Book Reviews

S & CB (2001), 13, 69–96 0954–4194 Book Reviews

Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths stimulating. The former section con- Sex and Death: An Introduction to cludes with a discussion of the pros and Philosophy of Biology cons of reductionism, a topic familiar to Chicago: University of Chicago Press, most readers of this journal. The authors 1999. 440pp. pb. $22.00; £17.50. note that the relationship between classi- ISBN 0-226-77304-3. cal Mendelian genetics and molecular genetics is ‘not one in which the new the- This book makes a refreshing change ory explains the old, but one in which the from the plethora of popular science new and old theories represent comple- books written by evolutionary biologists mentary and mutually illuminating ways attempting, with varying degrees of suc- of viewing the same physical cess, to demonstrate the truth about life process’(138). However I would chal- as we know it. These two philosophers of lenge the limitation of such ‘mutually science provide an account of contempo- illuminating ways’ to those that are ‘sci- rary biology which examines the work of entific’ whilst accepting that ‘scientific biologists such as Dawkins, Dennett, theories cannot traffic in apparently Gould and Wilson, as well as a host of miraculous mechanisms’ (139). Having less popular authors, and offer the cri- presented the arguments for defining a tique of informed outsiders. gene as DNA plus its context, the authors conclude that both reductionism and The subject is divided into five sec- anti-reductionism have helped our grow- tions. The first section introduces issues ing understanding of the relationship which will be discussed in detail in sub- between molecular genetics and classical sequent sections and provides an analy- genetics. Molecular genetics is not a sim- sis of the ‘received view’ of evolution. ple extension of biochemistry but incor- Subsequent sections focus on the nature porates insights from cell biology in an and role of genes, the role of the organism understanding of the physical process of and the significance of species, the bigger heredity. picture offered by ecology and the direction of evolution, and finally a focus on The section on human nature traces the evolutionary insights into human nature. application of evolutionary theory to Within each chapter the main text is behaviour through sociobiology and allowed to flow without intrusive cita- more recently the field of evolutionary tions and there is a helpful discussion of psychology. A balanced assessment of texts for further reading at the end of each these fields is offered. The authors con- chapter. Some chapters also include a cede that although some progress has summary before the further reading mate- been made ‘the practical and theoretical rial. The book is written as a textbook for problems that infest this project are far advanced undergraduate students of biol- from being overcome’ (353). ogy and is not a light read. However the features of the layout mentioned above, In conclusion the authors state that together with the thorough coverage of groups, species and organisms cannot be material at each level of the analysis explained away as ‘epiphenomena of would make it accessible to non-biolo- processes at lower levels of biological gists interested in this area of the philos- organisation’ (380). They maintain that ophy of science. there is no convincing argument against the possibility of group selection in some I found the sections on the place of cases. They are therefore critical of an genes and on human nature particularly overemphasis on the reductionist

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Book Reviews approach to evolution. This is a much- disavowing organised religion. needed challenge to the dominant view of Dawkins et al. and deserves careful In his second chapter, Jammer turns study by those interested in a detailed from Einstein’s personal attitude to what critique of contemporary evolutionary he has written about religion and its role thought. in human society. The chapter is entitled ‘Einstein’s Philosophy of Religion’ and Andrew Fox is the Methodist Chaplain sets out to be a logical justification of the to Liverpool University and a former attitudes described in the first chapter. I animal physiologist. must confess that I felt rather suspicious of this (re)construction of Einstein’s philosophy of religion. Jammer’s interpretative approach seems to have been to Max Jammer assume that it must always be possible to reconcile apparently contradictory state- Einstein and Religion. Physics and ments. The result is a superhuman degree theology Princeton, NJ: Princeton University of consistency. Frankly I doubt whether Press, 1999, 279pp, hb. £14.50. even someone of Einstein’s stature could achieve such consistency outside his ISBN 0-691-00699-7 own field (and, indeed, his vacillations Everyone with an interest in the relation- about the implications of relativity theory ship between physics and theology will for the nature of time suggest that he did welcome the publication of this volume not always achieve it within his own by the distinguished philosopher of field). That criticism apart, this chapter physics, Max Jammer. In spite of the gen- offers a valuable summary of Einstein’s eral recognition of the importance of articulated views about religion. In par- Einstein’s thought both for modern ticular it explores his lifelong admiration physics and its relationship with religion for Spinoza and sets his well-known this is, as far as I am aware, the first com- determinism, realism and insistence on prehensive account of Einstein’s own the impersonality of God in that context. views on the relationship. The final chapter is devoted to Jammer has organised his material into ‘Einstein’s Physics and Theology.’ Here three main sections. The first of these Jammer moves on from Einstein’s own deals with ‘Einstein’s Religiosity and the views to explore some of the ways in Role of Religion in His Private Life’. As which his contributions to science have the title suggests, this chapter deals with been received by theologians and Einstein’s personal attitude toward reli- philosophers of religion. These explo- gion from childhood until his death. It is rations are organised logically (following a detailed and roughly chronological roughly the order in which the ideas on account in which Jammer documents which they are based appeared within Einstein’s apparently self-contradictory the development of relativity theory) attitude towards religion. On the one rather than chronologically. Among the hand, he had a lifelong aversion to issues tackled are the implications of authority that was expressed in a distaste Einstein’s redefinition of simultaneity for for organised religion (culminating in his our understanding of eternity, determin- request not to be given a Jewish funeral). ism and omniscience; theological uses On the other hand, as a personal response (and abuses) of time dilation; T F to the cosmos, he experienced what can Torrance’s use of mass-energy equiva- only be described as profound religious lence as an exegesis of Incarnation and, feelings. In short, Einstein’s personal reli- more generally, Pannenberg’s assignment gion is shown to be typically late modern of theological significance to Einstein’s – affirming personal spirituality while concept of field. Finally he explores some

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Book Reviews of the theological implications of quan- forgiveness and the remaining 8 papers tum mechanics (on the grounds that give a very comprehensive overview of Einstein’s criticisms played a major role our current knowledge about the psy- in shaping its development). Some read- chology and sociology of forgiveness. Not ers may find this final chapter both con- surprisingly it is shown that forgiveness fusing and inconclusive. In part this is is a very complex concept and that for- due to the fact that Jammer distances both giveness can be blocked by a range of Einstein and himself from the discus- social and psychological processes. sions he is reporting. Thus it reflects the The most interesting part of the book is current status of theological efforts to the 3 chapters on how forgiveness and appropriate Einstein’s ideas. reconciliation can be promoted. First it is Jammer has done an excellent job in very clearly argued that forgiveness and bringing together and making accessible reconciliation are two rather different the scattered evidence for Einstein’s things. It is possible to forgive unilater- views about religion. Unfortunately the ally but reconciliation requires efforts work is marred by the extreme length of from both sides. In order for reconcilia- the chapters (Chapter 3 runs to 110 tion to occur the offenders have to pages!) and the complete lack of internal acknowledge their responsibility for the divisions. This makes reading the book a acts that have harmed others. Second it is more daunting task than is necessary. shown through a review of a number of Nevertheless, this is a valuable contribu- intervention studies that it is actually tion to the subject. possible to promote forgiveness and reconciliation through carefully structured Lawrence Osborn is a theologian who therapeutic and social processes, and that has written extensively on the interac- those who forgive do gain measurable tion between Christianity and contem- psychological benefits. porary culture. The chapters in the book clearly show that forgiveness is no longer just something that is advocated by Christianity and other religions, and which is also Everett L. Worthington, Jr. (ed.) more generally believed to be a nice thing Dimensions of Forgiveness – to do. Forgiveness is a specifiable social Psychological Research & Theological and psychological process with concrete Perspectives social and psychological outcomes. Philadephia: Templeton Foundation Press, 1998. 368 pp. hb. $22.95. This analysis of the concept of forgive- ISBN 1-890151-21-1 ness and its research base has important implications in a number of academic Forgiveness is undoubtedly a central con- areas concerned with interactions cept in Christian theology and Christian between people (peace studies, bioethics, life. But exactly what is forgiveness? education just to mention a few), but the What makes people forgive others? What implications extend even further to more are the psychological and social conse- practical questions with importance for quences of forgiveness? And how can for- many Christian churches. Many churches giveness be promoted? These are the have in the past been engaged in activi- questions into which this very interesting ties that have deeply hurt people (e.g. book provides some insights. The book overt racism). It is necessary that these contains the papers from a conference on past abuses of power are recognised and the scientific study of forgiveness organ- that reconciliation is sought with the ised by the John Templeton Foundation. affected groups of people. This book Two initial papers outline the Christian helps to show how such reconciliation and Jewish understanding of the role of can be promoted, and why forgiveness

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Book Reviews and reconciliation will benefit both past ical reasoning in North American intel- offenders and past victims. lectual culture between roughly 1890 and 1930. He believes it to have stemmed ‘in Søren Holm is Reader in Bioethics at the large part from the failure of evangelicals Institute of Medicine, Law and Bioethics, to develop an adequate theology of sci- University of Manchester, and Professor ence’ (128). But the rot goes back much of Medical Ethics at the Centre for further than that – to the via moderna of Medical Ethics, University of Oslo William of Ockham et al. and the move to find the meaning of the created order entirely within it, as discerned by observation and experience. The subsequent Craig M Gay history of science has thus overempha- The Way of the (Modern) World Or, sised the autonomy of creation and led to Why it’s Tempting to Live As If God the complete objectification of the world Doesn’t Exist and the death of the soul or person. Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans & What I am unclear about is whether Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, Gay therefore thinks science – or at least 1998. 338 pp. pb. $22.00. the study of creation – should be con- ISBN 0-85364-890-5 cerned with God and the human person. Followers of Gospel & Culture issues will Is he advocating natural theology? I was be familiar with the broad lines of this relieved to reach the following sentence: book. I once went to a study day given by ‘if the truth of our existence is to be the late great Lesslie Newbigin entitled known it must be spoken into the world How can we sing the Lord’s Song in a from outside the world. It must be Strange Land? The masterful thing about revealed’ (127). But you can’t have your it was that it was all in the title; there cake and eat it: either creation can teach was a morning session on ‘The Strange us about the divine (in which case the Land’ and an afternoon one on ‘Singing door is opened to natural theology) or it the Lord’s Song’. That lament (from cannot (in which case science is neces- Psalm 137, ‘By the waters of Babylon’), sarily a secular enterprise). and its context of spiritual and cultural exile, encapsulates both the Christian Having said that, I am sure that his sense of cultural dislocation and the analysis of the objectification of the uni- Christian calling within it. verse and its depersonalisation is spot on. And his theological diagnosis is also A rather similar purpose is served by excellent: via a magisterial survey of the- an opening quotation in Gay’s book, from ologians from Kierkegaard to Vladimir Psalm 2: ‘The kings of the earth take their Lossky, and following the I-Thou of stand and the rulers gather together Martin Buber, Gay urges us towards a against the Lord and against his Anointed proper relational view of God (as Trinity) One. “Let us break their chains,” they say, and ourselves (as persons). With an “and throw off their fetters.”’ insightful sideswipe at ‘the contemporary culture of therapeutic narcissism’ (234), The book is about secularisation, its he commends a Christian recovery of the history and effects. Gay views the process ‘relational telos of all Christian proposi- as a simultaneous throwing away of tions’ (280). divine explanations and divine authority. He traces this in the fields of politics Gay is learned, clear and largely con- (chapter 1), science and technology (ch vincing. But I think that his psalm verse 2), economics (ch 3) and culture (ch. 4). leads him into a view of submission as a Readers of this journal will be especially requirement of God which owes too interested in chapter 2. Gay looks at what much to Ancient Near East autocracy and he calls the ‘disestablishment’ of theolog- not enough to his well argued view on

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Book Reviews discovering our true identities through on the Earth. Many ingenious theories the mutual give and take of personal rela- were published to explain where the tionships (especially with God). water came from and where it went after- wards, what effects this had on the conti- Nicholas Moir is the Vicar of nents and seas, how the animals survived Waterbeach and Rector of Landbeach, on the Ark, how the present distribution near Cambridge of animals on the continents fitted with radiation from Ararat etc. Cohn points out that these last two issues had been discussed by many authors before this: Norman Cohn the discovery of the Americas in particu- Noah’s Flood: The Genesis Story in lar had posed problems for the literal Western Thought interpretation of Genesis back in Tudor New Haven & London: Yale University times. Cohn recounts how vigorous the Press, 1996, 154 pp. hb. £22.50 debates were during these centuries. ISBN 0-300-06823-9. 1999, 154 pp. pb. The origins of modern Young Earth £10.50 ISBN 0-300-07648-7 Creationism are only briefly discussed. It’s not often on finishing a book from a Cohn points out that Whitcomb and distinguished university press that I wish Morris’s idea of stratification of fossils by it had been a bit longer so that the issues fluid resistance on the basis of shape had raised could have been discussed in more its precursor in Woodward’s idea of strat- depth! But having said that, this book is a ification by density. good introduction to the influence the The chapter I found most frustratingly flood story in Genesis has had on people short is the last one where Cohn deals at various times down the centuries. And with the use made of the story from the it is also well illustrated. The author late 19th and through the 20th century by takes a more ‘liberal’ view of the origin of writers such as Frazer (The Golden the biblical story than many readers of Bough), Freud, and Jung among others. this journal might be happy with, placing Cohn states that they went back to an old its writing during the Babylonian exile as tradition exemplified by the medieval an adaptation and critique of the Epic of cabbalists of looking for hidden mean- Gilgamesh (he takes Jeremiah 4: 23-25 as ings. Cohn accuses these more recent a literary clue for this idea). writers of paying no attention to the Be that as it may, the author quickly thought of the biblical author, of being traces the use of the flood story by the mutually contradictory, and of being far- New Testament writers, the various alle- fetched! gorical and literal interpretations of the As an introduction the book is useful. Flood and the Ark by the Church Fathers However, there are other books that I and medieval rabbis in order to arrive at would still turn to first as they deal with what seems to interest him the most: the the issues in more detail, such as: The 17th-19th centuries. It was during this Meaning of Fossils by Martin J.S. Rudwick time that the modern discipline of geol- (Univ. Chicago Press, 1976), The ogy arose, and Cohn devotes five of the Creationists by Ronald L. Numbers book’s eleven chapters to this period. (Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), and The Biblical In general terms up to the early 19th Flood by Davis A. Young (Eerdmans, century, the author states that British nat- 1995). ural philosophers were more concerned than their French counterparts to explain Stephen Walley is a Research what they saw in the field in terms of the Associate at the Cavendish Great Flood, often thought of as the last of Laboratory, Cambridge, UK. a series of catastrophes to have occurred

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John Maynard Smith and Eors consisting of many different types of Szathmary cells, (7) linking up of solitary individu- The Origin of Life: From the Birth of als into groups to form colonies and finally (8) development of language Life to the Origin of Language Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. which caused the transition from primate 192 pp. pb. £7.99 (ape) societies to human societies. ISBN 0-19-28620-9X Transfer of information starts in stage (3) with the evolution of the genetic code. This book is a version for general reader- The code is used throughout the ensuing ship of ‘The Major Transitions in stages until in stage (8) the human lan- Evolution’ (Oxford: W.H. Freeman/ guage is reached. The authors stress the Spektrum, 1995) which was written for analogy between the genetic code and professional biologists. According to the human language: both depend on a lim- author’s preface The Origins of Life ‘pres- ited number of units arranged in linear ents a novel picture of evolution. Our sequences, which can carry an indefi- basic idea was that evolution depends on nitely large number of meanings. The changes in the information that is passed analogy is illuminating, but is it mean- between generations, and that there have ingful or simply fortuitous? been “major transitions” in the way that information is stored and transmitted, In this book the authors have covered starting with the origin of the first repli- the entire field of biology, including cating molecules and ending with the ori- genetics – the field at least one of them gin of language’. (JMS) has led for several decades – molecular biology, cell physiology, ecol- A book entitled The Origins of Life ogy and linguistics. They cannot be should show some awareness of what the equally expert in every field and indeed general reader’s preconceptions are likely the reviewers have found in the fields in to be. In this review we shall see to what which they themselves have some com- extent these conditions have been ful- petence (cell physiology and linguistics) filled. that some of the information given is From the first page, the authors make faulty. For instance, a rather large section clear to us that in their view evolution, of Chapter 6 on the origin of wall-less from the formation of the first replicating cells is controversial since there is a mis- molecules on the newly formed earth to interpretation of the role of the cytoskele- the living forms we know at present, has ton, a network of protein fibres within the been due to Darwinian natural selection. interior of nucleated cells. The authors For them this is the chief, and probably believe that the cytoskeleton acts like a the only, mechanism responsible for the sort of firm corset within cells that have adaptation of organisms to their environ- lost their cell-wall, whereas in fact it does ment and for the creation of new species. maintain cell shape, but it is flexible and What is new, and what makes the book cannot control cell-volume. exhilarating reading is the idea that evo- The final chapter, on the origin of lan- lution has been dominated by eight guage, is heavily dependent on Chomsky changes, or transitions, consisting of: (1) and his followers, whose thesis is that the enclosure of replicating molecules into ability to speak is due to a specific lan- protocells, (2) linking together of genes to guage organ lying somewhere within the form chromosomes, (3) evolution of the brain so that the acquisition of language genetic code, (4) transition of procaryotes (a term they prefer to ‘learning to speak’) (bacteria) to eucaryotes (all other organ- is a matter of instinct. The entire chapter isms), (5) transformation of asexual is devoted to proving the existence of this groups of cells into sexual populations, ‘language organ’, though as they them- (6) formation of multicellular organisms selves sometimes put it in quotation

74 • Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 Book Reviews marks and sometimes not, it is hard to do not know”. At that, I felt deflated: so know whether they take it to be a much science has led…. To what? Non- metaphorical organ or a real solid object professional readers do not regard them- like the liver or the gall bladder. All the selves as merely one more kind of evidence they quote has been disputed machine, which is what biology reduces (see e.g. G. Sampson, Educating Eve, them to. Mary Midgley (The Ethical London: Cassell, 1997) and some is Primate, London: Routledge, 1994) has downright faulty. For instance, the sec- dealt with this attitude at length. Am I tion on genetics of language, which like a wonderful motorcar standing in a depends on the study of a single family in show room, admirably built no doubt but Essex, has been repeated and the conclu- what for, if anything? This appears to be sions of the original worker revised. In the biological picture of the human being short the idea that we acquire language whose only fate is to evolve into a better by instinct, rather than learning it from model. our patient Mothers, is far from being proven, though Chomsky’s critics agree At this point I turned to Keith Ward that there must be genetic control of the (God, chance and Necessity, Oxford: ability to learn one’s mother-tongue and Oneworld, 1996) who has dealt at some indeed any language. length with problems to religion arising from reductionism in biology. He tells us However, Chomsky’s hypothesis suits that the theist has an answer to the ques- well the underlying message of the book, tion: what for? “The universe was created which is the overwhelming importance for a purpose, and this purpose is to of natural selection in the creation and realise intrinsic values among persons in development of life from its inception to relationship and community…. I should the formation of human societies. aim at goodness because that is the objec- Admittedly, the authors are careful to tive purpose of my existence”. give some role to the importance of culture in human development and they Darwin is commonly said to have aban- stress the importance of myth and ritual doned religion, yet he ended The Origin in solving conflicts between different of Species by writing “… from so simple a societies (Chapter 12). beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are But here we come to the major short- being evolved.” Purpose, awe, wonder, coming of this book. The authors are not these, I feel, are the true outcomes of the out merely to teach us rather a lot of biol- origin of life, no doubt for the profes- ogy, a thing they do very well. Their mes- sional biologist as well as for the general sage is that natural selection, and nothing reader. else is responsible for life on earth. They ignore scientific evidence, which demon- To conclude, is this book to be recom- strates other creative forces. The picture mended to readers of Science & Christian Maynard Smith and Szathmary give us Belief? In my opinion, yes, most defi- does not accord with that of other scien- nitely. It is challenging to intelligence tists, such as Stephen Jay Gould, who and to faith; it stimulates the reader to think about the origins of life (Gould,S.J. think deeply on the many issues it raises. and Lewontin, R.C., ‘The Spandrels of No final answers may be found but for San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: God’s sake, lets go on searching for them. a critique of the adaptionist programme’, Proc. Roy. Soc. 205(1978), 581-589). Margaret Ginzburg, Associate Professor, Institute of Life Sciences, The book ends: “Will electronic the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, devices acquire means of self-replication Israel, and Jonathan Ginzburg, (i.e. life), and evolve or replace the prim- Department of Philosophy, King’s itive life forms that gave them birth? We College London, U.K.

