Evolution vs. Creationism

See link for public television series on Evolution (broadcast in Fall 2000) below.

Evolution Directory

• The National Center for Science Education
  • Origin Myths
  • Darwin on Trial: A Review; see also this link.
  • Pope John Paul II's statement on evolution
• The WWW Virtual Library: Evolution (Biosciences) (Harvard University)
• National Academy of Sciences (USA) "Science and Creationism" page — statements from NAS and other science and education organizations

talk.origins Newsgroup

• Usenet - talk.origins - Evolution versus creationism (sometimes hot!).
• talk.origins Archive Home Page Hypertext (HTML) access to archive of Usenet newsgroup "talk.origins," which covers evolution and the debate with creationism. The newsgroup and archive are not balanced between the science of evolution and the religious viewpoint conveyed by so-called "scientific creationism." It does address the problems, from the scientific perspective, of many common, and often repeated, assertions by creationists. Warning: The prose within some of the FAQ files may offend certain religious sensibilities; accordingly, reader discretion is advised. Selected links from this home page are given explicitly below:

talk.origins Archive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Files

• Searchable Index of the talk.origins Archive Enter keywords on the form to help locate FAQ files and references to published articles and books.
• Navigate the FAQ Archive Click here to interactively browse the talk.origins FAQs.
• The talk.origins Welcome FAQ (Andy Peters) This file should give you some good insight into what talk.origins is all about.
• Introduction to Evolutionary Biology (Chris Colby) Excellent introduction to subject. Read this first.
• Evolution Echo Jargon File (Wesley R. Elsberry) Glossary of terms you are likely to encounter on talk.origins
• Must-Read FAQs (selected links are given below; click the Must-Read FAQs hyperlink to see what else is there)
• What is Evolution? by Laurence Moran
• Book of Genesis (King James Version) The ultimate source for creationist materials and methods. If you want to understand where the creationist is coming from, read this book as literally as possible.
• Refutations of Creationist Arguments: The Meritt FAQs (Jim Meritt) The Meritt FAQ files are perhaps the first comprehensive look at creationist arguments to be posted in talk.origins. They have been coalesced into this one single file, allowing for easy topic searches.
• Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution (Mark Isaak) A big reason creationist arguments against evolution are so effective is that major misconceptions about the topic abound. This article clears up five of the most important misconceptions about evolution.
  1. Evolution has never been observed.
  2. Evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
  3. There are no transitional fossils.
  4. The theory of evolution says that life originated, and evolution proceeds, by random chance.
  5. Evolution is only a theory; it hasn't been proved.
• Frequently Asked But Never Answered Questions (FABNAQ) (Tom Scharle) A list of questions that creationists never seem to want to answer. (That doesn't stop the evolutionists from asking them, though.)
• Transitional Fossils FAQ (Kathleen Hunt) A large, but by no means complete, list of transitional fossils that are known. This file counters the common creationist claim that there are no intermediates in the fossil record.
• Fossil Images Andrew MacRae has contributed a large number of fossil images to the archive. Click here to check them out.
• A Keyword-Indexed Origins Bibliography (Martin Leipzig and Wesley R. Elsberry) This huge bibliography (15044 entries) is categorized and indexed by keywords. Check here if you need to find a reference to anything origins-related.
• Book Recommendations for the talk.origins Reader (Chris Stassen) Short review of a number of books relevant to the creation/evolution debate. It includes creationist books, works critical of creationism and books written about the 1981 Arkansas Trial. This article was originally intended to be something of a 'reading list' -- a prerequisite for effective talk.origins participation.
• Creation/Evolution Organizations and Periodicals (Chris Stassen) An overview of eight organizations (six of them representing young-earth creationism) relevant to the creation/evolution debate. Included are brief reviews and membership/subscription information for the periodicals published by each organization.
• Abiogenesis (Andrew Ellington) A look at the arguments for and against abiogenesis—the generation of living from lifeless matter.

Creationist Sites

• Institute for Creation Research A "Christ Focused Creation Ministry" located near San Diego
  • Includes the Museum of Creation and Earth History (which I visited in January 1997. This museum has been reviewed recently in Scientific American ("Science vs. Antiscience" Sci. Am., Jan. 1997, pp. 96-98). Another print review appeared in Skeptic ("A Trip to the Institute for Creation Research Museum of Creation and Earth History," by Tom McIver; Skeptic vol. 4, no. 1, 1996. p.32). For an online account of a tour (with limited commentary), see A Visit to the ICR Museum by Steven Linke.
• Creation Research Society located in St. Joseph, MO
• Creation Science home page A creationist club (group of Christians) in New Jersey

Some Other Links on Evolution vs. Creationism

• Creation/Evolution Reference Database (Thomas Moore)
• The Jammal Ark Hoax
• Reviews of creationist book, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (Free Press, 1996; by Lehigh biochemist, Michael Behe, who invokes "irreducible complexity" to argue against Darwinian evolution)
  • Darwin's Black Box — Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility? by Keith Robison (with links to other reviews and commentaries on both sides of the issue)
  • Behe's Empty Box a collection of links supporting and critiquing Darwin's Black Box
• Evolution Education SiteRing

• Intelligent Design "debate" from Natural History Magazine, April 2002 (reprinted at www.actionbioscience.org)

Other Evolution Links

• Punctuated Equilibrium at Twenty by Donald Prothero, Skeptic vol. 1, no. 3, 1992, pp. 38-47.
• The (Im)moral Animal — A Quick & Dirty Guide to Evolutionary Psychology & the Nature of Human Nature by Frank Miele, Skeptic vol. 4, no. 1, 1996, pp. 42-49
• alt.memetics (note: meme = cultural replicator, analogous to gene; term originally coined by Richard Dawkins)
• Viruses of the Mind by Richard Dawkins (1991)
• Evolution Evidence page
• Human Evolution — Fossil Evidence in 3D
• Evidence of Evolution

Television Series on Evolution

• Evolution — produced by WGBH in Boston; see online resources incl. topical essays and video animations; 8 hours of broadcast program are available on VHS or DVD from WGBH online store at the site linked here; so is an educational VHS videocassette (not available on DVD) and a teachers' guide. See below for companion book on this Evolution series by Carl Zimmer. 
• See also Monkey Trial episode of American Experience series that aired 2/17/2002 on PBS.

Selected Books by Charles Darwin

(Yes, by clicking below, you can download each entire book! I suggest you start such a download and then press stop , so you can read just the beginning. If you want the whole book, go to the library. Certainly do not print out any of these in entirety.)

• The Voyage of the Beagle
• The Descent of Man
• The Origin of Species

Selected Books on Evolution 
(excerpts available at amazon.com; follow book-title links below)

• by Richard Dawkins (see unofficial page about him)
  • The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (reissue edition), Norton, 1996
  • River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, (with Lalla Ward, illustrator), Basic Books, 1996
    • see excerpt (Chapter 4): "God's Utility Function" in Scientific American, Nov. 1995, p. 85.
      (click here for a representative, and provocative, quotation)
  • Climbing Mount Improbable, Norton, 1996
    • See Chapters 4 and 5 on evolution of wings and eyes, respectively (excellent!)
  • The Selfish Gene (New Edition), Oxford University Press, 1990
• by Daniel C. Dennett
  • Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Simon & Schuster, 1995 
• by Steve Jones
• Darwin's Ghost, Ballantine Books, 2001
• by Carl Zimmer
• Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, HarperCollins, 2001 (companion book to WGBH public television series on Evolution, cited above)