I was not originally going to review this book. It seemed at first too pro-intelligent design to warrant my consideration. It is pro-intelligent design to be sure, but it is also a serious book and requires serious discussion. Larry A. Witham, a "Washington Times" journalist, does what journalists do best, conduct interviews, in this case more than 200 of them, with scientists, theologians, a few politicians, a lot of pundits, some think tankers, and far too many cranks to chart the course of the public discussions concerning the politics of life's origin and change over time. But I was wrong, this works makes an important contribution, even if I do not agree with its premise.
The book is framed as a debate, although in reality there is no debate worth reporting. There is the evolutionary theory first advanced by Charles Darwin and modified and added to over the years by thousands of scientists. It is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community; there is no serious alternative to this theory that has even been advanced, let alone one that has gained any credence whatsoever among scientists. What exists is a rock solid consensus with evidence from virtually every scientific discipline, and a few crackpots here and there motivated more by their religious conceptions than their analysis of the data.
At the same time there is a debate, as Witham documents in detail, not over the science but in the political sphere as machinations to advance or condemn intelligent design takes place nationwide. At risk is the process of education, as intelligent design's supporters insist on its teaching along with evolution in science classes everywhere. That political debate is very much unsettled, and it is one of the key issues that will define the future. While all of my studies of this subject led me to support the theory of evolution, this is a useful and quite well done statement of this political situation. I applaud the author for presenting it.