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Book Reviews

Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch ments on the speed of light; Eddington’s The Golem: What You Should Know observations to test the general theory of about Science (second edition) relativity; recent attempts to detect grav- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ity waves and to measure the flux of solar 1998. 192 pp. pb. £7.95 neutrinos; the cold fusion fiasco; ISBN 0 521 64550 6 Pasteur’s debate with Pouchet in the 1860s over spontaneous generation; Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch experiments on learning and memory in flatworms; and the mating behaviour of The Golem at Large: What You Should whiptail lizards. The common theme of Know about Technology the studies is that work at the cutting Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 163 pp. hb. £12.95 edge of science is messy and inconclusive. Successful experimentation requires ISBN 0 521 55141 2 skill and judgement; different experi- In Kabbalistic legend a Golem is a figure menters get different results, and the out- shaped from clay and animated by a mag- come is seldom immediately clear. There ical inscription. As might be expected, may arise what the authors call the this procedure is not without its hazards. ‘experimenter’s regress’, where the The Golem commonly runs out of con- acceptance of an experimental result trol, destroying its surroundings and its depends on its consistency with the very creator. Like Frankenstein’s Creature, the theory it is meant to test. Only after a con- Golem has become a metaphor for the sensus has emerged in the scientific com- dangers of overreaching intellectual munity can the ‘right’ results be identi- ambition. fied. History is then tidied up in the text- In The Golem: What You Should Know book accounts, which serve as ‘sustaining about Science, first published in 1993, myths’. Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch give the The Golem at Large follows the same metaphor a twist. The Golem here is not format. A series of case studies cover the just a product of science but science performance of the Patriot missile in the itself. For the authors, science is neither Gulf War; the causes of the Challenger all good nor all bad: if treated with care, disaster; the safety testing of nuclear fuel it will do useful work, ‘But it is clumsy flasks; Thomas Gold’s unorthodox theo- and dangerous. Without control, a golem ries of the origin of oil; the problems of may destroy its masters with its flailing macro-economic forecasting; the vigour… it is not an evil creature, but it is Chernobyl radiation leak; and the testing a little daft’ (2). of AIDS treatments. As in their earlier The first edition received much praise book, the authors emphasise the messi- and some criticism. The second edition ness of real life problems. Even the includes a new preface and an afterword Challenger disaster, usually presented as commenting on issues raised. There are a simple case of reckless deadline-chas- some minor amendments to the text, but ing, turns out on examination to be the main conclusions of the book are highly complex. Technological decisions retained and defended. Alongside the cannot be reached by simple formulae: new edition comes a sequel, The Golem at expert judgement is indispensable, and Large, dealing with technology in the non-scientists themselves may have broad sense of ‘applied science’. expert knowledge to contribute on some aspects of a problem. As readers of the first edition (reviewed in S&CB, Vol. 7, 1995) will recall, The On the merits of the books, it must be Golem proceeds through case studies of said at once that they are exceptionally episodes in both physical and life sci- lively, wide-ranging and stimulating. ences: the Michelson-Morley experi- And I agree with the authors that real sci-

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Book Reviews ence is seldom as neat and tidy as text- Science, 1981). book accounts and popularisations Such views are bound to attract oppo- imply. Muddle, fudge and conflicting sition, and The Golem has been caught up results are commonplace. in the (mainly American) controversy But The Golem goes beyond this. The known as the ‘Science Wars’. I shall not crunch issue is how uncertainties in sci- address the general issue of relativism ence are resolved. Scientists would like to here, beyond remarking that the rela- think that they are resolved primarily by tivists have not, it seems to me, explained the accumulation of ever-clearer evi- the striking fact that science usually does dence. Collins and Pinch, however, main- reach a consensus on disputed issues, tain that resolution is achieved through which is not the rule in human endeav- social consensus: an ‘agreement to agree ours. about new things’ and not ‘by the inex- So far as The Golem itself is concerned, orable logic of a set of crucial experi- we may ask: are the case studies reliable? ments’ (54). The process as they describe And do they justify the authors’ generali- it appears subjective and irrational, for sations about science? Few individuals ‘scientists at the research front cannot (and certainly not the present reviewer) settle their deep disagreements through can claim expert knowledge of all the better experimentation, more knowledge, fields covered in The Golem, but several more advanced theories, or clearer think- of the case studies have been criticised by ing’ (142). The ‘experimenter’s regress’ specialists. My own impression is that means that evidence can never refute a they are accurate and fair as far as they theory (3, 85, 97, 101, 116). Disputes are go, but they give too little of the broader therefore settled ‘within the field of context of the episodes described. For human argument’ (119), in which rheto- example, from the authors’ discussion of ric (97), tricks (149), individual reputa- the Pasteur-Pouchet controversy, one tion (104, 113), professional jealousies might think that this was a parochial (71, 110), and political and religious bias French issue settled by a diktat of the (79) all play a part. Empirical evidence Academie des Sciences. But this is quite plays at best a subordinate role: ‘Nature misleading. The work of Schwann and imposes much less of a constraint than Helmholtz had already created a strong we normally imagine… Science works presumption that putrefaction was the way it does, not because of any caused by living micro-organisms, and absolute constraint from Nature, but Pasteur’s own experiments were repli- because we make our science the way cated and refined in Britain by Huxley that we do’ (138). and especially by the physicist John Such ideas do not come out of the blue. Tyndall. Tyndall’s results were consid- Collins and Pinch are leading exponents ered by many contemporaries even more of the movement variously known as the decisive than Pasteur’s. But the only ‘Sociology of Scientific Knowledge’, the mention of all this in The Golem is a pass- ing reference to ‘the British scientist ‘Strong Programme’, or the ‘Edinburgh William [sic] Tyndall’ (82). School’ (after one of its strongholds). The central thesis of the movement is that sci- On the second question, the case stud- entific knowledge is ‘socially con- ies, if reliable, do support the authors’ structed’, and has no privileged claim to conclusions, but I think they make too objective truth about the world. As much of the ‘experimenter’s regress’. The Collins himself has described this posi- studies themselves show that scientists tion, it ‘embraces an explicit relativism in look for independent ways of checking which the natural world has a small or the validity of an experiment. A more non-existent role in the construction of general criticism is that the studies are scientific knowledge’ (Social Studies of unrepresentative. They all deal with situ-

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Book Reviews ations where, for various reasons, empir- of life to which he devotes four chapters, ical evidence is scarce or ambiguous. It is as opposed to those at the end of life to not surprising that in these circum- which he gives only one chapter. stances disputes may be fierce and pro- longed. But this is not the case with sci- The author makes much use of ‘scenar- ence as a whole – if it were, the scientific ios’ to illustrate his discussion, but some enterprise would never have got off the of these may seem forced and artificial. ground. Thus in his first chapter he proposes what he calls ‘a macabre game’ (3) in In the new edition Collins and Pinch which he pictures a number of people accept that the case studies are not statis- trapped in a burning building and con- tically representative of science, but siders the order in which they should be claim that this was never their intention: rescued on the basis of their physical or their aim was always to deal only with mental condition, and their status and ‘controversial’ or ‘deeply disputed’ sci- value in society. However, when called to ence (xiv, xv, 175). This, they argue, is the fire, fire officers would be unlikely to what is ‘philosophically representative’ know anything about the health and sta- (176), because it shows what science can tus of the persons trapped in the build- and cannot do in problematic cases, and ing. The only value which they could these, they believe, are all that the citizen usually take into account would be life, need understand (xv). I believe this i.e. that the victims were alive and defence takes an unduly narrow view of needed to be rescued. Nevertheless, this the citizen’s interest in science, and one use of scenarios makes the book very which was not apparent in the original valuable as a source book for use in dis- text. cussion groups. I could not recommend these books in Another valuable section of the book is isolation to a layperson seeking a bal- the three chapters in which the author anced introduction to science or technol- deals with the Biblical foundation of the ogy. For the more sophisticated reader, value of human life and its practical they should be on the menu. The stew is assessment. He writes as an evangelical a rich one, but use a long spoon. Christian who regards the Bible as God’s David Burbridge is a writer on the his- revelation of himself and his purposes, tory of biology. and therefore relevant to any discussion of human value. The Bible contains certain basic moral rules such as the Ten Commandments. These rules are absolute in the situations they cover, but they do D. Gareth Jones not cover all situations and their Valuing People: Human Value in a demands may even conflict with each World of Medical Technology other on occasion. In addition, the Bible Carlisle: Paternoster, 1999. 241 pp. pb. £ contains moral principles which are of 12.99. two kinds, which the author distin- ISBN 0-85364-991-X guishes as first-order and second-order. The world of Christian medical ethics is The first-order principles are general, already indebted to Professor Gareth absolute and all-embracing, such as love Jones for his two books on the ethical and justice about which there is no ambi- problems arising from assisted reproduc- guity. The second-order ones are more tion technology, Brave New People (1984) specific and may be morally ambiguous, and Manufacturing Humans (1987). His such as preserving life whatever the cost latest book, Valuing People, is more wide- and telling the truth whatever the situa- ranging, but still illustrates his greater tion. These principles may also be interest in the problems at the beginning divided into those which are absolute

