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Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul
by Edward Humes

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80317.Monkey_Girl_Evolution_Education_Religion_and_the_Battle_for_America_s_Soul?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170981239m/80317.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80317.Monkey_Girl_Evolution_Education_Religion_and_the_Battle_for_America_s_Soul?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45727.Edward_Humes">Edward Humes</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25305712?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars Skeptic-in-Chief, Michael Shermer, has described Pulitizer Prize winner Edward Humes' book, Monkey Girl as "the definitive history" of the Kitzmiller trial and a "must-read for anyone who cares about science, education, and liberty." That would seem to exclude the Dover Board of Education that voted to include intelligent design as part of the high school biology curriculum, and a large segment of the American public.
 
 Humes provides a reporter's eye view of the infamous trial, giving a nearly perfect description of the motivations and personalities of those on both sides of the fence in Dover, as well as a cogent description of the history of the creationism vs. evolution controversy and why it engenders such passionate and bitter feelings. 
 
 While Monkey Girl reads pretty much as a reporter's account of the trial could be expected to, still it's not hard to discern which side of the debate Humes comes down on. It's obvious that he agrees with Judge John Jones III that the decision of the Dover board was an act of "breath-taking inanity." Ostensibly, that's because the board was warned by its own attorney that putting ID into science classes would get it sued, and would not pass constitutional muster. This unwise act was compounded by the decision of several board members to lie egregriously about their motivations. Several denied ever having discussed creationism in connection with their meetings, despite the fact that their were multiple newspaper articles and at least one television clip showing that that's exactly what they did. 
 
 But beyond this, by his lucid summary of the scientific evidence at the trial, Humes exposes the shortcomings of ID, including its failure to produce any persuasive evidence that it has a scientific basis, and could or should be regarded as a scientific, rather than a religious, idea. Does this make Humes something more than a merely objective reporter? The answer to that question may provide a sort of litmus test as to which side of the debate you come down on.
 
 Humes describes a lecture by Kent Hovind, a bombastic, but wildly popular critic of evolution, now imprisioned after being convicted of tax fraud, as "his usual mix of cornpone humor and utterly incorrect science." And he takes Ann Coulter to task for her many inaccuracies, lies and ludicrous errors in her book, Godless. But you have to love a book that first points out that Coulter confuses tautology with circular reasoning, and then explains the difference this way: "Here's a true tautology: Ann Coulter gets so many things wrong because she gets so few things right."
 
 Particularly engrossing is Humes' description of the cross-examination of Michael Behe, the district's major scientific expert at trial, and one of the big guns in the ID movement. While Humes perhaps betrays his admiration and approval of the cross-examination, it nonetheless was widely regarded as devastating and will no doubt go down as a classic cross-examination. Judge Jones called it the "most effective cross-examination he had ever witnesses in his quarter century of legal practice."
 
 Humes describes how Behe's mood on cross-examination shifted from chipper and ebullient as it had been on direct, to evasive, trapped and flustered. He details how Behe testified that ID was "testable in a laboratory," but went on to admit that although there was an experiment with bacteria that could be performed which could falsify or prove his theory of irreducible complexity and intelligent design, he had not performed it because to do so would "not be fruitful." He recounts how Behe wrote that ID focuses on proposed mechanisms for how complex biological structures arose, but was unable to identify any such mechanisms, how Behe testified that his definition of science, which is broad enough to encompass ID, and is broader than the one accepted by the scientific establishment, would also encompass astrology as science. 
 
 Although Humes shows that the proponents of ID were simply outgunned at trial, scientifically, legally and logically, still he shows that the proponents of evolution are not winning in the public consciouness or in the public schools, with a majority of Americans believing that creationism is true, and distrustful, if not downright hostile, to evolution, and many school districts either not teaching evolution, or giving it short shrift as "too controversial." It really doesn't matter what carbon dating, DNA, and the fossil record show about the age of the earth and the common ancestry of life on earth. Or that many scientists and religious leaders, includding the Pope, have said that evolution is not inconsistent with belief in a divine creator. For many people, evolution is atheism, and does not belong in public schools, period.
 
 At the end of his book, Humes quotes a Dover High student: "People are going to believe whatever they want when it comes to Darwin and God and coming from monkeys. That's why they call it belief. Facts have nothing to do with it. So why get all upset about it?'
 
 There's a certain sadness and truth, as well as a certain naivete about that statement. The Dover case, and the continuing bitter strugges in America over "cultural" issues show just why people do get upset about their beliefs. Humes' book shows why this bitter struggle is not likely to end with the Dover decision. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/825885?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Mazola1's review
rating:

Skeptic-in-Chief, Michael Shermer, has described Pulitizer Prize winner Edward Humes' book, Monkey Girl as "the definitive history" of the Kitzmiller trial and a "must-read for anyone who cares about science, education, and liberty." That would seem to exclude the Dover Board of Education that voted to include intelligent design as part of the high school biology curriculum, and a large segment of the American public.

