Global InformationOf Pandas and People information
 Cover of the 1993 second edition | |
| Authors | Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton (1st & 2nd Ed) William A. Dembski and Jonathan Wells (3rd Ed, under the title The Design of Life) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Intelligent design |
| Publisher | Foundation for Thought and Ethics |
Publication date | 1989 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 170 |
| ISBN | 0-914513-40-0 |
| OCLC | 27973099 |
Dewey Decimal | 576.8 21 |
| LC Class | QH367.3 .D38 1993 |
Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 (2nd edition 1993) school-level supplementary textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE). The textbook endorses the pseudoscientific[a][2][3][4] concept of intelligent design – the argument that life shows evidence of being designed by an intelligent agent which is not named specifically in the book, although proponents understand that it refers to the Christian God.[b] The overview chapter was written by young Earth creationist Nancy Pearcey. They present various polemical arguments against the scientific theory of evolution. Before publication, early drafts used cognates of "creationist". After the Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court ruling that creationism is religion and not science, these were changed to refer to "intelligent design". The second edition published in 1993 included a contribution written by Michael Behe.[8]
A third edition of the book was published in 2007 under the title The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems.
The book argues that the origin of new organisms is "in an immaterial cause: in a blueprint, a plan, a pattern, devised by an intelligent agent". The text remains non-committal on the age of the Earth, commenting that some "take the view that the earth's history can be compressed into a framework of thousands of years, while others adhere to the standard old earth chronology". The book raises a number of objections to the theory of evolution, such as the alleged lack of transitional fossils, gaps in the fossil record and the apparent sudden appearance ex nihilo of "already intact fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings, etc". The book makes no explicit reference to the identity of the intelligent designer implied in the "blueprint" metaphor.
In 1989 the National Center for Science Education published three reviews of the book: Kevin Padian, a biologist at University of California, Berkeley, called it "a wholesale distortion of modern biology".[9] Michael Ruse, a professor of philosophy and biology, said the book was "worthless and dishonest".[10] In the third of these reviews, Gerald Skoog, Professor of Education at Texas Tech University, wrote that the book reflected a creationist strategy to focus their "attack on evolution", interpreting the Edwards v. Aguillard ruling as though it legitimized "teaching a variety of scientific theories", but the book did not contain a scientific theory or model to "balance" against evolution, and was "being used as a vehicle to advance sectarian tenets and not to improve science education".[11]
- ^ "National Science Teachers Association Disappointed About Intelligent Design Comments Made by President Bush". National Science Teachers Association. August 3, 2005.
- ^ Boudry, Maarten; Blancke, Stefaan; Braeckman, Johan (December 2010). "Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: A Look into the Conceptual Toolbox of a Pseudoscience". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 85 (4). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press: 473–482. doi:10.1086/656904. hdl:1854/LU-952482. PMID 21243965. S2CID 27218269. Article available from Universiteit Gent
- ^ Pigliucci, Massimo (2010). "Science in the Courtroom: The Case against Intelligent Design" (PDF). Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. pp. 160–186. ISBN 978-0-226-66786-7. LCCN 2009049778. OCLC 457149439.
- ^ Menuge, Angus J. L. (2004). Young, Matt; Edis, Taner (eds.). Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism. Vol. 27. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 52–54. doi:10.2990/27_2_52. ISBN 0-8135-3433-X. JSTOR 40072957. LCCN 2003020100. OCLC 59717533. S2CID 108689569.
{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help) - ^ Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, p. 24, citing the testimony of John Haught
- ^ Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, p. 25
- ^ The Creationists, 2006, p. 380
- ^ National Academy of Sciences: Francisco J. Ayala, John C. Avise (2007). In the Light of Evolution: Volume I: Adaptation and Complex Design. National Academies Press. pp. 299–302. ISBN 978-0-309-10405-0.
- ^ Kevin Padian (1989): "Gross Misrepresentation", review Of Pandas and People in Bookwatch Reviews, republished in Reviews of Creationist Books ed Liz Rank Hughes, National Center for Science Education, 1992. p. 37 ISBN 978-0-939873-52-4
- ^ Michael Ruse (1989): "They're Here!", review Of Pandas and People in Bookwatch Reviews, republished in Reviews of Creationist Books ed Liz Rank Hughes, National Center for Science Education, 1992. p. 41 ISBN 978-0-939873-52-4
- ^ Gerald Skoog (1989). "A View From the Past". Of Pandas and People Review. National Center for Science Education. p. 44. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
review originally published in Bookwatch Reviews 2(11) in 1989, and republished in Reviews of Creationist Books, second edition, edited by Liz Rank Hughes (Berkeley: NCSE, 1993, ISBN 978-0-939873-52-4)
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