The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA - Softcover

Slack, the former editor of natural history magazine Pacific Discovery, has long covered clashes between scientists and creationists, and he knows both sides thoroughly—his own father, an experimental psychologist, took up creationism in the late 1990s, following a conversion to fundamentalist Christianity. In 2005, online magazine Salon assigned Slack to cover a federal court case in which a group of parents sued a Pennsylvania school board after it voted to include creationist material in high school science curricula. While Slack never hides his own convictions—firmly in support of evolution—he is staunchly evenhanded throughout, giving all players the opportunity to represent themselves and their ideas. Everyone involved in the case—the presiding judge, the opposing teams of attorneys, the students and townspeople of Dover—come alive in Slack′s economical yet revealing prose, and his history of both the contemporary creationist resurgence and the long–running philosophical debates behind it provide some much needed perspective on modern American culture wars. In this must–read for anyone involved in education—from federal officials to local school board voters—Slack demonstrates in crisp, clear language how science and religion are not opposites but different ways of thinking, each valuable for different purposes. (June) (Publishers Weekly, December 31, 2007)

"concise and readable." (Nature, 19th July 2007)

"...must–read for anyone involved in education – Slack demonstrates in crisp, clear language how science and religion are not opposites but different ways of thinking, each valuable for different purposes." (Publishers Weekly, December 31, 2007)

"...a truly uplifting tale." (New Scientist, 1st August 2007)

"concise and readable." (Nature, 19th July 2007)

The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything is a compelling eyewitness account of the recent courtroom drama in Dover, Pennsylvania, that put evolution and intelligent design on trial. Journalist Gordy Slack offers a riveting, personal, and often amusing first–hand account that details six weeks of some of the most widely ranging, fascinating, and just plain surreal testimony in U.S. legal history a battle between hard science and religious conservatives wishing to promote a new version of creationism in schools.

"Concise and readable." Nature Magazine

"In a time of despair over social and political decay in the U.S., Gordy Slack′s The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything is a truly uplifting tale. . . . His writing [is] human and so worthy of a read." New Scientist Magazine

"The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything is magnificent by far the best depiction I have seen of America′s culture war that pits religious concepts of the supernatural against the materialism of science. Slack′s non–polemical narrative skillfully reveals the ins and outs of creationism, intelligent design, evolutionary biology, and the nature of modern science in clear and compelling prose. Slack′s own story of trying to understand his father′s religious position stands as a poignant microcosm of the larger debate adding a personal touch that helps bring into focus the frustration and sadness that is often present, but usually not acknowledged, as the culture war rages on."
Niles Eldredge, curator, division of paleontology; curator, Darwin Exhibition, The American Museum of Natural History

"Gordy Slack′s beautifully written The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything should be on absolutely everyone′s must read list. Although Slack does not conceal his own evolutionary commitments, he is balanced and fair, showing above all that this is a cultural battle and not simply one of science versus religion. The book is a terrific read."
Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and director of the program in the history and philosophy of science, Florida State University, Tallahassee