This book is a must to understand ID. (some would argue critical)
Doubts about Darwin
A History of Intelligent Design
Woodward, Thomas
ISBN: 0801064430 Price: US$19.99 Trim Size: 6 x 9 Pages:304 Release Date:Jul.
03
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Deep in the halls of scientific academia, a debate has been quietly raging
between Darwinian macroevolution and the theory of intelligent design. This
challenge to scientific naturalism has life-changing effects on the
fundamental cultural story of humanity; it asks what it means to be human and
questions whether or not we have a purpose and a destiny.
Beginning with Michael Denton's revolutionary book, Evolution: A Theory in
Crisis, author Thomas Woodward follows the key players and confrontations
that are creating a paradigm shift in both the scientific and public arenas.
He shows that the erosion of certainty about the factual truth of Darwinism
is the product of a rhetorical onslaught-the persuasive case-making by highly
accredited critics like Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, and William Dembski.
Accessible and compelling, Doubts about Darwin opens a dramatic door to moral
and intellectual reformation.
Author info
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Thomas Woodward (Ph.D., University of South Florida) is a professor at
Trinity College of Florida, where he teaches the history of science,
communication, and systematic theology. He is founder and director of the C.
S. Lewis Society and lectures in universities on scientific, apologetic, and
religious topics. He is an avid astronomer and has been published in Moody
magazine and Christianity Today.
Endorsements
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"Because of intelligent design's snowballing popularity, critics are now
eager to rewrite its history. Thomas Woodward's rhetorical history of the
Intelligent Design movement therefore comes at an opportune time, masterfully
disentangling the scientific, philosophical, and cultural impulses that drive
the movement." --William A. Dembski, author of No Free Lunch
"Thomas Woodward's Doubts about Darwin is a fascinating, faithful, and
trenchant analysis of the critical role of rhetoric in the rise of the modern
intelligent design movement. To understand the public battle over evolution,
you must read this book." --Michael J. Behe, Department of Biology, Lehigh
University
"Tom Woodward distinguishes himself as a valuable resource for understanding
the development of the Intelligent Design movement. He combines the scholar's
tools with a knack for narrative that results in a fascinating account of
what could be the most important science drama of our times." --Ravi
Zacharias, international speaker, author
"Tom Woodward's book--a vigorous and lively history of the Intelligent Design
movement--is must reading for parents, educators, scientists, and informed
citizens. Woodward provides crucial insights into the rhetorical dynamics of
the Design Movement and the reasons why it resonates both with scholars and
the broader public." --John Angus Campbell, professor of communication,
Memphis State University
"Tom Woodward has presented a remarkable account of the uses of rhetoric in
assaulting the pretensions of the neo-Darwinist fraternity. Earlier
commentators had questioned the dogmatic certainties of Darwinian
macro-evolution. The orthodoxies of random selection had long been enshrined
in virtually every biology textbook. Alas, the early critics made no
impression whatever on the teaching of biology. They were dismissed by the
academic evolutionists with much the same condescension that the clergy and
the English establishment displayed a century earlier in responding to Huxley
and the other defenders of evolution. Doubts About Darwin is a delightful
chronicle of the ways a small group of doubters are reshaping the debate and
bringing out the inadequacies of natural selection to the general public.
Doubters and believers alike ought to read Doubts About Darwin. It has much
to teach them." --Murray Eden, Ph.D., professor emeritus at M.I.T.
"The classic history of science as a problem-solving, rhetorical enterprise
is Martin J. S. Rudwick's The Great Devonian Controversy. Tom Woodward's
Doubts About Darwin contributes a new chapter in this history by analyzing
the current Intelligent Design controversy. Anyone interested in evolutionary
theory will profit from reading this book." --Walter Fisher, professor of
communication, University of Southern California
"Doubts about Darwin provides the first comprehensive treatment of the rise
of intelligent design theory, perhaps the most challenging intellectual
movement to come out of the United States in the last decade. Here Woodward
tells the story of disparate scholars equally dissatisfied with Neo-Darwinian
dogmatism who band together and slowly but surely shift the burden of proof
in their favour-and toward a more open science. Adept in the relevant
science, philosophy, and rhetoric, Woodward gives an inside view of this
increasingly visible scientific revolution. The mechanics detailed in
Woodward's story should inspire others who have wondered how learned
outsiders can bring about change in the very heartland of scientific
authority." --Steve Fuller, University of Warwick, England, author of Thomas
Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times
"Know anyone who's curious about the Intelligent Design controversy? What's
the fuss about? Who are the key players? What are they saying and why? Doubts
About Darwin is not only the best available guide to the ID movement's brief
but eventful history; it's probably also the best available primer on the
issues and arguments at stake in the debate." --Duane Litfin, president,
Wheaton College
"Doubts about Darwin is the first book to apply current rhetorical theory to
elucidate the fray between neo-Darwinian antagonists and ID. The book
presents a scholarly analysis of ID's efforts to take a legitimate scientific
position, and its detractors' efforts to debunk the movement. Tom Woodward
has skillfully fashioned a readable, balanced, and timely contribution that
should aid ID supporters and detractors alike in understanding the broader
narrative setting in which the clash between Darwinism and ID is being played
out." --Mark Whalon, professor in the Center of Applied Plant Research,
Michigan State University
