Much more, including an excerpt from the book, at the URL below. Udhay
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/it06/it06_index.html INTELLIGENT THOUGHT SCIENCE VERSUS THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN MOVEMENT [5.8.06] Edited by John Brockman Jerry Coyne, Leonard Susskind, Daniel C. Dennett, Nicholas Humphrey, Tim D. White, Neil H. Shubin, Richard Dawkins, Frank Sulloway, Scott Atran, Steven Pinker, Lee Smolin, Stuart A. Kauffman, Seth Lloyd, Lisa Randall, Marc D. Hauser, Scott Sampson NOW ON SALE! Vintage | Trade Paperback | May 2006 978-0-307-27722-0 (0-307-27722-4) | 272 pages $14.00/$18.95 (Canada) Science is the big news. Science is the important story. Science is public culture....Yet at the same time, religious fundamentalism is on the rise around the world, and our own virulent domestic version of it, under the rubric of "intelligent design," by elbowing its way into the classroom abrogates the divide between church and state that has served this country so well for so long. Moreover, the intelligent-design (ID) movement imperils American global dominance in science and in so doing presents the gravest of threats to the American economy, which is driven by advances in science and in the technology derived therefrom. This book sixteen essays by Edge contributors, all leading scientists from several disciplines is a thoughtful response to the bizarre claims made by the ID movement's advocates, whose only interest in science appears to be to replace it with beliefs consistent with those of the Middle Ages. School districts across the country most notably in Kansas and later in Pennsylvania, where the antievolutionist tide was turned but undoubtedly not stoppedhave been besieged by demands to "teach the debate," to "present the controversy," when, in actuality, there is no debate, no controversy. What there is, quite simply, is a duplicitous public-relations campaign funded by Christian fundamentalist interests. It is to be hoped that the ID movement, because of the very publicity that it has sought and achieved, will be seen by the majority of Americans for the giant step backward that it is. Our children are literally the future of our nation, which will increasingly need competent scientists and engineers to guide us through the coming technological revolutions revolutions that are already under way all around us. There are examples in history of the collapse of great civilizations. There is no particular reason that the United States should be exempt from historical forces. The Visigoths are at the gates. Will we let them in? <snip> -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
