Laats, Adam (Author)
Siegel, Harvey J. (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 144
Language: English
No fight over what gets taught in American classrooms is more heated than the battle over humanity’s origins. For more than a century we have argued about evolutionary theory and creationism (and its successor theory, intelligent design), yet we seem no closer to a resolution than we were in Darwin’s day. In this thoughtful examination of how we teach origins, historian Adam Laats and philosopher Harvey Siegel offer crucial new ways to think not just about the evolution debate but how science and religion can make peace in the classroom. Laats and Siegel agree with most scientists: creationism is flawed, as science. But, they argue, students who believe it nevertheless need to be accommodated in public school science classes. Scientific or not, creationism maintains an important role in American history and culture as a point of religious dissent, a sustained form of protest that has weathered a century of broad—and often dramatic—social changes. At the same time, evolutionary theory has become a critical building block of modern knowledge. The key to accommodating both viewpoints, they show, is to disentangle belief from knowledge. A student does not need to believe in evolution in order to understand its tenets and evidence, and in this way can be fully literate in modern scientific thought and still maintain contrary religious or cultural views. Altogether, Laats and Siegel offer the kind of level-headed analysis that is crucial to finding a way out of our culture-war deadlock.
...MoreReview Graham Oppy (2017) Review of "Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 149-151).
Similar Citations
Thesis
Christopher W. Howell;
(2021)
Designer Science: A History of Intelligent Design in America
(/isis/citation/CBB325390187/)
Thesis
Yegge, John G.;
(2014)
A Historical Analysis of the Relationship of Faith and Science and its Significance within Education
(/isis/citation/CBB001567599/)
Book
Singham, Mano;
(2011)
God vs. Darwin: The War between Evolution and Creationism in the Classroom
(/isis/citation/CBB001033153/)
Book
Forrest, Barbara;
Gross, Paul R.;
(2004)
Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
(/isis/citation/CBB000450103/)
Article
Boudry, Maarten;
Blancke, Stefaan;
Braeckman, Johan;
(2012)
Grist to the Mill of Anti-Evolutionism: The Failed Strategy of Ruling the Supernatural Out of Science by Philosophical Fiat
(/isis/citation/CBB001250455/)
Thesis
Coopersmith, Jared Scott;
(2012)
Scientific Controversies and Boundary Disputes: The Intelligent Design Movement Network
(/isis/citation/CBB001561017/)
Book
Scott, Eugenie C.;
(2004)
Evolution vs. Creation: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000401112/)
Book
Lienesch, Michael;
(2007)
In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement
(/isis/citation/CBB000741873/)
Article
Lynch, Michael;
(2006)
From Ruse to Farce
(/isis/citation/CBB000780206/)
Book
Moore, John A.;
(2002)
From Genesis to Genetics: The Case of Evolution and Creationism
(/isis/citation/CBB000201491/)
Book
Fuller, Steve;
(2007)
Science vs. Religion? Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000931069/)
Article
Larson, Edward J.;
Numbers, Ronald L.;
(2012)
Creation, Evolution, and the Boundaries of Science: The Debate in the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB001320799/)
Article
Sheldon, Myrna Perez;
(2014)
Claiming Darwin: Stephen Jay Gould in Contests over Evolutionary Orthodoxy and Public Perception, 1977--2002
(/isis/citation/CBB001420097/)
Article
Levit, Inga;
Hoßfeld, Uwe;
Olsson, Lennart;
(2009)
Creationism in the Russian Educational Landscape
(/isis/citation/CBB001421104/)
Article
Kahm, Nicholas;
(2013)
Divine Providence in Aquinas's Commentaries on Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics, and Its Relevance to the Question of Evolution and Creation
(/isis/citation/CBB001201751/)
Article
Numbers, Ronald L.;
(2009)
Darwinisme, naturvidenskab og religion---en statusrapport
(/isis/citation/CBB001021779/)
Book
McGrath, Alister E.;
(2011)
Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB001220972/)
Book
Dembski, William A.;
Ruse, Michael;
(2004)
Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB000671270/)
Book
Brockman, John;
(2006)
Intelligent Thought: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement
(/isis/citation/CBB000671275/)
Book
Numbers, Ronald L.;
(2006)
The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design
(/isis/citation/CBB000772763/)
Be the first to comment!