Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

Abusing Sicence:

The Case Against Creationism
Front Cover
8 Reviews
MIT Press, 1982 - Science - 213 pages
Abusing Science is a manual for intellectual self-defense, the most complete available for presenting the case against Creationist pseudo-science. It is also a lucid exposition of the nature and methods of genuine science. The book begins with a concise introduction to evolutionary theory for non-scientists and closes with a rebuttal of the charge that this theory undermines religious and moral values. It will astonish many readers that this case must still be made in the 1980s, but since it must, Philip Kitcher makes it irresistibly and forcefully.

Not long ago, a federal court struck down an Arkansas law requiring that "scientific" Creationism be taught in high school science classes. Contemporary Creationists may have lost one legal battle, but their cause continues to thrive. Their efforts are directed not only at state legislatures but at local school 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 are those which are used throughout the sciences. Moreover, modern biology is intertwined with other fields of science—physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology. Creationists hope to persuade the public that education in science should be torn apart to make room for a literal reading of Genesis.

Abusing Science refutes the popular complaint that the scientific establishment is dogmatic and intolerant, denying "academic freedom" to the unorthodox. It examines Creationist claims seriously and systematically, one by one, showing clearly just why they are at best misguided, at worst ludicrous.
  

What people are saying - Write a review

We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.

Related books

Living with Darwin : Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith: Evolution ...
Living with Darwin : Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith: Evolution ...
Philip Kitcher Professor of Philosophy Columbia University
Limited preview - 2007
Science, Truth, and Democracy
Science, Truth, and Democracy
Philip Kitcher
Limited preview - 2003
The Lives to Come
The Lives to Come
Philip Kitcher
Limited preview - 1997
All related books »

Contents

2
18
3
55
4
82
5
102
What Price Creationism?
124
6
165
7
186
with Patricia Kitcher
203
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

advantageous alleles amphibians ancestors animals answer Archaeopteryx argument assumptions ationists basic kinds believe Bible biologists birds chapter characteristics chromosomes claim closed system concept contemporary Creation science Creationists Darwin Darwinian histories discussion doctrine earth energy entropy environment evidence evolutionary biology evolutionary change evolutionary theory evolutionists evolved example explain fact Flood Geology fossil record genes genotypes geologists Gish Gish's Hiebert humans ichthyostegids idea important irreducibly random large number law of thermodynamics lutionary mammals marsupials Mayr mechanics methods molecules moral Morris Morris's mutations natural selection observational consequences occur organisms original paleontologists particular population genetics possible predictions present problem-solving strategies problems produce protein questions radioactive decay radiometric dating random processes reason reproductive isolation reptiles reptilian result rock scientific theory scientists second law sequence similar simply species statements strata structure success suggest supposed survival theorists theory of evolution therapsids transitional forms variation Wilder-Smith Wysong

References from web pages

Abusing Science - The MIT Press
Abusing Science is a manual for intellectual self-defense, the most complete available for presenting the case against Creationist pseudo-science
mitpress.mit.edu/ catalog/ item/ default.asp?ttype=2& tid=5383

JSTOR: Abusing Science: The Case against Creationism
One of the very best of the crop is Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism by Philip Kitcher. It is good in its own right, and doubly good in that ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0031-8248(198406)51%3A2%3C348%3AASTCAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z

Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature ...
REVIEW. Philip Kitcher: 1985,. Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest. for Human Nature,. mit Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 456 pp.,. $25.00 (us). ...
www.springerlink.com/ index/ R872KV22V29G8147.pdf

Abusing Science. The Case against Creationism.
ED228073 - Abusing Science. The Case against Creationism.
eric.ed.gov/ ERICWebPortal/ recordDetail?accno=ED228073

Kitcher, Philip (1982) Abusing Science: The Case Against ...
Kitcher, Philip (1982) Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism. Cambridge: MIT Press. By training, I am a philosopher of science, a person whose ...
www.bizmota.com/ wegener/ kitcher/ kitcher.pdf

Abusing Science. The Case Against Creationism. (Philip Kitcher).
"Abusing Science. The Case Against Creationism." by Philip Kitcher The MIT Press. 1982 213 pages. Contents:. Evolution for Everyone. ...
home.planet.nl/ ~gkorthof/ kortho26.htm

Gibson, lj --- Evolution Defended
ABUSING SCIENCE: THE CASE AGAINST CREATIONISM. 1982. Philip Kitcher. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London. 213 pages. ...
www.grisda.org/ origins/ 12090.htm

D:\ASAWEB~1\PSCF\1985\6-85Comm.htm
ABUSING SCIENCE: THE CASE AGAINST CREATIONISM by Philip Kitcher. Cambridge, Mass. /London, MIT Press, 1982, x + 213 pp., $15.00 (1983 pb ed ., $6.95). ...
www.asa3.org/ ASA/ PSCF/ 1985/ JASA6-85Fayter.html

Blackwell Publishing Ltd Oxford, UK EDTH Educational Theory 0013 ...
Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science: The Case against Creationism (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982), 52. 7. Ibid., 33. 8. Ibid., 54. 9. Ibid. 10. ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/ xml/ 10.1111/ j.1741-5446.1985.00161.x

John A. Moore. Science as a way of knowing: The foundations of ...
BOOK REVIEWS. 427. NOTES. 1. Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982), p. 50. 2. Jerry A. Fodor, Modularity of Mind (Cambridge, ...
doi.wiley.com/ 10.1002/ 1520-6696(199410)30:4%3C427::AID-JHBS2300300419%3E3.0.CO;2-F

About the author (1982)

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.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Abusing Sicence
TitleAbusing Sicence: The Case Against Creationism
AuthorPhilip Kitcher
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherMIT Press, 1982
ISBN026261037X, 9780262610377
Length213 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Science / Life Sciences / Evolution
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan