The BECB (that's the The Big Evolution/Creationism Book, for those not up on the local slang) has now been reviewed in the academic journal Evolution and Development. The reviewer is Rudolf Raff, a prominent biologist at Indiana University. The review is available here, though I think you need a subscription to the journal to access the PDF. His verdict?
All in all I enjoyed reading Among the Creationists. It represents a unique attempt of a secular scholar to engage creationist communities on their own home ground and report his experiences. Rosenhouse has provided an immense service to our understanding of a remarkable, persistent, and wrongheaded position.
Score!
Raff offers some criticisms as well (D'Oh!), one of which I'd like to reply to. Raff writes:
Unfortunately, Rosenhouse does not mention what is perhaps the hypothesis that should be the most engaging to evolutionary biologists. One of the exhibits in the Creation Museum in Kentucky poses the question of where did Adam and Eve's children get their mates -- and puts forward incest as the answer. However, they say that it was all right in the years not long after Adam and Eve had been expelled from the garden, because there had not yet been time for deleterious mutations to accumulate in humans. Who knew that population genetics and microevolution had a place in creation science.
Ahem. If you would care to read the bottom of page 163 and the top of page 164, I think you will find that I do, indeed, discuss this particular issue.
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Matt Young also posted a review of your BECB this morning at Panda's Thumb.
I saw it! That will be tomorrow's post.
Personally I thought even his complaints were complimentary. They basically amount to 'next time, write a longer book and include more stuff.' I'm guessing that's a complaint authors love to hear. :)
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