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Science and Earth History: The Evolution/Creation Controversy
In this comprehensive treatment of the ongoing conflict between creationists and evolutionary scientists, well-known geomorphologist Arthur Strahler carefully examines creationists' claims of scientific evidence for the six-day divine creation of the universe, followed by the catastrophic flood of Noah, as claimed in Genesis. The creationists' arguments are examined and evaluated against the findings of mainstream science in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, geophysics, geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology.Updated with a new preface and responses to recent attacks on evolutionary theory, Science and Earth History can serve as both a popular overview of earth history and as a scholarly anecdote to the fictions of creationism once again finding their way into classrooms and universities. Strahler illuminates the controversy by reviewing the philosophy, methodology, and sociology of empirical science, as contrasted with the belief systems of religion and pseudoscience. The author also includes lucid criteria for distinguishing science from pseudoscience, and reviews the great discoveries and developments in science that point to the evolution of life over the earth's three-billion-year history.
- GenresScience
575 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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August 18, 2024
A CRITICAL APPROACH TO CREATIONISM BY A GEOLOGY PROFESSOR
Arthur Newell Strahler (1918-2002) was a geoscience professor at Columbia University. He wrote in the Preface to this 1987 book, "The attempt of fundamentalist Christians to blend science and religion into a coherent view of the universe is what this book examines... Creation scientists seek to emulsify two cognitive fields that not only resist union but crave separation... this book has a mission, which is primarily to explain what natural science is all about and how scientists go about doing it." (Pg. vii) He also was apparently raised in fundamentalist circles ["having recently been liberated from fundamentalism ourselves," pg. 67; "fundamentalist Protestants I knew in my early years," pg. 489].
Of the infamous 1981 talk at the American Museum of Natural History in New York by Colin Patterson [author of Evolution], where he asked, "Can you tell me anything about evolution, any one thing, that is true?" Strahler quotes Patterson: "I put a case for difficulties and problems with evolution, specifically in the field of systematics. I was too naive and foolish to guess what might happen: the talk was taped by a creationist who passed the tape to Luther Sunderland. Sunderland made a transcript, which I refused to edit, since it was pretty garbled, and since I had no exact record of what I did say. Since, in my view, the tape was obtained unethically, I asked Sunderland to stop circulating the transcript, but of course to no effect... I was putting a case for discussion, as I thought off the record, and was speaking only of systematics, a specialized field. I do not support the creationist movement in any way." (Pg. 354)
He recalls, "The Cambrian 'explosion'---what a juicy morsel for the creation scientists! What deeper gloom and doom could there be for evolutionists than great faunal complexity and diversity, preceded by nothing, or almost nothing? I must admit that as a geology student, unreservedly committed to Darwinian evolution, I found the Cambrian explosion to be an enigma that really 'tried one's faith.'" (Pg. 401)
He argues that "The transition from amphibians to reptiles causes some difficulties for the creationists because the fossil record shows all the intermediates one could ask for. Indeed, there is a plethora of transitional forms." (Pg. 411)
He admits that "Transition from reptilian scales to bird feathers are indeed lacking in the fossil record, but this transition is suggested by a study of the various kinds of feathers present on the wings of the modern penguin." (Pg. 425)
He also rejects the "directed panspermia" suggestion of Francis Crick ['Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature'], stating, "One wonders which of the two scenarios is the less probable: (a) spontaneous origin of life from nonlife on our planet, or (b) a rocket journey of enormous distance leading to a precise landing on a mere speck of an earth at a time when that earth had no other life but was in possession of a physical environment favorable to perpetuating new life, I would opt for the first scenario as being less improbable." (Pg. 511)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying the Creation/Evolution controversy.
Arthur Newell Strahler (1918-2002) was a geoscience professor at Columbia University. He wrote in the Preface to this 1987 book, "The attempt of fundamentalist Christians to blend science and religion into a coherent view of the universe is what this book examines... Creation scientists seek to emulsify two cognitive fields that not only resist union but crave separation... this book has a mission, which is primarily to explain what natural science is all about and how scientists go about doing it." (Pg. vii) He also was apparently raised in fundamentalist circles ["having recently been liberated from fundamentalism ourselves," pg. 67; "fundamentalist Protestants I knew in my early years," pg. 489].
Of the infamous 1981 talk at the American Museum of Natural History in New York by Colin Patterson [author of Evolution], where he asked, "Can you tell me anything about evolution, any one thing, that is true?" Strahler quotes Patterson: "I put a case for difficulties and problems with evolution, specifically in the field of systematics. I was too naive and foolish to guess what might happen: the talk was taped by a creationist who passed the tape to Luther Sunderland. Sunderland made a transcript, which I refused to edit, since it was pretty garbled, and since I had no exact record of what I did say. Since, in my view, the tape was obtained unethically, I asked Sunderland to stop circulating the transcript, but of course to no effect... I was putting a case for discussion, as I thought off the record, and was speaking only of systematics, a specialized field. I do not support the creationist movement in any way." (Pg. 354)
He recalls, "The Cambrian 'explosion'---what a juicy morsel for the creation scientists! What deeper gloom and doom could there be for evolutionists than great faunal complexity and diversity, preceded by nothing, or almost nothing? I must admit that as a geology student, unreservedly committed to Darwinian evolution, I found the Cambrian explosion to be an enigma that really 'tried one's faith.'" (Pg. 401)
He argues that "The transition from amphibians to reptiles causes some difficulties for the creationists because the fossil record shows all the intermediates one could ask for. Indeed, there is a plethora of transitional forms." (Pg. 411)
He admits that "Transition from reptilian scales to bird feathers are indeed lacking in the fossil record, but this transition is suggested by a study of the various kinds of feathers present on the wings of the modern penguin." (Pg. 425)
He also rejects the "directed panspermia" suggestion of Francis Crick ['Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature'], stating, "One wonders which of the two scenarios is the less probable: (a) spontaneous origin of life from nonlife on our planet, or (b) a rocket journey of enormous distance leading to a precise landing on a mere speck of an earth at a time when that earth had no other life but was in possession of a physical environment favorable to perpetuating new life, I would opt for the first scenario as being less improbable." (Pg. 511)
This book will be of great interest to anyone studying the Creation/Evolution controversy.
January 31, 2016
Magisterial. More than a simple demolition of young earth creationism, this is a full introduction to the modern understanding of the universe.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews