John Brockman of Edge.org on "Intelligent Thought," a new book of essays released today:
Science is the big news. Science is the important story. Science is public culture….Yet at the same time, religious fundamentalism is on the rise around the world, and our own virulent domestic version of it, under the rubric of "intelligent design," by elbowing its way into the classroom abrogates the divide between church and state that has served this country so well for so long. Moreover, the intelligent-design (ID) movement imperils American global dominance in science and in so doing presents the gravest of threats to the American economy, which is driven by advances in science and in the technology derived therefrom.
This book – sixteen essays by Edge contributors, all leading scientists from several disciplines – is a thoughtful response to the bizarre claims made by the ID movement's advocates, whose only interest in science appears to be to replace it with beliefs consistent with those of the Middle Ages. School districts across the country – most notably in Kansas and later in Pennsylvania, where the antievolutionist tide was turned but undoubtedly not stopped–have been besieged by demands to "teach the debate," to "present the controversy," when, in actuality, there is no debate, no controversy. What there is, quite simply, is a duplicitous public-relations campaign funded by Christian fundamentalist interests.
Here's the Amazon link.
Here's a link to more about the book, and here's a direct link to an excerpt from the chapter written by Neil Shubin. John explains,
He's the water to land transition expert who announced the discovery of the fossil Tiktaalik, 'a mosaic of primitive fish and derived amphibian,' on March 31 in SCIENCE to world-wide headlines (350 million years ago, fish emerged from water to land already showing skeletal evidence of human wrists, elbows, bones).
