Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism
Encyclopedia
Explore Evolution: The Arguments For and Against Neo-Darwinism is a supplementary or enrichment biology
textbook
written by a group of intelligent design
supporters and published in 2007. Its promoters describe it as aimed at helping educators and students to discuss "the controversial aspects of evolutionary theory that are discussed openly in scientific books and journals but which are not widely reported in textbooks." As one of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
to "teach the controversy
" it aims to provide a "lawsuit-proof" way of attacking evolution and implying creationism
/ intelligent design without being explicit.
The book is co-authored by three Discovery Institute
members, Stephen C. Meyer
, Scott Minnich
and Paul A. Nelson, as well as illustrator and creationist author Jonathan Moneymaker and Kansas evolution hearings
participant Ralph Seelke. Hill House Publishers Pty. Ltd. ( Melbourne and London
), headed by creationist and butterfly photographer Bernard d'Abrera
, is the publisher of Explore Evolution.
Nick Matzke
of the National Center for Science Education
suggests that the name Explore Evolution might have been chosen with the intention of creating confusion. For example, Explore Evolution is also the name of a National Science Foundation
grant program for museums in the United States launched in June, 2003.
This book replaces "Of Pandas and People
", the supplementary textbook previously intended to introduce intelligent design
to high school students. Discovery Institute fellows William A. Dembski
and Jonathan Wells rewrote "Of Pandas and People
" as a new 360-page college textbook called "The Design of Life".
to high school biology students:
The Discovery Institute emphasizes that the book Explore Evolution encourages critical thinking:
The Discovery Institute states that the textbook was "peer-reviewed
" and suggests that it was written by authors with impeccable credentials:
The Master of Arts
Program in Science and Religion and the Department of Education of Los Angeles
' evangelical
Christian
Biola University
(formerly the Bible
Institute of Los Angeles
) presented
a conference entitled Science Teacher Symposium - Teaching Biological Origins on August 3 and 4 of 2007. A major thrust of this conference was to introduce and promote Explore Evolution as a textbook to teachers and others.
Several public school and college
courses used drafts of Explore Evolution in courses before its official publication date. There are plans to use Explore Evolution in a public school in Tacoma, Washington
.
In late 2009 the UK based creationist group "Truth in Science" sent out copies of the book to UK school librarians claiming that it was suitable for the UK science curriculum. In response the BCSE published an open letter to Uk school librarians together with a leaflet called "Explore Evolution Exposed" that was based on the NCSE analysis and adapted for the UK.
in which she stated that Explore Evolution "claims to teach students critical thinking but instead uses pseudoscience
to attack Darwin
's theories." Discovery Institute fellow Stephen C. Meyer
objected in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, which was published on August 16, 2007.
University of Minnesota
faculty member PZ Myers
wrote a preliminary review after examining a copy of Explore Evolution. Myers had a negative impression of the book. Myers wrote,
Myers feels that, "The biology part is shallow, useless, and often wrong, and the critiques are basically just warmed over creationist arguments." Myers also points out that Explore Evolution is only 150 pages which compares unfavorably with the 1,146 pages of Kenneth Miller
and Joseph S. Levine's popular high school textbook, Biology: The Living Science
National Center for Science Education
Public Information Project Director Nick Matzke
suggests that Explore Evolution is a major signal at the vanguard of the fourth stage of the creationism–evolution controversy:
That the book's strategy has been formulated in an attempt to avoid repeating previous court defeats is acknowledged by the Discovery Institute:
This is consistent with the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
, "Stand up for science" and "Critical Analysis of Evolution
". Matzke also notes that there is little that is new in the book or its associated teaching materials.
