Denyse O'Leary

Journalist Denyse O'Leary does a good job of describing and explaining the various perspectives on evolution held by people in these United States. The perspectives she describes are: Old Earth and New Earth Creationism, Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism, Theistic Evolutionism and Intelligent Design theory. Along the way she effectively challenges a number of misconceptions. These include, among others, the assumption that the initial reaction to Darwinian theory by religionists was negative, the assumption that most if not all of the criticism of Neo-Darwinism theory comes from the ranks of Creationism and Intelligent Design proponents, the assumption that working as a professional scientist and believing in Creationism is not possible, the charge that Intelligent Design is simply Creationism dressed up in more modern clothing and not genuine science, the charge that Intelligent Design is an example of bad theology. She also touches upon the regrettable attempts of some Neo-Darwinists to counter the challenge of Intelligent Design proponents with tactics of political repression. She also suggests that the real conflict between Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design has to with philosophical paradigms they are built on, namely the materialistic worldview of naturalism and the non-materialistic worldview of I.D. theory. Finally O'Leary does a fairly good job of making it clear that the future outcome of the battle between orthodox Neo-Darwinism and its various off-shoots with Intelligent Design theorists will take place on the fields of information theory. In closing she challenges Intelligent Design to demonstrate its scientific usefulness by making more verifiable predictions (such as the usefulness of what formerly referred to "junk DNA).

While this book having been printed in 2004 does not reflect the current status of the cultural and scientific conflicts regarding evolution, it does do a good job of letting the reader understand who the primary contestants are and what they stand for.… (más)

Beauregard’s thesis is that mystical/spiritual experiences have effects on the brain that are too complex to be generalized down to a “God Gene,” a “God Switch,” or a section of the brain dedicated to religiosity. His evidence for this thesis is pretty strong—specifically, he summarizes his own neuroscience research with Carmelite nuns. This thesis does not take an entire book to prove, however, so he spends the rest of the book discussing other aspects of spirituality and neuroscience. Problem is, he’s not an exciting writer, so I really can’t remember any of his other points. I don’t recall any objectionable arguments he made…it’s just that the book is rather forgettable. Maybe worth a read if you have a specific interest in the area—but there are better books out there for casual popular reading.… (más)