The Counter-Creationism Handbook Review

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(More customer reviews)This book presents hundreds of common, creationist arguments, each one followed by a brief counter-argument or series of counter-arguments showing why the creationist argument is wrong or illogical. The book includes arguments in philosophy, theology, epistemology, abiogenesis, genetics, molecular biology, anatomy, cognition, behavior, botany, embryology, systematics, transitional fossils, macroevolution, geology -- including plate tectonics -- cosmology, physics, mathematics, Biblical creationism, flood geology, intelligent design -- including Dembski`s complex specified information and Behe`s irreducible complexity -- and other topics.
I thought this was a very good introduction to an extremely broad array of the most common creationist arguments. Although each individual argument gets only a brief discussion, the author compensated for that understandable brevity by including a list of suggested readings, many of which are available on the internet, on virtually every topic.
I did have a couple of minor complaints. Notwithstanding the obvious need for brevity, the author could have spent a little more time on some points. For example, merely stating that oxygen levels increased prior to the Cambrian Explosion might not mean very much to the audience this book is aimed at. It probably would have been worthwhile to have added one extra sentence explaining that increased oxygen levels just prior to the Cambrian may have contributed to animals' ability to develop the hard body parts that just happen to be found in the fossil record at that very time. Also, the two entries for Lake Baikal appear to conflict with each other. It's possible that the apparent conflict could be resolved, but it sure isn't obvious from the book itself.
Also, some very simple but effective counter-arguments are left out. For example, the creationist "appearance of age" argument is simply unscientific, because there is no conceivable way to test it; and the creationist "design is obvious" argument is obviously nonsensical, because even obvious things can be wrong, such as our home planet being "obviously" flat and "obviously" stationary. Finally, there was one obvious error: even if design can allegedly be detected only in living things, that still does not imply that non-living things were not designed. Saying something is not detectable is not the same as saying it doesn't exist. The author should have left that one counter-argument out, which would have given him room for an extra sentence on why oxygen was an important factor in the Cambrian Explosion!
In a book of this scope, those complaints are pretty trivial and hardly detract from the book's value.
One last point: given the book's focus on science-related issues, it's understandable that there is next to nothing in the book about the serious constitutional problems facing creationists of all types, including the so-called "intelligent design" creationists. For anyone who wants to learn more specifically about that, I suggest web-searching for "Brauer, Forrest, and Gey." That will lead you to a very recent, 149-page law review article, authored by those three individuals and published in the Washington University Law Quarterly.

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