The Panda's Black Box: Opening up the Intelligent Design Controversy

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 184 pages
• Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press May 4, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 080188599X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0801885990
• Book Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 9.9 ounces

Product Review


"A valuable source should be required reading for zealots and is recommended for those interested in ID." -- Fraser Fleming, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith

Product Description


The debate over Intelligent Design seemingly represents an extension of the fundamental conflict between creationists and evolutionists. ID proponents, drawing on texts such as Darwin's Black Box and Of Pandas and People, urge schools to "teach the controversy" in biology class alongside evolution. The scientific mainstream has reacted with fury, branding Intelligent Design as pseudoscience and its advocates as religious fanatics.

But stridency misses the point, argues Nathaniel Comfort. In The Panda's Black Box, Comfort joins five other leading public intellectuals -- including Daniel Kevles and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Larson -- to explain the roots of the controversy and explore the intellectual, social, and cultural factors that continue to shape it.

One of the few books on the ID issue that moves beyond mere name-calling and finger-pointing, The Panda's Black Box challenges assumptions on each side of the debate and engages both the appeal and dangers of Intelligent Design. This lively collection will appeal to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of what's really at stake in the debate over evolution.

Reader Reviews
My fault, maybe, for expecting something different. I am not used to reading books from biolgists and other scientists that seem so willing to give quarter to religious thinking. This is not a creationist tome by any stretch, but to pretend that our best scientific theories can in any way be reconciled with revealed religion is to perpetuate dangerously flawed and delusional thinking. Some of the information in "Panda's Box" is provocative and worthy of wider discussion, but my overall impression was disappointment that it was not made of sturdier stuff. This is not a time for science to compromise with superstitions...there's too much at stake.