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Book Reviews and those which are consequentialist, the foundations of the natural sciences, and many medical ethical dilemmas arise especially in mathematics and physics, from the conflict between these two open up possibilities for a new dialogue kinds. between theology and the natural sciences. In his preface, the author defines the intention of the book by saying that it is In order to establish this conclusion the not a text-book of ethics or of theology; author first looks at three foundational nor is it exhaustive in its coverage since it problems in the natural sciences in great says little about the problems of clinical detail. These are the problems concern- ethics. It is written for all who wish to ing 1) the correct interpretation of quan- think long and hard about the ethical tum physics, 2) the impact of chaos the- problems posed for the Christian believer ory and non-linear dynamics on our by modern technology, ‘to throw light on understanding of causality and determin- ways in which human life might be val- ism, and 3) the discussions about the ued more’ (xi), whether by scientist or final foundation of mathematics (logi- non-scientist. It is written in lucid non- cism v. intuitionism v. formalism). In technical language and is warmly recom- each case it is shown that there are unre- mended as an informed contribution to solved problems that touch the very basis the on-going debate about the Christian of our understanding of the world, i.e. attitude to modern medical ethical prob- potentially fruitful problems for a dia- lems. logue with theology. The Revd Dr John Wilkinson is a The second part of the book looks at retired medical missionary and con- the worldviews of Max Planck, Werner sultant in public health medicine, a Heisenberg and Heinrich Scholz, in order graduate in medicine and divinity of to show various ways of conceiving of a Edinburgh University and the author dialogue between theology and the natu- of Christian Ethics in Health Care ral sciences. Planck and Heisenberg are (Handsel Press 1988). well known names but Scholz is probably unknown outside of German protestant theology and German logic. Scholz was professor of mathematical logic in Ulrich Kropac Münster in the 1940s and 50s and was important for the development of modern Naturwissenschaft und Theologie im German logic. The author shows how Dialog Münster: LIT Verlag, 1999. XVII + 393 each of these three scientists exemplifies pp. hb. 69.80 DM a specific approach. Planck exemplifies the idea that natural science and religion ISBN 3-8258-3727-0 will eventually converge (on the terms of The questions raised by modern natural natural science), Heisenberg a comple- science for Christian theology are dis- mentarity view of science and religion, cussed in all Christian traditions and in and Scholz a more ambitious approach many different countries. The English where theology becomes a necessary con- language literature is only a subset of the tributor to an underlying common meta- literature in this field, and it can often be physics. profitable to broaden the horizon to other parts of the literature. In the third and most novel part of the book the author then proceeds to show This book is written by a German how the new developments in the natural Catholic theologian, who also has a back- sciences have made both Planck’s and ground in mathematics and information Heisenberg’s ideas implausible. With the science. The main argument put forward distinction between determination and in the book is that new developments in computability introduced by chaos the-

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Book Reviews ory and the unresolved problems about book does give some description of astro- the final foundations of mathematics we physical work (most of it theoretical no longer have any reason to believe that speculation from the mid-1990s), it is the natural sciences can ever provide us mainly a biblical exposition of Christian with a complete worldview, as both concepts such as the triunity of God, the Planck’s and Heisenberg’s projects incarnation, the atonement, free-will, sal- require. This is where theology may again vation, hell, and the new creation. enter the dialogue, not as a filler of the ever decreasing gaps in our knowledge The relationship between our world, about the world, but as an equal partner with its three space dimensions, and an in an exploration of those areas where imagined world which has only two knowledge must be of another kind than space dimensions (such as Flatland in the that provided by the natural sciences book with that title by E A Abbott pub- alone. lished in 1884) provides an analogy which may help us to understand the This is an academic book in the best relationship between our world and the sense of the word. The author takes his spiritual world of God and the angels time to lay out his arguments, and makes (postulated to have more than four space absolutely sure that all premises are well dimensions – and perhaps more than one supported. It is not always an easy read, time dimension). Ross explores this anal- but it amply rewards the reader who ogy in detail (without any acknowledge- takes the time and effort to read it in the ment of the earlier writing on the sub- slow and careful way in which it ject). He presents the use by present-day deserves to be read. cosmologists of multi-dimensional math- The book has a very useful name index, ematics as ‘discoveries’ which validate but could have benefited from a general the idea. A chapter entitled ‘Science index. The list of references is extensive breaks through to new realms’ concludes and provides a good stepping stone for that the ‘remarkable advance of research further studies in the German (and reveals a God who lives and operates in English) literature in this area. the equivalent of at least eleven dimensions of space and time’, but one wonders Søren Holm is Reader in Bioethics at how many of the people whose work the Institute of Medicine, Law and Ross cites would accept that revelation. Bioethics, University of Manchester, and Professor of Medical Ethics at the The book has some useful comments Centre for Medical Ethics, University on the difference between contradiction of Oslo and paradox. Its criticism of the idea of a ‘timeless’ eternity, with the suggestion that ‘timeful’ is a better word to use for God’s time-related capacities, is helpful. Hugh Ross Less acceptable (to this reviewer at least) are its notions of a ‘salvation threshold’ Beyond the Cosmos and a ‘blasphemy threshold’ for every Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1999. human being – lines that are crossed dur- 261 pp. pb. £8.50. ing this life either into an eternal heaven ISBN 1-57683-112-4 or into an eternal hell. There is rather a This is a ‘revised and updated’ edition of lot of speculative theology of this sort. a book first published in 1996. (No infor- For example, it is suggested that the pain mation is given about the nature of the of hell (presented as eternal conscious revisions.) It has two sub-titles: ‘the extra- suffering) is to distract those who have to dimensionality of God’ and ‘what recent endure it from putting their energy into discoveries in astrophysics reveal about attacks on their neighbours; the level of the glory and love of God’. Although the torment will be different for different

80 • Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 Book Reviews people (more for Adolf Hitler than for tors are Western Buddhists who are lead- Albert Schweitzer, the book suggests). ing members of various organisations that The interpretation of biblical statements represent what can generally be regarded is very literal, as might be expected from as alternative therapies. They include the fact that ‘Reasons to Believe’ – the Christopher Titmuss, the co-founder of organisation dealing with faith, science Gaia House retreat centre in Devon, and the Bible that was founded by Hugh David Brazier teacher of the Amida Trust, Ross in 1986 – adheres to the doctrinal and Maura Sills who is Programme statements of the International Council Director of the Karuna Institute. Two on Biblical Inerrancy. The literal treat- Tibetan lamas also make contributions. ment of the book of Revelation leads to some curious results. Did you know that Part one is concerned with philosophi- the New Jerusalem will provide each of cal issues. The Buddhist doctrine of non- us who arrives there with ‘about forty bil- self (anatta) denies that there is any entity lion cubic feet of living space (equivalent within the human body over and above to a fourteen square mile home with a the process of change present within hundred foot high ceiling)’? every phenomenon. This does not imply a nihilistic view of the soul, but sees it as This book may be of interest to a few essentially a functioning within the per- readers of Science and Christian Belief but son. This teaching therefore raises the it is very unlikely to make any lasting question of how Buddhism can con- contribution to the overall understanding tribute to the therapy of the self. Geshe of science/faith issues. Thupten Jinpa proposes that while psy- choanalysis aims at bringing about a Bennet McInnes is a retired coherent sense of self, Buddhist psychol- astronomer who was secretary of ogy aims to transcend the very concept of Christians in Science in the 1990s. self that is fundamentally positive and [[email protected]] compassionate Part two seeks to show how many of the newer Western ideas of psychology Gay Watson, Stephen Batchelor & are becoming more in accord with those Guy Claxton of Buddhism. Guy Claxton describes how The Psychology of Awakening Buddhism and psychology come together London: Rider, 1999. 347 pp. pb. £12.99. to account for everyday ‘mystical experi- ISBN 0-7126-7043-2 ences’. Terence Gaussen is a psychologist working with children and considers the Prior to the twentieth century Buddhist development of personhood and the scholars developed perhaps the most brain. notable understanding of the human psy- che. It was based upon the Four Noble Part three considers Buddhism and Truths: 1) the truth of suffering, 2) the psychotherapy. John Welwood points out truth of the origin of suffering, 3) the that the paths and goals of Buddhism and truth of the cessation of suffering, and 4) psychotherapy while compatible are not the truth of the path that leads to the ces- the same. Psychological work addresses sation of suffering. With the emergence of interpersonal relations, whilst the spiri- modern Western psychology there has tual is concerned with the trans-human, been a growing interaction between the domain of emptiness. He argues that Western and Buddhist contributions to these two realms cannot be separated, their understanding of the human mind and should recognise each other as two and therapy. This book emerged out of vitally important limbs of an evolving two conferences held at Dartington Hall humanity that is still moving towards in Devon. The majority of the contribu- realising its potential (p. 166).

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The final part is concerned with the other ‘science war’ contributions, con- application of Buddhism in therapeutic tains 18 chapters, which come in five practice, and not surprisingly is the parts; the contributors include scientists largest section. The first paper is by (e.g. Alan Sokal, Allan Franklin, Paul David Brazier who summarises some of Gross), mathematicians, philosophers the different forms of practice currently (e.g. Philip Kitcher, William McKinney), being undertaken. These include the use social scientists (e.g. Margaret Jacob) and of ancient Asian therapies, breathing, and historians. totally new therapies that have emerged from the interaction between Buddhism A major shortcoming of the book is that and Western ideas. it never fully defines what it means by postmodernism. Often it naively identi- This book is about ‘the march in the fies the strong programme and relativism borderland’ (p. 220) between two influen- with postmodernism. At times, it gives tial philosophies. Time will tell if the the impression of playing ‘ping’ to the people writing here are the pioneers of a science studies ‘pong’. Many of its targets new age, or rebels on the fringe of society. are at the extreme end of science studies: Pickering, Latour, the Edinburgh School, Dr David Burnett is Director of and feminists such as Keller and Studies at All Nations Christian Marchant all come under fierce fire. College where he teaches Social Occasionally, it sounds like a soccer Anthropology and Asian religions player shouting ‘foul’ when a rugby player handles the ball. The ‘moderns’ in this book criticise the ‘postmoderns’ (and here I use the term very loosely) for not Noretta Koertge (editor) playing by modernist rules. For example, A House Built on Sand: Exposing Huth’s criticism of Latour is based in part Postmodernist Myths About Science on the fact that Latour misses Einstein’s Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, intentions in writing the paper, whereas 322 + xi pp. hb. Latour could merely accuse Huth of com- ISBN 0-19-511725-5. mitting the intentional fallacy! The predominant metaphor, which was What is missing from the book is an used to describe the relationship of sci- ‘immanent critique’. The authors, in the ence and religion in the nineteenth cen- main, fail to fully understand the post- tury, was that of warfare. Today that modern worldview; this is the problem of metaphor is perhaps better used to the ‘science wars’: at heart, it is a world- describe the relationship between sci- view conflict; and the worldview ques- ence and science studies! This volume is tions are not addressed here. What we a product of those so-called ‘science have are pinpoint critiques of the fine wars’. The ‘science wars’ have set mod- detail, such as: erroneous feminist views erns against postmoderns, scientists of the macho sperm and bashful egg (ch against social scientists and ontological 4); the (mis) reading of the cold fusion by realists against relativists. Modernism Collins and Pinch (ch 8); the (mis) use of and science has always enjoyed a symbi- Bacon’s ‘rape’ metaphor for science (ch otic relationship; scientists are keen to 12); and the false romantic view of the refute postmodern arguments, because alchemists propounded by some femi- postmodernism could ultimately topple nists (ch 216). All of which make fasci- science from its position as top dog in the nating reading. epistemological hierarchy. This goes some way to explaining the vehemence of The strength of the book is that it pro- the ‘debate’. vides a good ‘transcendent critique’ of the excesses of a relativistic ontology, femi- This volume, not quite so polemical as nist critiques of science and the strong

