Product Description

Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy," which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of "intelligent design theory," they highlight its threat to public education and to the separation of church and state.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #414781 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review

"Science educators can benefit greatly by understanding creationists' motivations and strategies. These are thoroughly documented in Creationism's Trojan Horse"--SCIENCE
"This is the definitive work on modern creationism, an exhaustively detailed and compelling exposure of the attempt--by the well-known process in nature called by biologists "aggressive mimicry"--to corrupt science in the service of sectarian religion. In the process, the book explores the larger and seemingly endless struggle between religion-based tribal values and science-based universal values."--Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University
"Creationism's Trojan Horse documents the disturbing movement to sneak religious dogma back into science education, driven by the vague fear that Americans can't handle the truth. Educators, scientists, and politicians would do well to understand this movement and its tactics, and this book is a superb and timely analysis."--Steven Pinker, Johnston Professor, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate
"Intelligent Design 'theory' (ID) has been well described as Creationism in a cheap Tuxedo. One if its luminaries, we are told, has 'angrily denied that ID is stealth creationism.' He is right. There's no stealth about it. It is Creationism. Unfortunately, ID 'theorists' have a streetwise political professionalism to outweigh the amateurishness of their science, and we therefore cannot ignore them. Barbara Forrest and Paul Gross meticulously document their pretensions, destroy their arguments, and expose their true motivation. An excellent and sadly necessary book."--Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene

From the Author
Why We Wrote This Book

Religious  interference in American science and science education is an old story. But intelligent design proponents’ cultivation of support for efforts to eliminate evolution from public school science, or to disparage it, and to secure recognition of creationists’ claims of scientific legitimacy, are today enjoying unprecedented, nationwide success. For the first time, such claims seem to many lay observers to have become respectable. In fact, however, they are no more respectable as scholarly inquiry, or specifically as biological science, than were their discredited "creation science" predecessors. Unfortunately, this is not widely understood. Nor is the seamless continuity of "Intelligent Design Theory" with other recognized forms of creationism. Having examined in detail claims made by members of the "Wedge," we saw it as our professional and civic obligation to scholarship and science to prepare a fully documented account of their anti-evolution agenda. We came to understand that, for the well-being of science and science education, the seamless continuity of intelligent design and traditional creationism must be demonstrated for our colleagues and the knowledgeable public. The narrowness of Wedge strategists’ religious aims, which do not reflect the values of the broader, more tolerant religious community, must be exposed, as must ID’s pervasively sham methods of inquiry. People who value science and the benefits of life in an enlightened society must be alerted to the Wedge’s political, cultural, and religious ambitions.

About the Author
Barbara Forrest is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University. She was a key witness for the prosecution in the recent highly publicized trial in Pennsylvania, where the judge banned the teaching of Intelligent Design in science classrooms. Paul R. Gross is University Professor of Life Sciences Emeritus at the University of Virginia.