Last Friday saw the release of the book “Science, Evolution and Creationism” (SEC) by the National Academy of Science and the Institute of Medicine.
Not surprisingly, the National Academies press release accompanying the book plays up the evolutionary biology aspects of the book, describing it as “a book designed to give the public a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom”.
The New York Times announcement, on the other hand, focuses on the book’s discussion of the relationship between science and religion. Quoting SEC, the article states that “attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist”. Here’s hoping that this message is spread widely, so that the real work of understanding the intersection of science and religion can continue. (Richard Dawkins, take note.)
(For any who are interested, the entire book can be downloaded for free at the National Academies Press website. I haven’t yet read the book in its entirety, but I’m planning to do so over the coming days.)
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Pete. Just a FYI, there’s a related discussion happening on Nature Network here, in case you wanted to comment there as you read the National Academies report.
Basically, two commenters there say that it’s not appropriate to compare a belief in God with a “belief” in or subscription to evolution, since faith and science are two very different things and so don’t have to be (or even shouldn’t be) mutually exclusive.
Thanks for bringing that discussion to my attention Corie – I’ll certainly take a look.