Why Only Us: Language and Evolutionby robert c. berwick and noam chomskymit press, 224 pages, $22.95Perhaps the most sensitive point of contact between religion and science is the issue of human distinctiveness. Christian teaching affirms that there is an “ontological discontinuity” between . . . . Continue Reading »
Despite its title, Tom Wolfe’s The Kingdom of Speech isn’t mainly about language. It’s about evolution, feckless intellectuals, and leftist politics. Continue Reading »
Right from the start, Darwin’s theory was about much more than scientific truth. Darwin himself believed that evolution by natural selection refuted the idea that nature displayed evidence of purposeful design. Writing near the end of his life, he wrote that “the old argument from design in . . . . Continue Reading »
Gayle talks with Thomas Fowler about The Evolution Controversy, a book surveying the competing theories surrounding evolution. Fowler (ScD, George Washington University) is Senior Principal Engineer at the Center for Information Technology and Telecommunications at Noblis, formerly known . . . . Continue Reading »
Creation, a film about Charles Darwin’s personal life, is not a rant against God or even a story of the heroism of one man crusading for science against religion. Surprisingly, the movie is not polemical. It doesn’t bother to argue against religion, nor does it spend time arguing for the . . . . Continue Reading »
During the second half of the nineteenth century, it became common to speak of a war between science and religion. But over the course of the twentieth century, that hostility gradually subsided. Following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II at the beginning of his . . . . Continue Reading »
The Language of God by francis s. collins free press, 304 pages, $26 “Today we are learning the language in which God created life.” With these words, President Clinton announced one of the great feats of modern science, the mapping of the human genome. Standing next to him in the East Room of . . . . Continue Reading »
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion by edward j. larson basic, 318 pages, $25, $14.95 If there are moments in history when “the road not taken” might have changed the course of events, the famous “Monkey Trial,” held in Dayton, . . . . Continue Reading »
Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996 1. In celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the academy’s refoundation, I would like to recall the intentions of my predecessor Pius XI, who wished to surround himself with a select group of scholars, relying on them to inform the . . . . Continue Reading »
The ice is beginning to crack in another section of the cold, hard surface of modernity. The part of the frozen lake that is breaking up this time is Darwinism, or at least Darwinism as a worldview with implications for culture and social policy. And as with the breaking up of Marxism and . . . . Continue Reading »
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