Evolution Without Tears (The Evolution Controversy: A Survey of Competing Theories) (Book Review)

The Evolution Controversy: A Survey of Competing Theories by Thomas B. Fowler and Daniel Kuebler (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2007) The last twenty years have seen an intensifying of the evolution wars in the United States. The passion in these conflicts comes mainly from two groups, fundamentalist Christians and scientific atheists, who feed off each other even as they abominate each other. Although poles apart in their worldviews, they agree on one fundamental premise, namely that biological evolution is incompatible with Biblical religion. Polls show that the fundamentalists have much popular support: 45 percent of Americans believe that God created plants and animals within the past ten thousand years in approximately their present form (a view called creationism). The scientific atheists are much fewer in number but are energetic propagandists. Caught in the middle are the rest of the American people, most of whom see no contradiction between God and evolution. It is often overlooked that a large number of American scientists are traditional religious believers. (A recent survey showed that nearly half believe in a personal God who answers prayers.) The great majority of these religious scientists regard evolution as a well-established fact and look upon the public battles over it as pointless and embarrassing.