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Book Reviews programme. It will provide stimulating, dence for evolution. However, it begins though at times infuriating, reading; it is with a helpful discussion of what has recommended for all those interested/ been, and is, acceptable ‘evidence’ and involved in the ‘science wars’, it is an ‘proof’ within modern science. A theme important addition to the literature. that surfaces from time to time in the book is the fact that many creationists Steve Bishop has degrees in physics have a different understanding of what and theology and is a lecturer at these terms mean and so of what is and is Soundwell College, Bristol. e-mail: not science. Among other things, they put [email protected] a lot of emphasis on the necessity of ‘direct observation’. Since no one (except God) was around to observe the beginning of life or the origin of species these Robert T. Pennock topics cannot be scientific. This would Tower of Babel: The Evidence against seem to put them beyond the scope of the New Creationism ‘creation science’ too. However, the cre- Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1999, ationists then appeal to the witness of 429 pp. hb. £24.50. God, the biblical creation story, at least as ISBN 0-262-16180-X they interpret it. Robert Pennock is Assistant Professor of The much more nuanced claim by the Philosophy at the University of Texas at IDCs that appeal to supernaturally given Austin, and specialises in the philosophy information and supernatural causes is of science. The ‘new creationism’ of the discussed at length in chapter six. Here book’s sub-title is what he calls ‘intelli- Pennock shows just how problematic this gent design creationism’ (IDC) advocated is. Among the problems he exposes is by such people as Philip Johnson, that of ‘supernatural’ explanations Michael Behe and William Dembski. The becoming simply ‘super natural’ ones. In title of the book seems to be prompted by an earlier chapter he makes the point that what he refers to as ‘a beautiful display of it is virtually impossible in practice to the Tower of Babel’ (123) at the Institute distinguish between the claims of the for Creation Research’s Museum of IDCs and those of the Raelian Movement, Creation. However, it is also a symbol of which began in the 1970s. The Raelians what he sees as a struggle within cre- are anti-evolution and claim that there is ationist ranks for prominence in, if not evidence of intelligent design in life control of, the concept of ‘creationism’ forms on earth. However, they argue, on between various varieties of young-earth the basis of the contact of the founder, creationism (YEC), old-earth creationism Rael, with extraterrestrials, that the (OYC) and IDC. designers were super scientists from the planet Elohim who used planet earth as a Pennock certainly has a good knowl- laboratory for genetic experiments (234- edge of the varieties of creationism as 236). From a scientific point of view, why they appear in the USA. He has read the should Christian ID explanations be literature, done the tour in places like the treated any differently from Raelian ID Museum of Creation, and debated pub- ones? licly with leading creationists. He shows a deeper understanding of the creationist In a couple of places Pennock engages movement than do many of its critics. directly with the work of the biochemist The opening chapter of the book gives a Michael Behe. He shows that in Darwin’s good, brief survey of the history of cre- Black Box Behe works with an under- ationism in the USA in the twentieth cen- standing of the mechanism of evolution tury, in all its many forms. Chapter two is that is not the one held by modern evolu- primarily a fairly brief survey of the evi- tionary biologists, and so much of his cri-

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Book Reviews tique of evolution is beside the point creation story is accepted, and will not (166-172). Taking up the critique of Behe accept that meaning and value have their by the biologist Alan Orr he shows a fatal basis in belief in the Creator rather than weakness in Behe’s claim that systems any one creation story. which are now ‘irreducibly complex’ The final chapter of the book, chapter could not arise by a gradual process eight, discusses the issue of teaching sci- (270). ence in public schools in the USA. While The protagonist with whom Pennock this might seem to be of little interest to engages most often, and in most depth, is readers outside the USA, it does raise Philip Johnson. There is not space here to issues about the inter-relationship even summarise all the main points of the between education, science and citizen- discussion. One aspect of Johnson’s ship which are relevant in any society. method which Pennock identifies and An unsatisfactory aspect of this chapter is illustrates is that of facing his readers or the way Pennock ‘privatises’ religious hearers with stark either-or alternatives, truth over against the ‘public’ nature of when there are more options than this. scientific truth. Here he seems to be fol- So, for example, they are challenged to lowing Johnson’s lead in posing stark choose between atheistic natural selec- alternatives. tion or theistic IDC. Just on occasion As far as this reviewer is aware, at the Johnson lets his guard slip, as when in a time of its publication this book was the footnote he admits that natural selection first major critique of IDC. It will not be makes atheism possible but does not the last word on the subject, but it makes make it obligatory (336). some telling criticisms which deserve to In chapter seven Pennock does some- be widely discussed. thing that few critics of creationism do with any sympathetic understanding. He Ernest Lucas, a former research bio- goes behind the scientific debate to the chemist, is Vice-Principal and Tutor in underlying motivation and issues, recog- Biblical Studies at Bristol Baptist nising that, ‘The creationism controversy College. is not just about trying to avoid being descended from apes, it is about trying to avoid an existential crisis’ (312). He Barbara Katz Rothman quotes various YECs, OECs and IDCs to Genetic Maps and Human make the point that they each see their Imaginations: the limits of science in version of the creation story as the only understanding who we are sound basis for meaning and values in London and New York: Norton, 1998. life. Most Christians, whatever their 272 pp. hb. £17.95. views on evolution and creation, will ISBN 0-393-04703-2 probably find the ensuing discussion one This book provides a good counterbal- of the least satisfactory parts of the book. ance for those who are perhaps too Pennock asserts that a majority of people upbeat about the Human Genome Project in Western societies claim that their lives and should be read by those involved or are meaningful and that they hold to cer- interested in that field. tain values, even though they do not believe in a divine creator. This is no The author is well-informed and fully doubt true, but the point at issue is the aware of the potential medical progress validity and coherence of these claims. that gene mapping can bring. However, as Pennock is not very convincing on this a Professor of Sociology she surveys the issue. The sad thing is the dogmatism of Genome scene as an outsider with a some creationists who insist that mean- touch of cynicism for the idealism of ing and value only have a basis if their research scientists and an even greater

84 • Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 Book Reviews distrust of market forces and the econom- meaning of the self/soul/person. Here ics of Government. Katz’ Jewish roots desert her and she has little to offer. This section cries out for She focuses on three issues. The first is some biblical input. However there fol- race. As an American Jewish woman with lows a memorable chapter on community an adopted black American child her and the various ‘we’ groups of which we approach is robustly emotive but none may be members even if only transitorily. the less telling for that. Her review of Here is a telling reminder that we were European and American history shows not created to be isolated self-sufficient how ingrained but often illogical are our individuals but to flourish within a group concepts of race and ‘them’ and ‘us’. Did even if some with whom we share this you realize that the connotation ‘black’ are unexpected. has different interpretations in Europe and America? She emphasizes the link The book is written from an American between knowledge and power and viewpoint but examples and anecdotes believes that as molecular knowledge illustrating our common humanity come accumulates and racial variants are iden- from all over the world. Although the tified, discrimination and exploitation of subject-matter is serious this is by no the vulnerable are all too likely. means a diatribe as the author has a delightfully light touch. Well indexed The second section is about health. and referenced this is an enjoyable read While the author has no quarrel with the giving serious food for thought together use of genetic techniques to improve our with opportunities for laughing out loud. understanding and management of seri- It can be thoroughly recommended. ous genetically determined diseases, she is less happy about what she calls the Caroline Berry is a recently retired geneticisation of cancer and other com- Clinical Geneticist and current mon conditions, as gene mapping makes General Secretary of Christians in them better understood. Her concern is Science that as the spotlight falls on genetic pre- disposition and individual risk, interest and resources will drift away from efforts to address environmental and social disease-predisposing factors. This is a valid point that needs constant re-iteration. Jeffrey Burton Russell Inventing the Flat Earth The third section centres on reproduc- Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997. 117 pp. pb. tion. The author points out the cultural £13.50. discrepancies in current pre-natal testing ISBN: 0-275-95904-X. practice and moves on to discuss pre- implantation testing (using in vitro fertil- The greatest lies can also be the most ization techniques to identify different enduring. The notion that people in genes in the fertilized egg). This follows medieval times generally believed that well-trodden paths with scenarios of the earth was flat is widely assumed. It is future parents having the option (if they one of those beliefs that ‘everybody have the money) of reducing disease risks knows’ and which therefore requires no and selecting advantageous traits in their discussion. School text-books continue to offspring. The section ends chillingly ‘In assure its readers that “Columbus felt he the hands of the market, the Book of Life would eventually reach the Indies in the becomes a catalogue’. East. Many Europeans still believed that the world was flat. Columbus, they In the concluding chapters the author thought, would fall off the earth”. In grapples with reductionism, starting with Joseph Chiari’s play, Christopher an unsatisfactory discussion on the Columbus, the bold young rationalist

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Columbus confronts the religious obscu- claims fitted neatly with Draper’s ‘war- rantist priests who warn him against the fare’ metaphor for the relationship heresy of maintaining that the earth was between science and religion, a metaphor round. which became widely disseminated during the 100 years following the publica- All this is, of course, pure fantasy with- tion of Draper’s book. Andrew Dickson out historical foundation, and Russell’s White (1832-1918) picked up the survey provides a penetrating insight into metaphor in his ‘History of the Warfare of the way in which such historical myths Science with Theology in Christendom’ can become established by a process of (1896) in which he misrepresented the endless repetition and assimilation. views of the early Church fathers and Russell draws on a wide range of sources repeated the ‘Columbus versus the igno- to demonstrate unequivocally that the rant theologians’ account with additional roundness of the earth was widely known flowery rhetoric. From such works the and believed in the medieval era, a view error filtered into school and university sustained by the passion for circularity texts and then on in to general culture. inherited from the Greek philosophers. The account fitted well with the late Dante (1265-1321) was so aware of Victorian progressivist view that the Ptolemaic astronomy that his Convivio medieval period had been one of offers an estimate of the earth’s diameter unremitting darkness. at 6500 miles. The second main perpetrator of the Before Columbus set out on his voyage error was the American historical novel- he consulted Pierre D’Ailly (1350-1420), ist Washington Irving whose ‘History of a theologian and philosopher, who dis- the Life and Voyages of Christopher cussed the earth’s volume, and thought Columbus’ (1828) made use of original that if the surface of the earth was only sources in a careless way. The outcome smoother a person could walk round the was a work fictional in many respects but globe in a few years. The sailors on with sufficient historical base to make the Columbus’ ships may have felt under- unwary reader think that all its claims standably apprehensive about the long were equally reliable. In one of several voyages of discovery that lay ahead, but sections of pure fiction, Irving has the fear of falling off the edge of a flat Columbus being “assailed with citations earth was not one of their concerns. from the Bible” and with “pedantic big- So how did the modern notion that otry”. medieval people believed in a flat earth Russell suggests that the writings of become established? Russell traces the Antoine-Jean Letronne (1787-1848) pro- error to three main 19th century sources, vide the third main source for the flat the late 19th century modernist linkage earth error. Letronne was a polymath who between science and progress subse- held a number of different academic posi- quently providing a fertile ground in tions in French universities. His article which the error flourished and spread. “On the Cosmographical Opinions of the The first source for the error is found in Church Fathers” (1834) is highly inaccu- John Draper’s infamous work, ‘The rate, but became an important source for History of the Conflict Between Religion later writers on the subject who failed to and Science’ (1874). In his best-selling check their original sources. book Draper portrayed Columbus under attack from the Spanish religious fanatics Russell’s work is not the first to demol- who drew their arguments from the early ish the flat earth mythology – others in Church fathers. The idea of a spherical the 20th century have undertaken the earth, claimed Draper, was ‘as might be task. Charles Jones, a professor of English expected…received with disfavour by at Cornell, was astonished in 1934 that theologians’ in medieval Europe. Such the error still persisted in defiance of

