The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design

So many times books written by creationists or those who oppose Darwinism are full of scientific errors and misconceptions that reflect so much ignorance that you wonder how the book was ever printed.  Then you look at the qualifications of the author and you realize why the book is so bad--the author is writing out of his field and is badly informed on his subject matter.  This for the most part is not the case with this book.  Jonathan Wells is a microbiologist holding two Ph.D.s--one from Berkeley and one from Yale.  You may not agree with all of Well's conclusions, but his understanding of the factual data cannot be challenged.  This is a very factual book, with good simple explanations of complex information and exhaustive documentation.  The book is 258 pages long with a useful index and 17 well organized chapters.

This book is an all-out attack on Darwinism.  It is written with the intent of showing that the promoters of Darwinism are involved in a massive coverup and intellectual charade.  In the process of promoting that theme, Wells gives massive quotes, but the quotes are out of context and many times were not intended to promote the atheistic viewpoint that Wells is attacking.  An example would be "Different phylogenetic analyses can reach contradictory inferences with absolute support" (page 39).  This statement by evolutionary biologists would not be an admission by them that phylogenetic arguments are invalid, but that seems to be the inference given by Wells.  Such frauds as Haeckel's embryonic drawings are handled well and are not questionable, but there is no question that Wells is selling his viewpoint, and that makes the book less than objective.

Wells defends Intelligent Design (ID) and its teaching in science classes.  Much of his defense of ID revolves around a complicated discussion of what science is, but he really never gets into the issue of how ID can be used to solve problems.  The aggressive nature and malicious intent of anti-ID scientists and media people is given and the question is left open, but never really resolved.

This book will infuriate naturalists and Darwinists.  It is a useful book for people working in apologetics and parents and students who run into pressure from an atheistic professor or teacher.  There are a lot of things critics can challenge in the book, but the documentation helps in issues of this type.  We recommend this book to those who want a strong creationist source in the evolution/creation controversy.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, SepOct08.