In response to questions about Robert Pennock's book, Tower of Babel: The
Evidence Against the New Creationism, I offer the following comments,
reflecting views I will express in a review forthcoming in the British
journal, Endeavor. I will not be posting the review itself in advance of
publication, though I am seeking permission to reprint it in the next
ASA/HPS newsletter.
(1) The book does cover "the whole range" of creationsim, from YEC to ID.
TE is however not much mentioned. The "new creationism" mentioned in the
title is ID.
(2) The objections given by Pennock closely parallel those I have given in
my own review of ID in various venues mentioned several times in earlier
posts; I won't repeat them here. Of course additional objections are also
made, as one would expect in a book of this length. The most original
objection, IMO, is the argument related to the book's title, namely that the
evolution of human language is an example of evolution that we can actually
observe in operation through the short span of known history. A clever and
effective argument, IMO.
(3) The book's weakest feature, IMO, is its failure to suggest a solution
to the educational problems that shows appropriate respect for the citizens
who believe in various forms of creationism. Here my comments are identical
to those made elsewhere, namely that we need to include religious
perspectives within what counts as publicly funded education. In other
words, we need to recognize that "separation" of church and state is not
what the first amendment meant by barring the "establishment" of religion.
In other words, parents ought to have the right to use their own money (in
the form of their tax dollars) to send their children to schools of their
own choice. I could go on at great length here but this would be politics,
not sci/religion, so I'll give it a rest.
Ted Davis
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