John Calvert, managing director of IDnet, believes that although Explore Evolution is "enormously important," he is skeptical about its chances for success. Since 2005, IDnet has tried to bring critical analysis of evolution into the classroom. However, a setback in Kansas
in February 2007 to change science standards in the wake of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision left Calvert pessimistic:
John Timmer of technology site Ars Technica
also reviewed the book, writing that its version of inquiry-based learning (IBL) "assiduously avoids suggesting that any conclusion can be reached at all", and as such it "makes a mockery of the use of IBL in the sciences", making the analogy that teaching gravity in this manner would lead students to the conclusion that "the force of gravity is random or unmeasurable". He also summarises the book's use of classic creationist arguments, noting that the book maintains "plausible deniability" by not explicitly mentioning either creationism or intelligent design
. He also criticises the book for "logical inconsistencies" in its argument and its "divide and conquer" approach to the lines of evidence for evolution, particularly the idea "that the fact that any one of them supports evolution was just a lucky fluke". Ultimately he surmised that the book "doesn't only promote stupidity, it demands it" and "will leave their students with a picture of modern biology that is essentially unrelated to the way that science is actually practiced".
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
textbook
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
written by a group of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
supporters and published in 2007. Its promoters describe it as aimed at helping educators and students to discuss "the controversial aspects of evolutionary theory that are discussed openly in scientific books and journals but which are not widely reported in textbooks." As one of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns are a series of related public relations campaigns conducted by the Discovery Institute which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism." The Discovery Institute is the...
to "teach the controversy
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
" it aims to provide a "lawsuit-proof" way of attacking evolution and implying creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
/ intelligent design without being explicit.
The book is co-authored by three Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
members, Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
, Scott Minnich
Scott Minnich
Scott A. Minnich is an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Idaho, and a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
and Paul A. Nelson, as well as illustrator and creationist author Jonathan Moneymaker and Kansas evolution hearings
Kansas evolution hearings
The Kansas evolution hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka, Kansas, United States May 5 to May 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school...
participant Ralph Seelke. Hill House Publishers Pty. Ltd. ( Melbourne and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), headed by creationist and butterfly photographer Bernard d'Abrera
Bernard d'Abrera
Bernard d'Abrera is an Australian entomological taxonomist and philosopher of science, particularly noted for his books on true butterflies and larger moths of the world...
, is the publisher of Explore Evolution.
Nick Matzke
Nick Matzke
Nicholas J. Matzke is the former Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education and served an instrumental role in NCSE's preparation for the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial...
of the National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
suggests that the name Explore Evolution might have been chosen with the intention of creating confusion. For example, Explore Evolution is also the name of a National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
grant program for museums in the United States launched in June, 2003.
This book replaces "Of Pandas and People
Of Pandas and People
Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...
", the supplementary textbook previously intended to introduce intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
to high school students. Discovery Institute fellows William A. Dembski
William A. Dembski
William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
and Jonathan Wells rewrote "Of Pandas and People
Of Pandas and People
Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...
" as a new 360-page college textbook called "The Design of Life".
Promotion
The Discovery Institute is promoting Explore Evolution as a superior and comprehensive approach to teaching evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
to high school biology students:
The Discovery Institute emphasizes that the book Explore Evolution encourages critical thinking:
The Discovery Institute states that the textbook was "peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
" and suggests that it was written by authors with impeccable credentials:
The Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
Program in Science and Religion and the Department of Education of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
' evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Biola University
Biola University
Biola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.-...
(formerly the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
Institute of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
) presented
a conference entitled Science Teacher Symposium - Teaching Biological Origins on August 3 and 4 of 2007. A major thrust of this conference was to introduce and promote Explore Evolution as a textbook to teachers and others.
Several public school and college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
courses used drafts of Explore Evolution in courses before its official publication date. There are plans to use Explore Evolution in a public school in Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
.
In late 2009 the UK based creationist group "Truth in Science" sent out copies of the book to UK school librarians claiming that it was suitable for the UK science curriculum. In response the BCSE published an open letter to Uk school librarians together with a leaflet called "Explore Evolution Exposed" that was based on the NCSE analysis and adapted for the UK.