Humes provides a reporter's eye view of the infamous trial, giving a nearly perfect description of the motivations and personalities of those on both sides of the fence in Dover, as well as a cogent description of the history of the creationism vs. evolution controversy and why it engenders such passionate and bitter feelings.

While Monkey Girl reads pretty much as a reporter's account of the trial could be expected to, still it's not hard to discern which side of the debate Humes comes down on. It's obvious that he agrees with Judge John Jones ...more Skeptic-in-Chief, Michael Shermer, has described Pulitizer Prize winner Edward Humes' book, Monkey Girl as "the definitive history" of the Kitzmiller trial and a "must-read for anyone who cares about science, education, and liberty." That would seem to exclude the Dover Board of Education that voted to include intelligent design as part of the high school biology curriculum, and a large segment of the American public.

Humes provides a reporter's eye view of the infamous trial, giving a nearly perfect description of the motivations and personalities of those on both sides of the fence in Dover, as well as a cogent description of the history of the creationism vs. evolution controversy and why it engenders such passionate and bitter feelings.

While Monkey Girl reads pretty much as a reporter's account of the trial could be expected to, still it's not hard to discern which side of the debate Humes comes down on. It's obvious that he agrees with Judge John Jones III that the decision of the Dover board was an act of "breath-taking inanity." Ostensibly, that's because the board was warned by its own attorney that putting ID into science classes would get it sued, and would not pass constitutional muster. This unwise act was compounded by the decision of several board members to lie egregriously about their motivations. Several denied ever having discussed creationism in connection with their meetings, despite the fact that their were multiple newspaper articles and at least one television clip showing that that's exactly what they did.

But beyond this, by his lucid summary of the scientific evidence at the trial, Humes exposes the shortcomings of ID, including its failure to produce any persuasive evidence that it has a scientific basis, and could or should be regarded as a scientific, rather than a religious, idea. Does this make Humes something more than a merely objective reporter? The answer to that question may provide a sort of litmus test as to which side of the debate you come down on.

Humes describes a lecture by Kent Hovind, a bombastic, but wildly popular critic of evolution, now imprisioned after being convicted of tax fraud, as "his usual mix of cornpone humor and utterly incorrect science." And he takes Ann Coulter to task for her many inaccuracies, lies and ludicrous errors in her book, Godless. But you have to love a book that first points out that Coulter confuses tautology with circular reasoning, and then explains the difference this way: "Here's a true tautology: Ann Coulter gets so many things wrong because she gets so few things right."

Particularly engrossing is Humes' description of the cross-examination of Michael Behe, the district's major scientific expert at trial, and one of the big guns in the ID movement. While Humes perhaps betrays his admiration and approval of the cross-examination, it nonetheless was widely regarded as devastating and will no doubt go down as a classic cross-examination. Judge Jones called it the "most effective cross-examination he had ever witnesses in his quarter century of legal practice."

Humes describes how Behe's mood on cross-examination shifted from chipper and ebullient as it had been on direct, to evasive, trapped and flustered. He details how Behe testified that ID was "testable in a laboratory," but went on to admit that although there was an experiment with bacteria that could be performed which could falsify or prove his theory of irreducible complexity and intelligent design, he had not performed it because to do so would "not be fruitful." He recounts how Behe wrote that ID focuses on proposed mechanisms for how complex biological structures arose, but was unable to identify any such mechanisms, how Behe testified that his definition of science, which is broad enough to encompass ID, and is broader than the one accepted by the scientific establishment, would also encompass astrology as science.

Although Humes shows that the proponents of ID were simply outgunned at trial, scientifically, legally and logically, still he shows that the proponents of evolution are not winning in the public consciouness or in the public schools, with a majority of Americans believing that creationism is true, and distrustful, if not downright hostile, to evolution, and many school districts either not teaching evolution, or giving it short shrift as "too controversial." It really doesn't matter what carbon dating, DNA, and the fossil record show about the age of the earth and the common ancestry of life on earth. Or that many scientists and religious leaders, includding the Pope, have said that evolution is not inconsistent with belief in a divine creator. For many people, evolution is atheism, and does not belong in public schools, period.

At the end of his book, Humes quotes a Dover High student: "People are going to believe whatever they want when it comes to Darwin and God and coming from monkeys. That's why they call it belief. Facts have nothing to do with it. So why get all upset about it?'

There's a certain sadness and truth, as well as a certain naivete about that statement. The Dover case, and the continuing bitter strugges in America over "cultural" issues show just why people do get upset about their beliefs. Humes' book shows why this bitter struggle is not likely to end with the Dover decision. ...less

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