Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul | Kenneth R. Miller

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul | Kenneth R. Miller | Death knell of intelligent design

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Only a Theory: Evo...

	Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul Kenneth R. Miller Viking Adult, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A leading scientist examines the battle between evolution and Intelligent Design in America

At the dawn of the twenty- first century, the debate over Darwin?s theory of evolution is nearly as contentious as it was in the notorious Scopes trial a century ago. Today, however, people who believe that evolution is ?only a theory? have put their hopes in a concept known as Intelligent Design.

In Only a Theory, Kenneth Miller dissects the claims of the ID movement in the same incisive style that marked his testimony as an expert witness in Pennsylvania?s landmark 2005 Dover evolution trial.

Unlike other books on the subject, Only a Theory?s critique of ID goes far beyond the scientific claims of the movement. To Miller, America?s ?soul??its place as the world?s leading scientific nation?is at risk because of this struggle. As he explains, the tactics of this new assault on science mimic earlier efforts of the academic left to remake science as a relativistic, culturally determined enterprise, rather than a rational search for truth about the natural world. Such marginalization, he argues, would effectively destroy American science.

Despite this analysis, Miller refuses to play the role of pessimist. He sees this as a teachable opportunity, a moment at which public understanding and support for science can be redeemed, and offers nothing less than a prescription for how America can save its scientific soul.

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Belief in God and evolution are not mutually exclusive

Intelligent Design's Michael Behe has written books, such as "Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution", advocates ID-centric ideas like "irreducible complexity" to show that gradual evolution could not have produced complex biological organs or processes. What he's really saying is that the world is too much for us humans to understand, and that we should instead stop our inquiries and have faith that God knows best... If we really decided to do this and leave aside science's method of inquiry, we would be following what another culture did which once had a flourishing scientific tradition - Islam - to which the beginnings of European science owes much. In Islamic culture today, science can only be science if it is infused with Islamic belief. Unwittingly, the proponents of ID are intent that we follow in Islam's footsteps with the undoubted result of being led into an age of superstition and dogmatism.
The title of Kenneth R. Miller's book is based on one of ID's biggest catchphrases, that evolution is "only a theory" and that other competing "theories", like ID, deserve equal hearing. This book is Miller's counter to such a contention and that those who do espouse ID are simply wrong and are in over their heads. Miller, a professor of biology at Brown University, believes firmly in evolution as a validated scientific fact and as an evolving theory. You may be surprised to learn that he also believes in God. His main thesis is that belief in God and belief in evolution are not at all in conflict. Miller's resolution is that "the truly remarkable thing about the world is that it actually does make sense. The parts fit, the molecules interact, the darn thing works. To people of faith, what evolution says is that nature is complete. God fashioned a material world in which truly free, truly independent beings could evolve."
I recommend this book whole-heartedly.

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Death knell of intelligent design

Author Kenneth Miller demolished intelligent design in this book. (And that's not to say that his is the only book that has done so.) You would never guess that by the continuing attempts by the Discovery Institute and its sympathizers to foist this front for creationism on local schools. But that is not even the most despicable part of ID. They want to change the nature of science so that ID can somehow be included as real science. Instead of having scientific explanations for natural phenomena, IDers want it said in science classrooms that "God did it.". While there are many gods out there, what they have in mind is their own particular Christian god, and is a particularly distorted version of the Christian god that they have in mind. Miller bends over backwards to give ID every possible chance to win this argument by fact and logic. He seems almost to give the game away. But then he springs the trap and turns the logic and the facts in the direction that they point and shows that ID fails, even by its own definitions. "Specified complexity" falls, the religious-based philosophy of ID is exposed, and the sham science of ID is shown to be, not merely empty, but non-existent. After reading this book, you will continue to support ID (if you did) at the peril of your grasp of logic and your facts.

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