Reaction
Science writer Sally Lehrman wrote an editorial in the Boston Globe on August 9, 2007in which she stated that Explore Evolution "claims to teach students critical thinking but instead uses pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
to attack Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's theories." Discovery Institute fellow Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
objected in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, which was published on August 16, 2007.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
faculty member PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
wrote a preliminary review after examining a copy of Explore Evolution. Myers had a negative impression of the book. Myers wrote,
Myers feels that, "The biology part is shallow, useless, and often wrong, and the critiques are basically just warmed over creationist arguments." Myers also points out that Explore Evolution is only 150 pages which compares unfavorably with the 1,146 pages of Kenneth Miller
Kenneth R. Miller
Kenneth Raymond Miller is a biology professor at Brown University. Miller, who is Roman Catholic, is particularly known for his opposition to creationism, including the intelligent design movement...
and Joseph S. Levine's popular high school textbook, Biology: The Living Science
National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
Public Information Project Director Nick Matzke
Nick Matzke
Nicholas J. Matzke is the former Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education and served an instrumental role in NCSE's preparation for the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial...
suggests that Explore Evolution is a major signal at the vanguard of the fourth stage of the creationism–evolution controversy:
- Round 1: Fundamentalists ban evolution (1920s-1960s). Epperson v. ArkansasEpperson v. ArkansasEpperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 , was a United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in the public schools...
(1968) concluded this round.
- Round 2: "Creation scienceCreation scienceCreation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...
", which was invented in 1969, and ended as a serious legal strategy by Edwards v. AguillardEdwards v. AguillardEdwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...
(1987), although there were earlier defeats such as Hendren v. CampbellHendren v. CampbellHendren et al. v. Campbell et al. was a 1977 ruling by an Indiana state superior court that the young-earth creationist textbook Biology: A Search For Order In Complexity, published by the Creation Research Society and promoted through the Institute for Creation Research, could not be used in...
(1977) and McLean v. ArkansasMcLean v. ArkansasMcLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255, 1258-1264 , was a 1981 legal case in Arkansas.A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by various parents, religious groups and organizations, biologists, and others who argued that the...
(1982).
- Round 3: Intelligent design, invented about 1987, ended as a serious legal strategy by Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005).
- Round 4: Attack evolution and imply creationism and/or intelligent design without making explicit statements. This is the strategy used in Explore Evolution in 2007.
That the book's strategy has been formulated in an attempt to avoid repeating previous court defeats is acknowledged by the Discovery Institute:
This is consistent with the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns are a series of related public relations campaigns conducted by the Discovery Institute which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism." The Discovery Institute is the...
, "Stand up for science" and "Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...
". Matzke also notes that there is little that is new in the book or its associated teaching materials.
John Calvert, managing director of IDnet, believes that although Explore Evolution is "enormously important," he is skeptical about its chances for success. Since 2005, IDnet has tried to bring critical analysis of evolution into the classroom. However, a setback in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
in February 2007 to change science standards in the wake of the Kitzmiller v. Dover decision left Calvert pessimistic:
John Timmer of technology site Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
also reviewed the book, writing that its version of inquiry-based learning (IBL) "assiduously avoids suggesting that any conclusion can be reached at all", and as such it "makes a mockery of the use of IBL in the sciences", making the analogy that teaching gravity in this manner would lead students to the conclusion that "the force of gravity is random or unmeasurable". He also summarises the book's use of classic creationist arguments, noting that the book maintains "plausible deniability" by not explicitly mentioning either creationism or intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. He also criticises the book for "logical inconsistencies" in its argument and its "divide and conquer" approach to the lines of evidence for evolution, particularly the idea "that the fact that any one of them supports evolution was just a lucky fluke". Ultimately he surmised that the book "doesn't only promote stupidity, it demands it" and "will leave their students with a picture of modern biology that is essentially unrelated to the way that science is actually practiced".
External links
- Explore Evolution official website