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Book Reviews well-established evidence. This is one our decision-making, so that such major reason why Russell’s work is so impor- consequences as global ecological disas- tant. The mythology of the warfare ter and the dispossession of primitive metaphor lives on in popular culture. peoples take us by surprise, even though Knocking away the flimsy 19th century they were never considered in the first props of the metaphor is a useful exer- place. cise. Apart from anything else, there is really no excuse for the propagation of The author attempts to apply a number information which is so poorly supported of biblical principles to give us a more by the historical material. As Russell balanced view, starting with the basic robustly states the case: “If we were not premise that God is sustainer of the so ethnocentrically convinced of the Universe and intimately concerned with ignorance or the stupidity of the Middle all aspects of technology. She shows that Ages, we would not fall into the Flat a desperate desire for control, rather than Error” (p. 76). ‘Inventing the Flat Earth’ is humility in the face of God and uncon- a well-written and thoroughly researched trollable elements, leads to a rigid frame- account of a fascinating topic. It is work in which people are treated as inter- strongly recommended. changeable and disposable units, or even split up into interchangeable and dispos- Denis Alexander is Editor of Science & able parts. In our society, people are seen Christian Belief. as the cause of problems and machines as giving us solutions, and we have lost the recognition that people have a unique ability to see things as a whole and appre- Ruth Conway ciate the moral and emotional dimensions which scientific analysis omits. She Choices at the Heart of Technology Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press, 1999, 125 argues cogently for more consultation in pp., pb. US$12.00. decision-making with the people who experience at first hand the shadow side ISBN 1-56338-287-3 of technology, and further, for the deci- This is an exceptionally thought-provok- sion-makers to be required to experience ing and disturbing book, even to a tech- at first hand the consequences of their nologist who was in prior agreement with own decisions. The wide separation of many of the author’s conclusions! cause and effect in our society is seen as one of the major causes of our insensitiv- In it, Ruth Conway exposes and dis- ity. In fact, we need to control not nature, cusses the basic presuppositions of much but ourselves: the doctrine of original sin Western use of technology. She does not and forgiveness is most appropriately fall into the trap of suggesting that tech- discussed. nology is in itself evil. Instead, she shows how its power has bewitched us away Mercifully, the author does give us a from using it to fulfil a dream of helping number of pointers for the right use of humanity, into a rigid and materialistic technology, such as judging the success way of thinking in which efficiency and of our communication systems in the economic criteria are considered the only light of the improvement they make to values to be sought. There is a wealth of truthful and meaningful personal rela- research and careful argument presented tionships. She favours small, inter-linked in her discussion, in which she shows concerns and wide consultation with how the limited models used to enable us people of differing cultures, rather than to understand scientific systems have multi-national giants. This, she suggests, caused major problems when applied would provide safeguards against our more widely. For example, vital elements distancing ourselves from the conse- have automatically been excluded from quences of our actions. She argues that

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Book Reviews women and men often have quite differ- J. L. Heilbron ent priorities, and that much greater The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as inclusion of women in technological Solar Observatories decision-making would help to prevent London: Harvard University Press, 1999. some of the more brutal excesses of our ix + 366 pp. hb. $35; £21.95. competitive society. Everybody, she ISBN 0-674-85433-0. claims, can have some influence on the gigantic network of our culture, and some With a dramatic flourish, John Heilbron people have the power to make crucial opens his account of cathedrals as solar decisions affecting many lives. She ends observatories with the claim that “The with a most helpful chapter on the edu- Roman Catholic Church gave more finan- cation of our children, teaching them to cial and social support to the study of use technology ‘to empower all people to astronomy for over six centuries … than improve their own lives, through self- any other, and probably all other, institu- reliance and interdependence, and the tions.” The basis of this generosity, he enhancement of social and international immediately adds, was not the love of relationships.’ (111-112) science, but the administrative problem of establishing the date of Easter. Unfortunately the author does not address the compounding of our prob- Although a number of reviewers seem lems due to over-population, or the right almost fixated on the opening sentence, use of competition and ambition, which Heilbron’s claim comes as no surprise to undoubtedly motivate a great many peo- anyone familiar with the broad outlines of astronomical history from the late ple. There is also a need for an entirely Middle Ages into the Enlightenment. different exploration of her arguments Even Copernicus earned his living as a based on natural law instead of biblical churchman. Nevertheless, Heilbron’s texts, as in the very non-Christian West, well-informed account of 16th- and 17th- too few people will read a book with so century Italian astronomy goes far to doc- Christian a flavour. ument something quite different from the Every Christian in a technologically- Church’s generous support of astronomy, oriented profession would benefit from namely, the suppression of speculative, reading this book, although it is not light cosmological astronomy in Catholic bed-time reading. There is still much countries following the so-called Galileo thinking to be done on how the princi- affair. While the Catholic astronomers ples discussed should be developed and pursued the fundamental constants of the applied. I also felt that some of those least solar theory (as it was called even by likely to read it were Design and Copernican astronomers who recognized Technology teachers, and that another the relativity of the earth-sun system), book needs to be written for them, in a they missed out on the grand cosmologi- less indigestible and more practical style. cal changes as the next advances in cos- Nonetheless the message of this book is mology moved to the north. compelling and urgent: it will be ignored Apart from the flurry of interest in the at our peril. Y2K bug and the debate over whether the Hazel Lucas is a practising secondary third millennium begins in 2000 or 2001, the arcana of calendar making and Easter school teacher of physics and design prediction is a topic of ages past, though technology (electronics), with a doctor- the latter still divides major parts of ate in physics and a diploma in design Christendom. Establishing relatively sim- technology. ple Easter-prediction rules to cope with the incommensurability of lunar and solar periods was a difficult ecclesiastical

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Book Reviews task, both astronomically and politically. became Jean-Dominique Cassini when he Heilbron sets the stage for his narrative was lured to Paris by Louis XIV; it had with a detailed excursion through these taken the Sun King a direct appeal to the calendrical intricacies, and then with an Pope to consummate the invitation. extended lesson on spherical astron- Cassini’s accomplishments come midway omy—his passion for geometry means in Heilbron’s story, but none of his suc- that his readers will get the full treat- cessors were as illustrious. Their names ment. But without it, the story of the sun are hardly household words: Bianchini, in the church would be fuzzy and half- Ximenes, Manfredi, Cesares. Florence, told. Milan, Paris, Palermo, and even Rome got new meridiane. All these technical But why the sun in the church? By accounts, lovingly presented by early in the 16th century Catholic Heilbron, could easily have been a bore astronomers realized that Easter was except for the wry wit of this master story coming too late with respect to the sea- teller, which keeps the reader alert for the sons. The actual equinox had slowly spice of his next editorial aside. For moved earlier in the calendar, to March example, he describes how Piazzi’s work 11 instead of March 21. Furthermore, the in constructing a meridian line in the medieval “fix” for the precession of the Palermo cathedral was interrupted by the equinoxes was no longer working, and long wait for a new pavement, something presently Copernicus showed that the that drove him to the use of opium; the date of the closest earth-sun distance had delay ‘shows that even the most painstak- changed since antiquity, The traditional ing astronomers are faster than building length of the year needed fine tuning. For contractors.’ all these calendar-related problems more precise observations, over a period of What Heilbron has done, and elegantly some years, were crucial. Precision could so, is to carve out a little-studied area in perhaps be obtained by building larger the history of science, namely, Italian instruments, if they were sufficiently sta- astronomy in the aftermath of Galileo, ble and permanent. Here is where large and to frame it as a coherent entity churches and cathedrals filled the bill, around the search for the parameters of especially because the argument could be the solar theory. With admirable erudi- made that the observations would be tion, he has placed an essentially forgot- directly linked to refined Easter determi- ten period back onto the historical map. nations. Those Catholic astronomers, working in a cultural arena of anti-Copernicanism, at An aperture high in the structure could times sailed through a narrow strait. The project a solar image on a calibrated large meridiana in San Petronio revealed meridian line on the pavement of a large to Cassini that the sun’s distance varied church or cathedral. As Heilbron shows, according to Kepler’s orbital eccentricity, establishing an accurate meridiana was half of what Ptolemy or Copernicus by no means a routine task. The height of assumed. Kepler had reasoned that if the aperture had to be known quite exactly in sun provided the motive force driving the order to use the geometry quantitatively. earth in its orbit, then the earth should The pavement had to be level (which move faster when it is closer to the sun, could be achieved with a long water and this effect is precisely what the trough), and the line oriented precisely meridiana showed. Kepler was, as is north-south. Precautions became more elaborate with each succeeding endeavor. well-known, an enthusiastic heliocen- trist. While Cassini’s observations did not The most famous of all these projects prove that the heliocentric view was was the line in the San Petronio church required, they certainly pointed in that in Bologna. It established the reputation direction. Thus the details of Heilbron’s of Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who story are not dry as dust; they sparkle

Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 • 89 Book Reviews with the insinuations that a traditional responses to the debate by other writers. world view was crumbling. Jesuit-trained Lamoureux’s criticisms are numerous. traditionalists like Cassini resisted the One is that for an academic lawyer to be winds of reform, but others gradually fell justified in taking on the scientific evi- in line with the new cosmology even as dence for biological evolution because of they labored on non-controversial obser- his ‘speciality in analyzing the logic of vations with continuing support from the arguments and identifying the assump- Catholic church. The Sun in the Church tions that lie behind those arguments’ gives a mature and brilliantly organized (25) is not enough; ‘he must first demon- picture of this hitherto little-explored strate a solid grasp of the fundamentals of interrelation of science and the Christian biology and the evidence for evolution.’ faith. (20) Lamoureux’s conclusion, following a Owen Gingerich is Research Professor detailed examination of Johnson’s biolog- of Astronomy and History of Science ical knowledge, is that his ‘understand- at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center ing of biological evolution is seriously for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA flawed’, a conclusion echoed by Miller, 02138, USA. [email protected] Caldwell and others. Johnson’s reply, for it is not an answer, is disappointing: after expressing doubt that ‘the common ancestry theory is true’ he says ‘I do not Johnson, P. E., Lamoureux, D. O. et consider this issue to be of central importance and do not attempt to argue the al question for now, because certain crucial Darwinism Defeated? The Johnson- work in progress that bears on common Lamoureux Debate on Biological ancestry has yet to be published.’ (49) Origins What this ‘crucial work’ is, where and by Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, whom it is conducted, and when and 1999. 174 pp. pb., US$23.95. US where it will be published is left a mys- ISBN 1-57383-133-6 tery. Later Johnson says ‘We have plenty The claim that certain biological struc- of evidence [for intelligent design] to tures exhibit an irreducible complexity offer, but the evidence does not matter if which cannot be explained by a natural intelligent causes are ruled out of consid- process like evolution, but necessitates eration on a priori philosophical or theo- divine intervention, is a central tenet of logical grounds. For this reason I do not the Intelligent Design Movement. A key think it worthwhile to discuss detailed exponent is Phillip Johnson, Professor of evidentiary questions with Denis Law at the University of California and Lamoureux, or with other persons who author of Defeating Darwinism by Opening take the position I call theistic natural- Minds (1997), Reason in the Balance ism, whatever they choose to call it.’ (52) (1995) and Darwin on Trial (1991). In this way he sidesteps the extensive and detailed biological challenges. But Denis Lamoureux, a biologist who spe- Lamoureux does not deny ‘intelligent cialises in the evolution of teeth and jaws causes’; he sees divine activity underpin- and also holds a doctorate in the evangel- ning the whole creation, not just the parts ical response to Darwinism in the first which have no current scientific explana- fifty years after publication of the Origin, tion. Johnson’s position, as several writ- offers a critique of this Movement. In the ers point out, is a version of Coulson’s first part of the book, he is ‘opening bats- ubiquitous ‘god-of-the-gaps’ and it is no man’ and Johnson responds. Lamoureux defence to say, as Watts does, that ‘This contributes another paper in the light of multiplicity [of gaps] constitutes one gap this response and Johnson replies. The and one gap only.’ That treats the word second part of the book consists of nine ‘gaps’ as univocal while using it in two

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Book Reviews different ways. The gaps, in Coulson’s ples. These principles are set out by phrase, are phenomena for which there Lamoureux as ‘(1) an attack against natu- are currently no known scientific expla- ralism and materialism, (2) support for nations. The ‘one gap’ of Watts is ‘our intelligent design in the universe’ and (3) uncovering of the “natural laws” under- ‘the complete failure of the modern the- lying the regularity of the physical uni- ory of evolution’ (26). The ‘first two prin- verse.’ (161) ciples are powerful and clearly wel- comed by all Christians’ but there is the Johnson’s phrase ‘theistic naturalism’ danger that the third will ride on the back is an oxymoron, given the usual under- of the first two and not be distinguished standing of ‘naturalism’. A quick consul- as a separate issue. Furthermore, tation of five dictionaries of philosophy Lamoureux particularly regrets confirms that ‘Naturalism’ is generally ‘Johnson’s open and direct attack on understood to mean that ‘ultimately Christian theologians and educators nothing resists explanation by the meth- [which] inflames an already tense situa- ods characteristic of the natural sciences’, tion in the church’. (42) rendering ‘theistic naturalism’ a contradiction in terms. ‘Methodological natu- To justify my disappointment with ralism’, used uncritically by many of the Johnson’s responses I have cited some of contributors, is also a misleading term the comments by which he appears to which should be scrapped. The denial evade the detailed, carefully argued cri- implicit in ‘naturalism’ goes far beyond tique by Lamoureux and others. Here are being the methodological principle, two further examples: It is inappropriate adopted by science, of not referring to to attribute the length of Lamoureux’s First Causes. Maybe I missed something, essay to ‘his passion’ as a prelude to writ- but I only saw this philosophical point ing only about a fifth as much and failing recognised on the very last page of the to address many of the criticisms, saying, book, by Wilkinson — ‘strictly speaking ‘I don’t think readers will have the there can be no “naturalism” at all for one patience to read through an equally long who believes that all things depend upon rejoinder, so I’ll just reply to the main God for their very existence.’ (174) The points.’ (49) Lamoureux’s second contri- methodological convention of science in bution is of eighteen pages and, to avoid referring only to ‘efficient’ causes is theo- the danger that he and Johnson may ‘talk logically benign and enables atheists, past one another’ he asks for a direct agnostics and those of different faiths to response to four clearly articulated ques- work together on the scientific enterprise. tions (72f). In reply Johnson furnishes Although individual scientists may hold three sides, half of which are taken up a naturalistic view of science, the scien- with a transcript of a radio interview, and tific endeavour itself entails no such fails to answer any one of Lamoureux’s denial of divine agency. However, there is clear questions, claiming that ‘The no need to refer to the Creator when important points are adequately covered exploring the mechanisms of creation, in my prior response.’ (77) any more than there is any need to mention Henry Ford when finding out how Many of the papers which continued the car works. Incidentally, I understand Lamoureux’s critique were perceptive there is no known documentary evidence and persuasive in their reasoning. I have that Laplace ever said ‘I have no need for to say that those in support of the that hypothesis’ (168). Intelligent Design position appeared less well argued. It is important that, if this Other criticisms of Johnson’s position position canvasses scholarly credence, are directed at his view of the philosophy Johnson (and adherents of his position) of science and the problems caused by will need to produce more detailed and conflating his three foundational princi- satisfactory answers in its defence.

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In my copy, p. 47 is blank except for Familiar positions are expounded by the author’s name and the page number. well-known proponents (e.g. Willem Footnote 8 on p. 144 incorrectly refers to Drees on naturalism, and Ernan p. 19 and should probably read pp 22f. McMullin on evolution to name two writers probably familiar to readers of S&CB), Mike Poole, is Visiting Research but there is an abundance of other per- Fellow in Science and Religion in the spectives. In comparison with all the School of Education at King’s College other books on science and religion London. which I have read in recent years, this stands out in one unanticipated respect: culture shock. The differences of culture are quite striking when reading the contributions from Orthodox and Muslim Niels H Gregersen, Ulf Görman scholars and even some contributions and Christoph Wassermann (eds) from the wide range of Western Christian contributions. I would be surprised if The Interplay between Scientific and most readers do not find at least a few of Theological Worldviews, Parts I & II the essays almost incomprehensible, at (Studies in Science and Theology, Volume 5, 1997, & Volume 6, 1998) least before some sustained reflection. Geneva: Labor et Fides, Volume 5, 1999, But culture shock is an invaluable expe- 286 pp, pb rience if it alerts us to our hitherto ISBN 2-8309-0915-1; Volume 6, 1999, 208 unquestioned assumptions. Things we pp, pb take for granted as Western scientists – a ISBN 2-8309-0938-0 certain rationalism and reductionism for example – may be implicitly rejected. I Studies in Science and Theology is the found the Orthodox papers (6, 33-60) par- Yearbook of the European Society for the ticularly difficult. Are they deluded? Or Study of Science and Theology. The are we? papers in these two volumes have been selected from those presented at the Sixth Another significant culture clash lies European Conference on Science and in the title. The two volumes are address- Theology, held in Cracow in 1996. There ing ‘worldviews’. To me that means the were 180 scholars present from around modern tradition of worldview analysis the world and from many different disci- associated with, e.g., James Sire (The plines. The conference was sponsored by Universe Next Door), Brian Walsh (The The Templeton Foundation and consisted Transforming Vision) and Al Wolters of five invited lectures and 92 worshop (Creation Regained), but that kind of presentations. These volumes are not analysis is largely absent. This was a ‘proceedings’ of the conference: only four major disappointment. There are many of the plenary lectures are included and ideologies and worldviews abroad today only 37 of the workshop papers. Volume and, in an age in which general education 5 looks at physics, biology, mind and gives us very few tools of discernment, nature and methodological issues; vol- Christians may imbibe and reflect the ume 6 at ethical issues, Orthodox per- dominant pagan perspectives as easily as spectives, world views in science, theol- non-Christians. It can then be very diffi- ogy and public culture and, finally, natu- cult to know where a particular author is ral theology and revelation. With one coming from and whether my under- exception (Henk Kubbinga’s paper on standing of what they write is really what atomism and determinism, which is in they intended. French) all the papers are in English. These considerations raise the obvious It is a fascinating collection and a rich question: who is the intended audience? mine for quotations and perspectives. Surprisingly, the editors do not address

