A Devils Chaplain

In this book, he puts together a collection of essays which, in the essence, is a guidebook to non-scientists to debunking pseudo-science. He does so in a variety of ways:
1. He demonstrates how complex physics concepts are used in literature to seem more scientific.
2. He shows how creationists seek legitimacy in the public eye with scientific sounding ideas like "intelligent design" and others which are nothing more than pseudo-science. He also offers ideas on how to deal with them.
3. He points out, in an open letter to his daughter, how to know what is truth and what isn't, what are good and bad reasons to believe something.
4. He recommends a number of follow up readings in his book reviews. These are mainly on Stephen Jay Gould and Peter Medawar, two other famed biologists who write for the general public.

The essence of the book is reflected, I believe, in the last essay, in which he makes the point that evidence is the only way to truth and knowledge, and the basis of science. He shows that evidence is a better reason to believe something than its three foes: authority, revelation and tradition.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for intelligent arguments and thoughts on a wide variety of subjects, all related to science, its importance and its usage (or lack thereof) in society.

By contrast, A Devil's Chaplain is a book that will appeal primarily to people who have read several books by Professor Dawkins and would like to know more about him as a person and his views outside of neo-Darwinism.

If you have not read anything by Professor Dawkins, I recommend you skip this book unless you have a thorough understanding of the latest evolutionary theories. Much of the book won't make sense to you otherwise.

A Devil's Chaplain is a series of essays (some published before and some not), laments, eulogies and a letter to his daughter. From these materials, you can learn more about how Professor Dawkins sees his colleagues, those who oppose evolutionary teachings, postmodernists, and his personal views on religious beliefs and "alternative" medicine. Much of what he says will not surprise you. As a scientist, he favors the scientific method and is rationally skeptical of anything that cannot be proven by this method. He is also annoyed by a society that grants prominent opportunities to share views that are not proven by scientific methods. As a result, he is also an atheist . . . but one who draws great joy from considering the world around him and the methods by which it has been created.

Many people think of atheists as gloomy people, or people without much emotion. Professor Dawkins is neither. His loving descriptions of relations with his colleagues, rivals and mentors show just the opposite. His concern for using scientific methods is obviously also based on a desire to help people live better lives.

Catholics may find the book a little annoying in that Professor Dawkins likes to challenge some of the "faith"-based beliefs that that religion espouses.

As I finished the book, I found that I was most attracted to the advanced speculations that Professor Dawkins used in his book that speak directly to evolutionary studies. I especially recommend the essay, "Son of Moore's Law," where he describes the timing of when individual genomes will be economically affordable and how that will influence health and medical treatments. I was also drawn to the essays that describe his optimistic belief that we can escape our evolutionary heritage and evolve into people who produce the best possible future for all.

There's much food for thought here. I doubt if any religious believers will be undone by his arguments. I also doubt that he will convert any people who believe in the literal creation as described in the Bible to change their views.

Ultimately, I was left wondering how other prominent scientists bridge the gap between their scientific methods and having a rich religious life.

I graded the book down one star because the editor presumes the reader has a little too much familiarity with the leading lines of thought about evolution. The book could have used more footnotes to explain the background of the points Professor Dawkins is making for those of us who are not evolutionary biologists . . . but simply like to read books about the subject.

As evolutionists start to realize that they are losing the origins debate about the scientific data, where evolutionary theory always claimed a methodological advantage, the only way out is to insist, as Richard Dawkins does, on the "wall of separation between religion and science" and to keep repeating the "slogan" according to which "creation is religion and evolution is science".

Instead of daring to confront creationism in a free and open encounter in the marketplace of ideas (in the old liberal tradition of Milton and Mill) Richard Dawkins and other evolutionists want to separate the "scientific market" from the "religious market", leaving the latter for creationists and claiming monopoly status for themselves in the former.

This is a classical proteccionist technique used by those who fear competition. It is interesting to notice that the artificial wall between science and religion is the only defense evolutionary theory holds on to these days, since all the observable facts themselves speak in favour of special creation.

It is based on this conceptual separation alone that evolutionists like to proclaim the total scientific discredit of creationism.

In truth, evolutionism has been suported by a strand of christian theology that claims that faith in God should be totally distanced from the real facts of this world. Creationism distances itself both from the irrational, random and accidental "selfish gene" assumptions from evolutionism, as well as from that kind of christian theology that supports and praises blind faith. These are two kinds of irrationalism that creationists abhorr. Both distance themselves from the actual scientific evidence that supports creation.

Biblical creationism is not affraid of competition, and is willing to engage in confronting empirical topics such as cosmology, abiogenesis, pre-biotic soup, mutations, vestigial organs, junk-DNA, radiometric dating, geology, fossils, "ape-man", dino-to-bird, molecular machines, probabilities, design teory, information theory, etc. In all these fields all the observable data, when freed from naturalistic assumptions, points to special creation.

Biblical creationism doesn't need to claim a separate market for itself and and doesn't need to capture public power to protect its monopoly status, as is the case with evolutionism.

In spite of all the epistemic protectionism of evolutionists, creationism has been pretty successful in directing devastating blows against evolutionary theory.