A good meal has several courses.
In his 1999 book How the News Makes us Dumb1, historian C. John Sommerville observes that the greatest problem with today’s news coverage is not so much that it is biased (which it is), as that it is daily. As a consequence, news is reduced to the lowest common denominator, often without context, and shortened into quickly digestible “sound bytes.” Accessing news and information today is not difficult. But coming to a reasoned understanding of issues such as the global warming controversy or the creation/evolution/intelligent design debate using information from standard media outlets is essentially impossible. There is just no substitute for in-depth knowledge gained by reading several book-length arguments on a topic and chewing on the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments before forming a personal conclusion.
As a scientist and avid reader, I am sometimes asked to recommend books about the creation/evolution/ design debate for those without a background in science but with a hunger to understand. Just as a good meal has several courses, so, too, will a study of the debate. As an appetizer, read Phillip E. Johnson’s book Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds2. Written by a law professor, this easy-to-read book lays out a framework for thinking about the debate and for understanding each side’s definition of key words like “science” and “evolution.” Johnson points out how the issues and participants have been so stereotyped since the popular play and movie Inherit the Wind—a dramatized version of the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial” in Dayton, Tennessee— that valid criticisms of the scientific problems and biases of Darwinism are drowned out. Love and reason triumph over prejudice and religious bigotry, so the story goes. But this is not what actually happened in Dayton. For the real story of the trial, read Marvin Olasky’s excellent book, Monkey Business3.
The main course requires one to bite into the meat of the criticisms of Darwinian evolution and may require some determined chewing to digest. Phillip E. Johnson’s Darwin on Trial4 is worth the effort. It is the most concise and thoughtful book in print on the key issues. A lighter, more personal-discovery style course is found in Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator5. This readable book follows the author in a journey of discovery as he interviews many of the leading critics of modern Darwinian evolution and presents their views. Phillip E. Johnson serves up another meaty course designed to distinguish scientific fact from philosophy- laden interpretation in The Wedge of Truth6. Because interpretations influenced by philosophy often become “facts” through the media sound bite megaphone, learning to distinguish between the two may eventually split apart the intellectual foundation of Darwinism.
While I prefer to focus on written material because “reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body,”7 there are two DVDs that make a wonderful two-layer dessert for the mind. These are The Privileged Planet and Unlocking The Mystery Of Life, both from Illustra Media8. Bon appétit!
1 C. John Sommerville, How the News Makes Us Dumb (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999).
2 Phillip E. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism By Opening Minds (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997).
3 Marvin Olasky & John Perry, Monkey Business (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005).
4 Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin On Trial (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).
5 Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004).
6 Phillip E. Johnson, The Wedge of Truth (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000).
7 Sir Richard Steele (1672 – 1729). www.quotationspage.