Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism

Abusing Science is a manual for intellectual self-defense, the most completeavailable for presenting the case against Creationist pseudo-science. It is also a lucid expositionof the nature and methods of genuine science. The book begins with a concise introduction toevolutionary theory for non-scientists and closes with a rebuttal of the charge that this theoryundermines religious and moral values. It will astonish many readers that this case must still bemade in the 1980s, but since it must, Philip Kitcher makes it irresistibly and forcefully.Not longago, a federal court struck down an Arkansas law requiring that "scientific" Creationism be taughtin high school science classes. Contemporary Creationists may have lost one legal battle, but theircause continues to thrive. Their efforts are directed not only at state legislatures but at localschool boards and textbook publishers. As Kitcher argues in this rigorous but highly readable book,the integrity of science is under attack. The methods of inquiry used in evolutionary biology arethose which are used throughout the sciences. Moreover, modern biology is intertwined with otherfields of science--physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology. Creationists hope to persuade thepublic that education in science should be torn apart to make room for a literal reading ofGenesis.Abusing Science refutes the popular complaint that the scientific establishment is dogmaticand intolerant, denying "academic freedom" to the unorthodox. It examines Creationist claimsseriously and systematically, one by one, showing clearly just why they are at best misguided, atworst ludicrous.

Philip Kitcher is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, and Director of its Center for the Philosophy of Science. Kitcher is the author of a searching book on "Scientific" Creationism, Abusing Science, published by The MIT Press in 1982.