prominent believers to show that it's a movement divided against itself. Much of this work developed from Strode's teaching experience, and it may be the best book yet written for teaching citizens what science really does, and what religion really is in relation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813545501
• ISBN 13: 9780813545509
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224