Product Description

While the mechanisms of evolution are still under investigation, scientists universally accept that the cosmos, our planet, and life evolved and continue to evolve. Yet the teaching of evolution to schoolchildren is still contentious. In "Science and Creationism", The National Academy of Sciences states unequivocally that creationism has no place in any science curriculum at any level. Briefly and clearly, this booklet explores the nature of science, reviews the evidence for the origin of the universe and earth, and explains the current scientific understanding of biological evolution. This edition includes new insights from astronomy and molecular biology. Attractive in presentation and authoritative in content, "Science and Creationism" will be useful to anyone concerned about America's scientific literacy: education policymakers, school boards and administrators, curriculum designers, librarians, teachers, parents, and students.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #738201 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 35 pages

About the Author
Steering Committee on Science and Creationism, National Academy of Sciences

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Short Overview of Biological Evolution
This short book is an excellent overview of the reasons scientist accept evolution. Since the creationist controversialists are not above employing equivocal arguments, I should mention that the National Academy of Sciences brings out the distinctions between facts, hypothesis, laws, and theories. In science, theories are well-established general explanations which provide a unified view of the sciences. The creationist controversialists love to play on a popular meaning of the term, which is roughly equivalent to hypotheses.

It should be pointed out that creationists believe in special creations, supernatural interventions, to explain the origin of life. Creation in the sense of sustaining the universe in being is in no way opposed to evolution.

In remarkably clear and compressed language, the authors discuss the ages of the universe, the galaxy, the earth, life, and human life. Based on radiometric dating, the earth appears to be about 4.54 billion years old. From fossil evidence, living organisms much like bacteria are known to have existed 3.5 billion years ago. The authors have a chart which shows when selected types of organisms evolved. The first hominids in the genus homo evolved about 2.4 million years ago.

A large subgroup of special creationists, the young earth creationists, try to compress the universe, or at least the history of life, into 10,000 years or less. This totally ignores many different areas of science, and the only basis is their interpretations of the biblical texts. And, of course, as anyone who has discussed the issues with them knows, the creationists have never been able to agree on their interpretations of the biblical texts.

Besides the sequences and dating of the fossil record, there are many things which point to a common ancestry. There are common structures in many different species, different distributions, similarities in their development, and more recently, advances in molecular biology. It is due to molecular biology that scientists have been able to deduce that the first modern humans originated about 100,000 to 150,000 years ago.

For some reason, the special creationists have decided that evolution is somehow opposed to creation. Evolution is, after all, simply "descent with modifications." The National Academy of Sciences, however, does not deal with this lack of logic or their appallingly bad biblical scholarship.

This book also deals with legal and other issues about teaching creationism in publicly funded classrooms in the United States. The federal course and the Supreme Court have decided that creationism is religion. Perhaps more significantly, it is bad science.

This fine little book cannot cover the whole controversy completely, of course, but it is authoritative and well worth reading. It shows that evolution is a central unifying concept in biology, and that students really should have the opportunity of learning about it in the classroom. Creationism, since it is not good science and is not testable, should not be taught in science classes.

Lest anyone should think otherwise, I should point out that I am a practising Christian, and have been all my life. As well, I have a particular interest in the history of the notion of creation.

Excellent Summary of the Scientific Facts
This short, easy to read, booklet presents the question very concisely. What will you have, scientific facts based on 200 years of research by millions of people OR creationist "facts" based on Fundamentalist religion? It's pretty clear from this short booklet that the validity of the Earth's age and evolution are solidly established. They are as close to facts as anything in science can be. This booklet gives a very short and concise description of what science knows. There is a brief introduction to current theories about the origin of the universe, Earth and life. It goes on to summarize the scientific evidence supporting evolution and then more specifically human evolution. It also make a clear statement that IN NO WAY does accepting the fact of evolution contradict belief in God. This is a good booklet to pass out in lecture situations where creationist try to pass of their religion using bogus scientific "facts".

Based on the consistent use of the scientific method
I have a BS in Earth Sciences, with a minor in biology, chemistry, and physics. I'm an Earth Sciences teacher and have been teaching for several years. This is a good outline that can be useful for science teachers and public school administrators who find themselves (sigh) having to refute the attempts of religious right to teach religion in a science class. Science class should be about scientific methods and principles, not faith and religion, and it should include be based on our use of the scientific method, not a sacred text. (Religion belongs in religion class, not science class.) For a good overview of this, see http://www.nsta.org/positionstatement&psid=10, the NSTA position of teaching evolution in schools)