- ISBN13: 9780061179457
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
In this fascinating story of evolution, religion, politics, and personalities, Matthew Chapman captures the story behind the headlines in the debate over God and science in America. Kitzmiller v. Dover Board of Education, decided in late 2005, pitted the teaching of intelligent design (sometimes known as “creationism in a lab coat”) against the teaching of evolution. Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, spent several months covering the tr… More >>
#1 by Rodolfo Pena on February 10, 2010 - 1:10 am
I have not finished the book yet, but I am way over half way through and find the book tedious and boring. I expected the ins and outs of the courts proceedings, insted I found over 25 protagonists and antagonists in the book from PTA members, to shool board members to court officers. Chapman describes each of these characters’ personalities, professions, education, family background, etc., and by the time the reader reaches the fourth protagonists the reader tends to confuse everybodys background. Tedious is the right word for it. Sorry, I thought it was going to be a legal intrigue. It was a biogrphical essay of over 25 people.
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by Willow Appleby on February 10, 2010 - 3:00 am
Mediocre. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a card carrying Darwinist… but the narrative could have been better. Too much Chapman’s opinions and not enough actual facts of the case.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Julee Rudolf on February 10, 2010 - 3:36 am
Matthew (which, btw, means “gift from God”) Chapman is the pot calling the kettle black in this biased book about a court case against an American school board that tried to force the teaching of intelligent design into their 9th grade science curriculum. Although I wholeheartedly agree with Chapman (and the courts, who ruled against the Dover, Pennsylvania School Board) that the teaching of ID belongs nowhere near a science class, I’m blown away by his arrogance and utter disdain for three primary targets:
George W. Bush and his administration (pages 205, 218, 242, 261, 269)
Believers (pretty much every page)
Americans (as opposed to the infinitely superior, in his mind at least, Europeans, especially his British brethren – see page 204, 266, 270)
The overall message of this British born journalist who now makes his home in America seems to be that because an overwhelming number of Americans believe in God and (p 15) “54 percent of adults” do not accept Darwin’s theory of evolution, they are stupid. The whole – Americans-are-backwards theme seems especially ironic in light of the fact that, until 1996, British teachers were required to teach religion in public schools. In the world according to Chapman, every major player in the trial must be described in excruciating detail, bad guys (believers) and the bible are to be belittled (save for Haught, see page 104 for his intriguing testimony), while nonbelievers are to be praised. Those whose views are different than the author’s are referred to with such disparaging terms as: (p 77) “Bellicose” (p 121) “oddballs,” (p 152) “redneck,” (p 244) “crank,” and phrases like: (p 264) “huge, ignorant, but fertile fundamentalist species…”
(p 88) “What a snob this man is-all these cracks about these poor hicks and so on,” he wonders if perhaps the reader is saying to him or herself. Yes. We are!
His coverage of the trial is pretty compelling stuff, but his lack of balance is just plain irritating. I might add here that while he is willing to prejudicially take sides on the ID debate, he sits firmly on the fence about faith (p 204) “…I told [Reverend Jim Groves]. I thought faith was understandable but unhealthy, and that, consequently I was not an atheist or an agnostic, because having faith, even in nothing, was too much faith for my taste.” My advice for the New York-dweller: move to Switzerland. As a person with a propensity to judge (in my defense, I am capable of restraint and tact), I wouldn’t want to want to cast stones. But, in spite of my similar seeming beliefs about religion (though not about the religious or Americans or religious Americans), I was taken aback by his intolerance and disdain for his current countrymen. Better: God or Gorilla (The Best American Science Writing 2007) by Matthew Chapman (a shorter version of the same story). Good companion reads: god is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by L. Speyer on February 10, 2010 - 5:18 am
Chapman asks the reader in the introduction not to hold against him that he is a direct descendent of Charles Darwin, and indeed I have no reason to do so. But I do hold against him his unveiled contempt for many of the people he describes in this polemic of “journalism.” I would like even less seeing through thinly veiled contempt and feeling swindled by a false cheer, and so I commend Chapman for his honesty. But I am far more comfortable with, and believe more is to be learned from, a genuine attempt at parlay and mutual respect which seems to fall quite outside Chapman’s imagination.
The formatting for Kindle is excellent — searchable, with a great Table of Contents and a nice typeface. The topic, too, is fascinating. I wish only for a less biased account. Well, and I also wish to know what in heck MOB is appended to the title for.
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by A. L. Dodez on February 10, 2010 - 8:02 am
I enjoyed Chapman’s take on the Kitsmiller v. Dover. What I liked most was the last chapter, in which he stated his reasons for welcoming creation in the science classroom. If you enjoyed his first book on the Scopes trial, you will definitely enjoy the book as well.
Rating: 4 / 5