An illuminating blend of science, religion and politics.
Inherit the Wind collides with the Woodstock Generation and true believers out of Babbitt, with strange—and highly readable—results.
A few years ago, a Pennsylvania school board faced a crisis brought on by fundamentalist ministers and parents, who demanded that the teaching of Darwinian evolution be scrapped for creationism or its recent variant, intelligent design (ID)—or anything else asserting that God created the earth 6,000 years ago and humankind has always existed in its present form. The assault worked, writes seasoned nonfiction author Humes (Mean Justice, 1999, etc.). The school board shed its doubting Thomases, including a member who had appeared nude on the Woodstock album cover, and the Bible entered the classroom. A group of pro-evolution parents fought back, filing a lawsuit against the school district that went before a federal court. Death threats flew, and expert witnesses flew in. Ideological lines hardened as ID advocates confessed to disputing not just monkey-to-man evolution but the idea that anything evolved from anything else, period. Big ideas were sounded and tested, with scientists patiently explaining that while there might be some holes in the evolutionary evidence, there were none in evolutionary theory. The judge’s ruling, writes Humes, was sound, but only a partial victory, because even though that verdict essentially held that anyone who disputes evolution is a blockhead, fully half and more of Americans at the beginning of the 21st century do indeed dispute it. Anti-evolution isn’t going to go away, the author acknowledges, but he offers a valuable primer in how to debate the matter by soldiering on through the arguments and counterarguments. Wondrously titled chapters such as “Paleozoic Roadkill, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Bad Frog Beer” provide plenty of sound and fury as they show some very angry people arguing the merits and necessity of science.
An illuminating blend of science, religion and politics.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-06-088548-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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