Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Book Review: Darwin Day In America

(short) Book Review: A book that may be of some interest.... 
 (Review by  EN&V)

Darwin Day In America
by John G. West
Publisher ISI Books, February 2015        532 pages


"Our culture is witnessing the rise of what could be called totalitarian science -- science so totalistic in its outlook that its defenders claim the right to remake every sphere of human life, from public policy and education to ethics and religion," says West. "Science is a wonderful enterprise, but in the Obama era, it's being twisted in ways that are unhealthy for both science and society."
Developments discussed in the new edition of Darwin Day include:
  • Human Experimentation in the Name of "Science." Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) used thousands of premature infants as human guinea pigs, subjecting them to dangerous experiments with oxygen that could cause blindness and death. When the research was exposed, NIH Director Francis Collins waged a PR offensive to defend
    the research and stifle criticism.
  • Government Secrecy in the Name of "Science." The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repeatedly refused to disclose to Congress the scientific data the agency used to establish sweeping new pollution standards, claiming it was protecting the data "from those who are not qualified to analyze it."
  • Curtailing Free Speech in the Name of "Science." A growing number of politicians, professors, and journalists are advocating the forcible suppression of dissenting views about climate change, evolution, and other science issues. In the words of one journalist, climate change skeptics "should face jail. They should face fines. They should face lawsuits."
  • Bashing Religion in the Name of "Science." Atheist scientists are increasingly aggressive in evangelizing for their views in the media as well as the classroom. For example, last year's Cosmos television series hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson -- and introduced by President Obama -- portrayed religion as the enemy of science and claimed to show how life developed due to "mindless" processes.
  • Coercive Population Control in the Name of "Science." Evolutionary zoologist Eric Pianka at the University of Texas has urged the reduction of the Earth's human population by up to 90 percent and has called on government to confiscate all the earnings of any couple with more than two children.
Darwin Day in America tells the disturbing story of scientific expertise run amuck, exposing how an ideological interpretation of Darwinian biology and reductionist science have been used degrade American culture and fuel a relentless march from democracy to technocracy in criminal justice, welfare, business, education, and bioethics."
Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools,
Romans 1:22