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For the Rock Record: Geologists on Intelligent Design
According to the idea of intelligent design, nature's complexity is the result of deliberate planning by a supernatural creative force. To date, most scientific arguments against this form of creationism have been made by evolutionary biologists. In this volume, a team of earth scientists reveals that the flaws of intelligent design are not limited to the biological sciences. Indeed, the geological sciences offer some of the best refutations of intelligent design arguements. For the Rock Record is dedicated to the proposition that the idea of intelligent design should be of serious concern to everyone. Editors Jill S. Schneiderman and Warren D. Allmon have gathered leading figures from the geological community with a wide range of viewpoints that go to the heart of the debate over what is and is not science. The purveyors of intelligent design theories and its kindred philosophies threaten the scientific literacy that our society needs by confusing faith and the practice of science. This collection offers a much-needed response.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2012
I have a somewhat sick fascination with creationist beliefs that needs to be feed at least once year. For the Rock Record was just the nourishment I needed. In this volume Jill Schneiderman and Warren Allmon have collected essays and papers written by practicing earth scientists about the Intelligent Design movement and creationism in general and have tried to dismantle many of these movements claims about geology. From the onset though you can tell that scientist had a difficult to really critique the Intelligent Design movement from a geological perspective, since it hasn’t taken much of a stance on geology, or the fossil record. This might be because those in the ID movement aren’t very concerned at the moment with the geologic ramifications of their ideas or they known that they can’t remain neutral if they begin to speculate about an “unknown” intelligent creator and its handy work with rocks, and actively avoid all discussion of geology whenever possible (I suspect the latter). So really, this is more of critique of the creationist movement in general and the philosophical underpinnings of intelligent design from the perspective of working geologist.
Most of the earlier essays deal with paleontology and the fossil record exemplifies the theory of evolution; and how IDers manipulate the public into a misunderstanding about what the record shows and how the evolutionary tree unfolds. For me though the best early chapter was one that summarized all the various conjectures presented by creationist to explain the earth’s structure within their narrow view of the Old Testament. That chapter only was worth the cover price. Most of the other chapters sort out philosophical, political, and religious issues in the debates about intelligent design. It is important to remember that these are written more from experience then any formally training in philosophy of science or theology. Which I think makes them accessible rather the all too academic speech that so often characterizes these kinds of debates. Warren Allmon ends the book with a chapter on how scientist approaches the religion-science debate. He gets a few geologists to speak candidly about their belief systems.
There are a couple of flaws with this book that should be mentioned. Since, the Intelligent Design movement has been rather mum about geology; some of the authors have taken it upon themselves to fill in the logical conclusions of an Intelligent Design. Not an easy task and I don’t think those involved would characterize the geologist conclusions in quite the same manner. The other flaw is that since this was a collection of essays written independently of one another, there is a lot of rehashing of the same introduction of the Intelligent Design movement and how it’s not science, which can grow tiresome, but the meat of each essay is different and fascinating in its own right that reading the same intro over and over again is well worth it.
On the whole this is a solid book that treads over much of the same ground that so many other books have showing the weaknesses of the various creationist movements. The only real difference form all those other books is that geologist and paleontologist wrote it from their perspective. Thus giving it a much narrower focus.
Most of the earlier essays deal with paleontology and the fossil record exemplifies the theory of evolution; and how IDers manipulate the public into a misunderstanding about what the record shows and how the evolutionary tree unfolds. For me though the best early chapter was one that summarized all the various conjectures presented by creationist to explain the earth’s structure within their narrow view of the Old Testament. That chapter only was worth the cover price. Most of the other chapters sort out philosophical, political, and religious issues in the debates about intelligent design. It is important to remember that these are written more from experience then any formally training in philosophy of science or theology. Which I think makes them accessible rather the all too academic speech that so often characterizes these kinds of debates. Warren Allmon ends the book with a chapter on how scientist approaches the religion-science debate. He gets a few geologists to speak candidly about their belief systems.
There are a couple of flaws with this book that should be mentioned. Since, the Intelligent Design movement has been rather mum about geology; some of the authors have taken it upon themselves to fill in the logical conclusions of an Intelligent Design. Not an easy task and I don’t think those involved would characterize the geologist conclusions in quite the same manner. The other flaw is that since this was a collection of essays written independently of one another, there is a lot of rehashing of the same introduction of the Intelligent Design movement and how it’s not science, which can grow tiresome, but the meat of each essay is different and fascinating in its own right that reading the same intro over and over again is well worth it.
On the whole this is a solid book that treads over much of the same ground that so many other books have showing the weaknesses of the various creationist movements. The only real difference form all those other books is that geologist and paleontologist wrote it from their perspective. Thus giving it a much narrower focus.
May 17, 2014
The premise of this book (anthology pub. 2009) is that catastrophic deposition theories are lacking and the physical evidence does not support them.
Since this book was published the same year as Snelling "Earth's Catastrophic Past", the authors obviously could not have taking this information into account. In science theories can quickly become obsolete in the presence of new physical data / lab experiments, this is also true for catastrophic deposition theories. It would not be accurate to take theories from 5 years ago, asses them as faulty and thus write-off all subsequent theories.
In effect this book itself is already dated since catastrophic deposition theories have already been changed in the face of new physical evidence. It does not acknowledge or discounts all critical questions to standard geologic theory.
Since this book was published the same year as Snelling "Earth's Catastrophic Past", the authors obviously could not have taking this information into account. In science theories can quickly become obsolete in the presence of new physical data / lab experiments, this is also true for catastrophic deposition theories. It would not be accurate to take theories from 5 years ago, asses them as faulty and thus write-off all subsequent theories.
In effect this book itself is already dated since catastrophic deposition theories have already been changed in the face of new physical evidence. It does not acknowledge or discounts all critical questions to standard geologic theory.
September 5, 2013
For the Rock Record is actually not really a book about geology, despite the subtitle. Two chapters in the book focus on geological responses to creationist arguments (the first two), and the remainder of the chapters address various topics relating to the intersection of science education and the new creationism. As such the book does retread a lot of ground familiar to those who have read a lot of the relevant literature, but two specific chapters are good enough on their own for me to recommend this volume to the interested reader: "Pigeonholing the 'Dino-Birds'" by Allison R. Tumarkin-Deratzian and "The 'God Spectrum' and the Uneven Search for a Consistent View of the Natural World" by Warren D. Allmon. The former is an interesting look at feathered dinosaurs and the origin of birds but is especially noteworthy for containing one of the most succinct and lucid explanations of the cladistic method I've seen in years. Allmon's contribution outlines and analyzes a variety of perspectives on the notion of monotheistic religion and its relationship to science as it is practiced today. While I'm not sure that I agree with all of his conclusions, his exhortation for practicing scientists to engage with the public about their beliefs and why the methods of science should not be influenced by any religious ideas is something I can definitely endorse.
October 7, 2009
Excellent essays that counter the intelligent design argument that there are no "missing links," thus Darwin was wrong. Actually there are many missing links in the fossil record, clearly showing the gradual selection for adaptive traits. Written in language accessible for the non-geologist.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews