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Jul. 29th, 2009 10:17 amThe weirdest thing for me about reading Matthew Chapman's 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities On Trial in Pennsylvania is that I was living in Philadelphia then, and I remember reading newspaper articles about the trial in question. I kept expecting the book to be History - and then I would catch myself and remember, no, actually, it was four years ago, a couple hours away from my house.
The trial, to be specific, was a 2005 lawsuit brought by a group of parents against a school board that was pushing for intelligent design to be taught in the classroom. The author of the book is Darwin's great-great-grandson; this gimmick aside, the writing is pretty good, and the case itself is pretty fascinating. Basically, the prosecution's job was to prove that intelligent design was a religious offshoot of Creationism, and therefore illegal to teach in the classroom; the defense, on the other hand, spent their time protesting that intelligent design was srs scientific business, no really, and hey, that whole 'evolution' thing is just an unproven theory anyways, isn't it? One of the better bits of Chapman's writing deals with this line of questioning, when the defense is doing its level best to reverse the case and put Darwinism on trial instead of intelligent design:
The questions he was asking - or, more accurately, the accusations he was making - instead of causing Miller shame were instantly transformed into compliments. Muise kept saying "so you admit it! Science doesn't know everything!" and Miller kept replying "Yes! Isn't that wonderful!"
(I was also awfully entertained by his account of the Discovery Institute's list of "100 Scientists Doubting Darwinism," which was promptly countered with "200 Scientists Named Steve Accepting Evolution.")
Chapman is generally at his best when he's bouncing around being excited about science and scientists and how awesome they are; I was more dubious about his personal impressions of all the characters involved in the case, but he does make it very clear that these impressions are personal. He's also hugely biased against evangelical Christians - that is not a group I usually find myself called upon to defend, but I found some of his comments seriously offensive. I get the impression that the other book on the topic, Michael Humes' Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul might be a more evenhanded and in-depth account of the case. On the other hand, Monkey Girl was not on sale for fifty cents at the book sale where I picked up Chapman's book.
A NOTE: This is one of the few books I am reading these days that is neither from the library, nor something I have a huge investment in keeping around for my personal collection, so I am thinking I will probably Bookcross it. However, if anyone wants first grabs, let me know and I'll send it your way!
The trial, to be specific, was a 2005 lawsuit brought by a group of parents against a school board that was pushing for intelligent design to be taught in the classroom. The author of the book is Darwin's great-great-grandson; this gimmick aside, the writing is pretty good, and the case itself is pretty fascinating. Basically, the prosecution's job was to prove that intelligent design was a religious offshoot of Creationism, and therefore illegal to teach in the classroom; the defense, on the other hand, spent their time protesting that intelligent design was srs scientific business, no really, and hey, that whole 'evolution' thing is just an unproven theory anyways, isn't it? One of the better bits of Chapman's writing deals with this line of questioning, when the defense is doing its level best to reverse the case and put Darwinism on trial instead of intelligent design:
The questions he was asking - or, more accurately, the accusations he was making - instead of causing Miller shame were instantly transformed into compliments. Muise kept saying "so you admit it! Science doesn't know everything!" and Miller kept replying "Yes! Isn't that wonderful!"
(I was also awfully entertained by his account of the Discovery Institute's list of "100 Scientists Doubting Darwinism," which was promptly countered with "200 Scientists Named Steve Accepting Evolution.")
Chapman is generally at his best when he's bouncing around being excited about science and scientists and how awesome they are; I was more dubious about his personal impressions of all the characters involved in the case, but he does make it very clear that these impressions are personal. He's also hugely biased against evangelical Christians - that is not a group I usually find myself called upon to defend, but I found some of his comments seriously offensive. I get the impression that the other book on the topic, Michael Humes' Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul might be a more evenhanded and in-depth account of the case. On the other hand, Monkey Girl was not on sale for fifty cents at the book sale where I picked up Chapman's book.
A NOTE: This is one of the few books I am reading these days that is neither from the library, nor something I have a huge investment in keeping around for my personal collection, so I am thinking I will probably Bookcross it. However, if anyone wants first grabs, let me know and I'll send it your way!
