-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Query on Book Review Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 08:22:55 -0700 From: Phil Gasper <pgasper at NDNU.EDU> To: SCIENCE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE at LIST.UVM.EDU
Does anyone on this list have a comment on the review of Gould in the June 10 _Nation_ by David Hawkes?
Carrol Cox
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:26:59 -0700 From: Eric Meikle <meikle at ncseweb.org> Organization: National Center for Science Education To: NCSE <ncse at inia.cls.org> Subject: [ncse] Intelligent design in "The Nation" Sender: owner-ncse at inia.cls.org Reply-To: ncse at inia.cls.org
NCSE members and friends,
An example of the increasing visibility of "intelligent design" has just appeared in the June 10 issue of "The Nation", in the form of a review by David Hawkes of SJ Gould's last book, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. See:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&s=hawkes
The first sentence of the review sets the tone of ignorance of history of science (and contemporary biology) found throughout the review: "Popular perception notwithstanding, the theory of natural selection was accepted by every serious evolutionist long before Darwin." Further down in the review Hawkes observes that "The recent advocates of 'intelligent design', however, demand to be taken a little more seriously because of their recent political and pedagogical successes...Hard-fought cases involving the boards of education in Kansas (1999) and Ohio (2002) have established a new beachhead for intelligent design in the public mind, while simultaneously throwing a shadow on natural selection's claim to be the exclusive motor of evolutionary change."
Apparently the complete lack of SCIENTIFIC successes for intelligent design aren't considered worthy of mention in this context. David Hawkes is a Professor of English at Lehigh University, which is also the home of "intelligent design's" chief biologist, Michael Behe. Behe and his book, Darwin's Black Box, are mentioned several times in the review, although not in Gould's book supposedly under review. Hawkes also claims that "... Gould's silence on the subject of intelligent design can be regarded as extremely eloquent."
The webpage cited above has a link for submitting letters to "The Nation" editors. You might want to take a moment to read the review and send a brief comment to the editors.
--Eric Meikle
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ W. Eric Meikle, Ph.D. Outreach Coordinator National Center for Science Education 420 40th St., Suite 2 Oakland, CA 94609-2509 510 601-7203 510 601-7204 (fax) 800 290-6006 meikle at ncseweb.org www.ncseweb.org ** * [ncse] NCSE announcements mailing list * To unsubscribe, send email to "majordomo at inia.cls.org" with a line, * "unsubscribe ncse your at email.address.here" * in the body of the message. Remove the quotes.