Posted by As part of my one-man media blitz for my new book Among the Creationists: Dispatches From the Anti-Evolutionist Frontline, let me call your attention to a few posts.
P. Z. Myers has posted a nice review.:
What do you do on airplanes? I usually devour a book or two, usually something popcorny and light, sometimes something I need to get read for work. On my trip home from Washington DC, I lucked out: I was handed a book the day I took off, and it turned out to be a damned good read.
Glad you liked it, P.Z! On the other hand, I do feel I must respond to his one criticism:
Jason Rosenhouse is my co-blogger at Scienceblogs — he’s a mathematician, but he’s also neck-deep in the evolution/creationism wars. He was in town for the Reason Rally (wait: from the description, he left before my talk. Cancel the review, gotta pan him instead…nah, I guess I’ll forgive him this one time), and he gave me his brand new book, Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line.
Yes, sadly, I did leave the Rally before P. Z. gave his talk. In my defense, though, I knew I would be seeing him the next day at the American Atheists Convention, so I could afford to be cavalier. (Incidentally, P. Z.’s talk at the conference was excellent. He was the last speaker I saw before I had to leave, and I was smiling about it during the entire drive home.)
Meanwhile, over at
Beyond Biblical Fundamentalism, Rosenhouse also discusses the problems atheists have with the arguments of theology and philosophy on the question of God’s existence.
I haven’t read all of those sections as yet, but I imagine many of the professional academics in philosophy and theology will find much to disagree with. Some, too, are more interested in other questions than whether the goodness of any deity can be reconciled with the apparent wastefulness and bloody winnowing process of natural selection.
Still, I find Rosenhouse’s broader point merits consideration-in that what’s been published for the general reader so far in trying to reconcile evolution with a Divine Plan … has certainly not been very persuasive.
I’m sure the pros will, indeed, find much to disagree with! Regarding the choice of topics, however, I would simply mention that while some philosophers may have moved on from the problem of evil, most creationists have not. The point of the chapter I devote to this question was that I understand why creationists consider it a problem, and why they are unimpressed by the replies served up by theistic evolutionists.
Nor should we overlook this article from The Christian Post. I corresponded with the author, Michael Gryboski, by e-mail. Here’s an excerpt:
In an interview with The Christian Post, Rosenhouse, who is an associate professor of mathematics at James Madison University in Virginia, explained his reasons for writing the book.
“In May 2000, having just finished my graduate studies in mathematics, I began a post-doc at Kansas State University. This was when the fracas over their science standards was still in full swing,” said Rosenhouse.
“I found out about a conference for religious homeschoolers to be held in Wichita…It turned out that all of the keynote speakers at the conference were from Answers in Genesis. This led me to become interested in learning more about the science of evolution and what my fellow conference attendees thought about it.”
As to his opinion as to whether or not the conferences on creation science that he attended made convincing arguments, Rosenhouse said that he felt that proponents of creation science made the most valid points regarding “the religious implications of evolution.”
That last line is somewhat misleading. In our e-mail exchange Gryboski asked me if I thought the creationists had any legitimate scientific arguments to make. I won’t repost my entire reply, but let’s just say that it featured words like “garbage” and “nonsense.” I seem to recall saying their scientific arguments were not even interesting, much less correct. It was against this that I contrasted their arguments regarding the religious significance of evolution, where, as regular readers of this blog are aware, I think they have some decent points to make.
Anyway, the article also trots out a creationist back-bencher named Bob Sorensen to scold me. Oh well. Considering the venue I think it’s actually a decent article. So go have a look.
I see there are already three thoughtful (and almost completely positive!) reviews over at Amazon, so go have a look at them as well. I figure it is inevitable that creationist spammers will eventually drive down my ratings by posting negative reviews, but so far they do not seem to have noticed.
Clearly, then, my book is the talk of the nation. Don’t be left out of the conversation! Go buy multiple copies, read one of them, and let me know what you think!
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