Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism (Bradford Books)

Creationism is no longer the simple notion it once was taken to be. Its
new advocates have become more sophisticated in how they present their views,
speaking of "intelligent design" rather than "creation science" and aiming their
arguments against the naturalistic philosophical method that underlies science,
proposing to replace it with a "theistic science." The creationism controversy is
not just about the status of Darwinian evolution--it is a clash of religious and
philosophical worldviews, for a common underlying fear among Creationists is that
evolution undermines both the basis of morality as they understand it and the
possibility of purpose in life.In Tower of Babel, philosopher Robert T. Pennock
compares the views of the new creationists with those of the old and reveals the
insubstantiality of their arguments. One of Pennock's major innovations is to turn
from biological evolution to the less charged subject of linguistic evolution, which
has strong theoretical parallels with biological evolution, both in content and in
the sort of evidence scientists use to draw conclusions about origins. Of course, an
evolutionary view of language does conflict with the Bible, which says that God
created the variety of languages at one time as punishment for the Tower of
Babel.Several chapters deal with the work of Phillip Johnson, a highly influential
leader of the new Creationists. Against his and other views, Pennock explains how
science uses naturalism and discusses the relationship between factual and moral
issues in the creationism-evolution controversy. The book also includes a discussion
of Darwin's own shift from creationist to evolutionist and an extended argument for
keeping private religious beliefs separate from public scientific
knowledge.