The Counter-Creationism Handbook

by Mark Isaak
University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2007
362 pp, illus. 13 b/w. Paper $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-520-24926-4.

Reviewed by Fred Andersson
Sweden

konstfred@yahoo.com

Have you ever been in a lengthy discussion with a so-called creationist? Maybe he or she use to knock on your door, trying to sell the Watchtower and convince you that you can become one of the happy few that will rejoice in Heaven. And maybe you have sometimes realized, at some point in the discussion, that you simply don't have the proper arguments to answer this person. Maybe you talk to someone who have spent his whole life studying the intricacies of biology, chemistry, physics, archeology or whatever science that studies the history of Man and the evolution of Earth. It's just that this someone interprets all the collected facts differently than most of us, and that it takes more than average knowledge to see exactly where the interpretation goes wrong. In such situations, one would long for a book that lists the most common creationist arguments, sorted under different sciences and disciplines, along with the proper rebuttals and references. A sort of counter-creationist encyclopedia.

What a luck that such a book now exists! It's written by Mark Isaak, editor of the acclaimed web resource Talking Origins Archive (http://www.talkingorigins.org), with the aid of a number of other scientists and educators. The disposition of the book is very systematic, reflecting the structure of the on-line archive with a numbering of each claim (for example CC050) and a division into sections. The main sections are Philosophy and Theology (A), Biology (B), Paleontology (C), Geology (D), Astronomy and cosmology (E), Physics and mathematics (F), Biblical creationism (H) and Intelligent Design (I). When relevant and necessary, illustrations are supplied. Just as an example, creationist claim nr CC050 (“All hominid fossils are fully human or fully ape”) is rebutted in a sequence of three points and related to a series of photos that show the similarities and differences between certain species of hominids and Homo. Finally, references are made to more extensive texts on the subject, such as Johanson & Edgar's From Lucy to Language.

The volume as a whole, with all its gathered information, is also supplied with a brief introduction in which Isaak gives some hints about how the information can be used and how creationism can be countered. Some central insights that tend to reappear in the work of Talking Origins are here repeated and explicated: Evolutionary science doesn't rule out religion (in fact, scientists adopt all kinds of positions in spiritual matters, including atheism); the wish that Evolution shouldn't be true is one of the best proofs that it is; Scientific truth is what stands the test of repeated attempts to falsify it (which supposes that, unlike religion, it rests on claims that can be falsified); with this definition of Science, there is absolutely no scientific basis for creationism; ID theory rests on creationist assumptions (therefore no distinction can be made between creationism and allegedly “scientific” ID). Isaak also acknowledges that this extremely extensive, pedagogical, well-written, and useful book is “merely an introduction” that can serve as a guide for those who want to know more about evolution in order to get prepared for the hardships of public debate. He thus proves capable of the virtue of all good educators and scientists — not to promote oneself or try to convince by means of personal authority alone, but to merely point at the facts that can in the long run affect even the most hardheaded opponent.