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Book Reviews it. The papers vary widely in style and and that the relationship between science format. Some are written at a popular and religion is between two complexes of level, others are quite technical and some knowledge and belief? Only Jitse van der require an advanced understanding of Meer (5, 247-256) engages with the his- logic or mathematics. Only about 40 per torical and philosophical literature. In cent of the conference papers are two volumes supposedly about world- included, but we are given no informa- views it is indeed an astounding omis- tion on the criteria of selection. We are sion. also given none of the interaction that (presumably) occurred at the conference. Arthur Jones is Research Consultant Many topics (e.g. causation, evolution, for Curriculum Development to the holism, naturalism) crop up again and Christian Schools’ Trust. He has again with different, even contradictory taught science and religion courses at positions being promoted. There is no London and Bristol Universities. index to allow collation and we do not know how any of the authors would respond to the criticisms given of their positions. To give one example, several David Wilkinson authors (e.g. Hubert Hendrichs, Terence The Power of the Force: The Kennedy, Joseph Zycinski), take the Spirituality of the Star Wars Films related notions of emergence and down- London: Lion, 2000, 153pp. pb. £7.99. ward causation for granted, but Dennis ISBN 0-7459-4402-7. Bielfeldt (5, 168-70) critiques these ideas and rejects them. This is a key debate This is not a difficult book to read. It with many implications for our view of romps along with the same ease and origins, so the lack of (recorded) response enjoyment as the films – and like the and debate is frustrating. films, if it is taken seriously and reflected on, there is a great deal here for thought. It so happens that I have reviewed two In a context where the traditional lan- other books this year whose authors are guage of faith, and the traditional ways of associated with The Templeton appealing for response no longer sound Foundation: Russell Stannard’s collection resonances with so many people, how God for the 21st Century (SPCK, 2000) and else might we be able to converse with Ian Barbour’s When Science Meets our contemporaries? In a society which Religion (SPCK 2000). An unexpected believes in anything and nothing, where common feature is that in all of them might we find a language and a series of there is very little or no coverage of the images which will help us to encourage vast literature generated by the last half- people to think about the story we have century’s work in the history and philos- to tell? It is Wilkinson’s argument that the ophy of science. I would have thought Star Wars films, using as they do univer- these were disciplines that no book on sal myths and spiritual themes, form one science and theology could possibly way of rediscovering such a language and ignore. I must admit to being wrong. All images. of these books do effectively ignore them and are strongly biased in favour of those He does not argue that the films are a who accept the essential correctness of sufficient or complete presentation of the the secular scientific accounts. There is Christian message, but he shows in a little suggestion that pre-scientific com- detailed but lightly-worn discussion how mitments might bias the content of sci- the films pick up on themes which are ence as well as its interpretations. Am I present throughout all the stories we tell really that unusual in concluding that it ourselves, such as exploration, the lone should now be unquestionable that faith hero, rescue and the little ones against plays an essential internal role in science the big power. He shows too how they are

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Book Reviews held together in these stories by the spir- R. L. Numbers itual values of transcendence, responsi- Darwinism Comes to America bility and hope. London: Harvard University Press, 1998. The book considers the way in which 219pp. pb £11.95, ISBN 0-674-19312-1, the films were made, the impact they hb £24.95, ISBN 0-674-19311-3. have had on the cinema-going public and the place they have, especially the first J. C. Greene one, in the consciousness of a particular Debating Darwin generation. Wilkinson, using some of Regina Books, Claremont, California: George Lucas’ own words shows how he Regina Books, 1999. 288pp. hb $34.95, deliberately set out to explore and ISBN 0-941690-85-7 express spiritual questions. The place of the Force as a spiritual motif is consid- Here are two fascinating and totally dif- ered, and its shortcomings in Christian ferent books on the historical relation of terms laid out clearly. evolution and Christianity. The one is a narrative history on how Darwinism was Wilkinson suggests that this series of received in America and the other how a films, which are packed with “scientific” theist, who is a historian of science, gadgetry and effects, allows the presenta- argues with agnostic evolutionists today. tion of ideas which might otherwise be Both writers are of the highest calibre. considered too abstruse or ivory-towered Ronald Numbers has succeeded in to be worth taking seriously. That these becoming president both of the Church questions, of meaning and of place in the History Society and the History of world, are not in fact so distant is the rest Science Society and John Greene is the of his argument, and is demonstrated, he father of the Darwin Industry whose The believes, by the overwhelming popularity Death of Adam kick-started Darwin stud- of the films. ies. For anybody concerned with commu- Greene’s book is not an easy read and nicating the Christian story to those who needs considerable chewing. I confess I would not resonate with our traditional did not like it at first but on second bite I language, images or ways of thought, this found it excellent. (If I had not found book offers a new way of beginning such Greene’s previous books so valuable and a discussion. More than that, it suggests were this book not a present from an ways for Christians to interact with the American friend I may have ignored it!) examples of modern culture which are And like a dog with his favourite bone I still shared – such as films, or music or dig it up to have another chew and rebury novels – and demonstrates that such it. Greene is an old-fashioned Liberal interaction is not to be feared, but can be Protestant but a strong theist and this extremely fruitful. book is largely his correspondence with Ernst Mayr. As a result it will not satisfy The book can be read in less time that some biblically minded evangelicals – to it takes to watch one of the films – but, their loss. The section on the Mayr- like the films with which it is concerned, Greene dialogue is presented in a raw it will provide food for thought long after fashion, containing articles by both and the closing paragraphs. their intermittent correspondence from 1980 to 1997. Despite disagreements the Ruth Gouldbourne teaches Church tone is friendly and centres on the possi- History and Doctrine at Bristol bility of theism. It simply defies a short Baptist College. summary, but Greene robustly parries Mayr’s assaults, who can see no place for God. Greene does far more than only “keeping the rumour of God alive”. Mayr

94 • Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 Book Reviews has a negative view of belief and regards ate the myth! (What use is a historical Darwinism as having put paid to that and doctorate if it is factually wrong in its his- considered Greene’s approach as appeal- tory?) It seems that many Church and ing “let’s get back to God”. Greene argued religious historians simply ignore the his- in part that Mayr misunderstood matters tory of science, as much as do pop scien- historically and like many other evolu- tists such as Jones and Dawkins. tionary naturalists today, assumes that Numbers is well-known for his magiste- Darwin was totally “liberated” from his rial The Creationists and this work is a theistic past. As Darwin himself said, “I collection of related essays put in chrono- am in a hopeless muddle.” Greene logical order from the age of Agassiz to stresses that Darwin’s ideas were far more recent Pentecostal responses to muddled and inconsistent and ultimately Darwinism. his ideas are not logically consistent. That is no criticism of Darwin, as we all In conclusion Darwinism in America are to some degree. ought to be on the shelves of anyone interested in the historical relation of Darwinism comes to America is a far evolution and Christianity. Debating easier read and is an interpretative his- Darwin will have a more limited appeal tory of evolution in America since 1850, but is a first-rate example of an apologetic covering a broad sweep. He also inte- with an agnostic evolutionist. It will also grates past events into the present situa- give an apologist methods and ideas in tion of both Creationism and Intelligent engaging with evolutionary naturalists Design, enabling the reader to see these who think God is irrelevant. recent phenomena in historical context. Though the book is obviously about Michael. B. Roberts is Vicar of Chirk. America, it is equally helpful in understanding the British situation. In the introduction Numbers wrote, ‘I hope in the following chapters not only to illumi- Mehdi Golshani (Editor) nate some of the dark corners of the his- Can Science Dispense With Religion? tory of evolution in America but to dispel Tehran: Institute for Humanities and a number of myths and misconceptions Cultural Studies, 1998. 205pp. that still cling to narratives of Darwinism ISBN 964-426-081-3 in the United States’ (and I will add Britain) and listed nine and commented This anthology, edited by Mehdi ‘each of these generalisations is dubious Golshani, Professor of Physics at Tehran’s if not downright wrong.’ These wrong Sharif University of Technology, is com- generalisations are as prevalent in Britain piled from the responses to a set of eight as in the States and recur with nauseating questions that were sent to various schol- frequency in the media, by “pop” scien- ars (scientists, philosophers and theolo- tists, and in Christian writing as well. gians). There is no mention of how the These mythical generalisations include: potential contributors were selected. that Darwinism created a national reli- 1. What is your definition of science gious crisis in the late nineteenth cen- and religion? tury; the Fundamentalists’ dislike (in 1900 to 1940) of science, rejection of the 2. Do you see any conflict between your age of the earth etc; and the age of the definitions of these two concepts? earth being an issue at the Scopes Trial of 3. Where do you think there may be a 1925. Recently I have come across two conflict between these two? church historians from our old universities repeating the first of Numbers “myths 4. What have been the grounds for the and preconceptions” and one is supervis- development of conflict between ing a doctorate which will help perpetu- these two?

Science & Christian Belief, Vol 13, No. 1 • 95 Book Reviews

5. What has been the role of religion in both develop ‘evidence based’ as the development of science in the opposed to ‘proof based’ descriptions, (c) West? both provide important but partial description of reality, and (d) both are 6. Can we have a religious science? able, to a certain extent, to be ‘put to the 7. Can science dispense with religion? test’ (21). 8. Can one separate the domains of Some of the replies make interesting activity of science and religion com- and insightful reading. Unfortunately pletely? there has been no attempt at any synthe- sis of the views expressed. The fragmen- Responses were received from thirty- tary ‘questionnaire structure’ of the book two scholars: six Muslims and twenty-six makes for disjointed and sometimes Christians (Catholic, Protestant or repetitive reading, relieved only by the Orthodox). Among the respondents, who two scholars who responded in a more came from the States, Canada, Russia, helpful essay format. Some of the Europe, Tehran, India and Australia, responses (85-97), relying on familiarity there is a bias towards the physical rather with another faith and its writings and than the life sciences. The contributing traditions, make challenging reading for scholars, all theists, believe that both sci- the Christian. It is unfortunate that ence and religion are important aspects of numerous spelling mistakes remain in our common life and that neither one the text. should be sacrificed for the sake of the other. Historically many believed that a Interfaith dialogue is high on today’s “Theology of Creation” (73) in both agenda. This anthology, which could be Christian and Islamic communities was instrumental in encouraging interfaith instrumental in the growth of scientific dialogue and understanding to permeate enterprise and, conversely, scientific the multi-ethnic, multi-faith scientific endeavour provided a springboard for community, is a welcome and bold initia- worship. Furthermore, most saw no con- tive. flict between the two if they are properly The book may be obtained direct from understood and if the domain of each one the Editor: [email protected]. is correctly recognized and preserved. Common features of authentic science Marion M. Syms is Senior Lecturer in and theology were recognized: (a) both Pharmacology, University of are based on ‘faith commitments’, (b) Portsmouth

ERRATA In the review of The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probablilities by William A. Dembski (Science & Christian Belief 12: 180-181, 2000), the number printed as 10150 at line 15 from the end should have read 10-150. In the Correspondence section of Science & Christian Belief 12: 168-171, 2000, Prof. R.J. Berry inadvertently attributed to Dr. P.G. Nelson the suggestion that the Fall is an allegory. However, Dr. Nelson did not make this suggestion in his letter nor does he hold this view which should have been attributed to Dr. H. Russman (cf. the last sentence of Dr. Russman’s letter on p. 166).

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