Last night I found myself talking to a very senior Oxford academic about Creationism. To my dismay – but not to my surprise – she seemed to imagine that this noxious pseudoscience is largely confined to American fundamentalist Christian circles. Not true. In the 21st century, the main carrier of Creationism will be Islam. Yet, for some reason, Western academics don’t seem terribly interested in this aspect of counterknowledge. The professor last night certainly wasn’t: the conversation suddenly dried up. Look at this publisher’s description of a new book, Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism, edited by Andrew Petto and Laurie Godfrey:
From leading scientists, lawyers and educators, here is a new and decisive rebuttal to the assault on evolution from proponents of “intelligent design”. With the pseudoscience of creationism rising again under the guise of “intelligent design”, this powerful collection eviscerates the new assault on evolution and reveals the pervasive and insidious threat posed to genuine science by intelligent design proponents. The sixteen powerful, original essays address two key issues: the overwhelming scientific evidence for evolution gathered over 150 years and the dubious underpinnings of creationism; and how society can mount better educational and legal policies to prevent a theological takeover of public and scientific institutions. With creationist arguments forever morphing and reappearing under new aliases, this new confrontation is a ringing and lasting refutation of creationism’s fraudulent claims.
That’s great, so far as it goes. But you will look in vain for any discussion of the spread of hard-line Creationism throughout the Muslim world, including Turkey, where every medium-sized town now has a “Museum of Creation” featuring pictures of Darwin framed in dripping blood. It seems that “leading scientists, lawyers and educators” don’t want to offend Muslim sensibilities.
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Last night I found myself talking to a very senior Oxford academic about Creationism. To my dismay – but not to my surprise – she seemed to imagine that this noxious pseudoscience is largely confined to American fundamentalist Christian circles. Not true. In the 21st century, the main carrier of Creationism will be Islam. Yet, for some reason, Western academics don’t seem terribly interested in this aspect of counterknowledge. The professor last night certainly wasn’t: the conversation suddenly dried up. Look at this publisher’s description of a new book, Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism, edited by Andrew Petto and Laurie Godfrey:
From leading scientists, lawyers and educators, here is a new and decisive rebuttal to the assault on evolution from proponents of “intelligent design”. With the pseudoscience of creationism rising again under the guise of “intelligent design”, this powerful collection eviscerates the new assault on evolution and reveals the pervasive and insidious threat posed to genuine science by intelligent design proponents. The sixteen powerful, original essays address two key issues: the overwhelming scientific evidence for evolution gathered over 150 years and the dubious underpinnings of creationism; and how society can mount better educational and legal policies to prevent a theological takeover of public and scientific institutions. With creationist arguments forever morphing and reappearing under new aliases, this new confrontation is a ringing and lasting refutation of creationism’s fraudulent claims.
That’s great, so far as it goes. But you will look in vain for any discussion of the spread of hard-line Creationism throughout the Muslim world, including Turkey, where every medium-sized town now has a “Museum of Creation” featuring pictures of Darwin framed in dripping blood. It seems that “leading scientists, lawyers and educators” don’t want to offend Muslim sensibilities.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
