jewelisms

jewel October 6th, 2007

I just finished reading 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin®, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman, a great great grandson of Charles Darwin.

We actually got to meet Matthew Chapman last weekend at the Atheist Alliance International conference and he is a very down to earth fellow. When I first read about who he was I thought – “Great great grandson of Charles Darwin – how cool is that?!”, but of course we cannot choose our ancestors and he is a very approachable guy, so although I do still think it would be cool to be a direct descendant of such a great historical figure, my rational side does take over and it isn’t such a big deal.

But I digress…

Anyway, I just finished his book on the Dover, PA trial “Kitzmiller v. Dover” where a school board – who were neither educators, nor schooled in science – bent on introducing the teaching of Intelligent Design (aka Creationism in a Labcoat) in their biology classrooms was given the smackdown by a George W. Bush appointee judge.

Chapman’s writing is accessible, entertaining and very much thought provoking. He describes all the characters in this unfortunate play in colorful detail and makes even the most unpleasant characters seem human (well, for the most part). He makes you feel like you were there – a part of the story, watching everything unfold. The book was hard to put down.

And, although when the trial started he did not favor teaching students about ID, he did change his mind at least somewhat by the end. Don’t get me (or him) wrong, though, he does not endorse ID as a valid scientific theory at all. But he recognizes it as a profound danger to the future of humanity and thinks that science teachers could use it as an example of bad science and dissect it as a way to teach students how to evaluate evidence and learn critical thought. I tend to agree, actually.

I would really love to recommend this book to everyone I know. It’s thoroughly interesting and culturally relevant.

• books , creationism , religion & government , science
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