God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory [Hardcover]

The campaign, which has gone through several aliases - "Christian creationism" and "creation science" are but two - has settled on the bizarre cognomen of "Intelligent Design". This concept rests on a view of today's life. It is then projected back in time and found too difficult to explain. According to ID, we can't get there from here. Life is too complex to have built up from simple beginnings and must be the work of an anonymous "designer", which, of course, means something spiritual. Shanks is direct in his condemnation of this notion. Quite apart from the vapid logic of ID's idea is the failure of its adherents to provide a shred of evidence for their thesis. It is a shambles of inconsistent views, he demonstrates, often contradictory and its adherents often at cross-purposes. Shanks' granting it the status of a "theory" is the one shortcoming in this book.

After a brief outline of ID's ancient roots and its proponents in the Muslim world - a novel point overlooked by most scholars - Shanks outlines his themes. He divides his topics into the realms of biological and cosmological ID views. The biological is, of course, ID's challenge to Darwin's natural selection concept. It's difficult to comprehend how anyone could reject the mass of evidence supporting Darwin's idea that have accumulated since "Origin" was published, but Shanks demonstrates how ID publicists attempt to refute or ignore it. ID has used the laws of thermodynamics as a bludgeon against natural selection, but Shanks explains the flaws in its arguments. He deftly exposes the inconsistencies and self-contradictions that ID spokesmen have produced. Michael Behe's circular debates with Shanks and his colleague Karl Joplin are revealed to be as mistaken as they were in his sadly best selling book. The works of Behe's cohorts Phillip Johnson and William Dembski are carefully dissected and their mistakes exposed in raw vividness. They engage in much special pleading, but Shanks counters with gifted eloquence.

Perhaps the most far-reaching attempt to project ID is what has become known as the "anthropic principle". This idea has caught the imagination of those who recognise evolution has produced the human species. However, as any cognitive scientist will concede, humans have a unique place in nature. Our level of consciousness and linguistic abilities lead us to view ourselves in ways different from other animals. Frank Tipler and John Barrow have proposed that human evolution, unlike any other species, isn't destined to go extinct. Instead we will continue to evolve indefinitely. Shanks, who describes this idea as a "grotesque science fantasy", is understandably dismissive of something so counter to biological reality.

The main thrust of ID has always been the introduction of the supernatural as the driving force of life. Shanks repeated theme is the failure to provide supportive evidence for this claim. While there are those who contend deities aren't discernible, Shanks nods to their concerns, but demonstates lucidly that the processes of the universe and life are measureable. It is these very topics which the ID clique is attempting to overthrow in American public schools, a tactic Shanks seeks to block. ID's thesis that "materialism" erodes "moral values" are exposed in Shanks' conclusion. This device is no more than a scare tactic that characterises Darwin and all evolutionary biologists, paleoanthropologists, cosmologists and other researchers as "agents of Satan" in Henry Morris' terms. It is hoped that this book will provide an effective counter to such depictions. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

In other words, all the close and detailed analysis done by Shanks in this book--and trust me, he really addresses the question in the most thorough way--isn't about to persuade anybody one way or the other. Most people won't--and could not even if they tried--read it. It is entirely too finely meshed in technical detail about matters of no particular interest to them: cosmology, quantum mechanics, probability theory, biochemistry, thermodynamics, etc. Yet the book had to be written just for the record, one might say. All the pseudoscience served up by the creationists and the intelligent designers needed to be answered thoroughly, and Shanks has done that in a most impressive manner.

Shanks takes the intelligent designers seriously and presents their arguments, and then, piece by piece, refutes them. Frankly, I believe he gives them more attention than they deserve. After all, how seriously can one take a man (leading intelligent design theorist, William Dembski, for example) who writes: "My thesis is that all disciplines find their completion in Christ and cannot be properly understood apart from Christ" (quoted on page 157)? I mean, isn't it enough to just quote such a person? He's a true believer and all his "arguments" are merely attempts to justify his belief in a supernatural being and supernatural causation. No amount of counter argument from logic or scientific experiment or from the multitudinous conclusions of the various sciences is going to sway him one iota.

But of course Shanks is not aiming his arguments at Dembski or his colleagues. Rather, like the good teacher he is, Shanks wants it spelled out for his students and for students everywhere just how absurd and wanting is the case for intelligent design. He is writing for those not yet entirely corrupted by religious propaganda and as yet innocent of the weight of the scientific evidence.

Why, one might ask, are the religious fundamentalists so intent on attacking Darwinism? Is it because they are uncomfortable with being closely related to apes, as were the Victorians? They probably are, but the real reason is that "Darwin's theory of evolution can be viewed as a sustained refutation of the argument from design..." (p. 24) Before evolution it was a mighty mystery as to how species arose, and any argument was as good as another, with the hoary argument from design being especially agreeable; and therefore pronouncements from the clergy held not only psychological, social and political sway over the masses, but intellectual sway as well. Darwinism changed all that, with the result that the Church lost an enormous amount of power and prestige--power and prestige that it has been desperately trying to regain ever since.

Noteworthy is the fine introduction by Richard Dawkins who has fought long and hard himself against the stupidities of the creationists and intelligent designers. Note well his sharp and decisive tone: "Intelligent Design 'theory' is pernicious nonsense which needs to be neutralized before irreparable damage is done to American education." (p. x)

That really is the bottom line. All that we have learned from science and rationalism is under attack from the forces of ignorance, mostly right-wing religious fundamentalists who would substitute their authoritarian mumble-jumble for reality in an attempt to seize the reigns of political power and usher in a return to the Dark Ages with themselves at the throne. Professor Shanks is to be commended for his efforts to prevent such a catastrophe, as unlikely as such a catastrophe might be.