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Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution (P.S.) by Miller, Kenneth R. (2007) Paperback
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About the author
Kenneth R. Miller
101 books103 followersKenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. He earned his Ph.D. in 1974 at the University of Colorado, and spent six years teaching at Harvard University before returning to Brown. He is a cell biologist, and chairs the Education Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology. He serves as an advisor on life sciences to the NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs.
His research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 50 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL and Nature, as well as leading popular sources such as Natural History and Scientific American. Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of four different high school and college biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. He has received five major teaching awards, and in 2005 was given the Presidential Citation of the American Institute for Biological Sciences for distinguished service in the field of Biology. In 2006 he received the Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, and in 2007 was given the Science Educator Award from the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.
One of Miller's principal interests is the public understanding of evolution. He has written a number of articles defending the scientific integrity of evolution, answering challenges such as "intelligent design," and he has debated a number of anti-evolutionists over the years.
His research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 50 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL and Nature, as well as leading popular sources such as Natural History and Scientific American. Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of four different high school and college biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. He has received five major teaching awards, and in 2005 was given the Presidential Citation of the American Institute for Biological Sciences for distinguished service in the field of Biology. In 2006 he received the Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, and in 2007 was given the Science Educator Award from the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.
One of Miller's principal interests is the public understanding of evolution. He has written a number of articles defending the scientific integrity of evolution, answering challenges such as "intelligent design," and he has debated a number of anti-evolutionists over the years.
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August 18, 2024
THE MAJOR STATEMENT FROM ONE OF THE MAJOR CREATIONIST/I.D. CRITICS
Kenneth Raymond Miller (born 1948) is an American cell biologist and molecular biologist who is currently Professor of Biology at Brown University; he has also written/cowritten 'Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul,' 'Biology: California Edition,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1999 book, "The common assumption... is that Darwinism is a fatal poison to traditional religious belief... Lost in the fury is the hope that Darwin expressed in his epigraph [to 'Origin of Species']---that true knowledge could be found as much in 'the book of God's works' as in the book of his word. I have written this book to make exactly that point." (Pg. xii) He states that "When I answer [students'] questions about evolution and religion by telling them that I happen to believe in God... almost every time I get the response, 'You believe that despite evolution?' Yup, despite evolution... or maybe, as I will explain ... BECAUSE of evolution." (Pg. 19)
Against Philip Johnson's [Darwin on Trial] argument of the lack of transitional forms between amphibians and fish, he observes, "Not only were the first tetrapod amphibians remarkably fish-like and rhipidistian fish remarkably amphibian-like, but their mix of characters removes any doubts as to when and where the key tetrapod characteristics of breathing and locomotion first evolved. Every objection of Johnson's has been answered. The fossils have been found in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, with exactly the right characteristics to document evolution." (Pg. 124-125)
He argues, "Intelligent design advocates have to account for patterns in the designer's work that clearly give the appearance of evolution. Is the designer being deceptive? Is there a reason why he can't get it right the first time?... He must be clever enough to design an African elephant, but apparently not so clever that he can do it the first time. Therefore we find the fossils of a couple dozen extinct almost-elephants over the last few million years. What are these failed experiments, and why does this master designer need to drive so many of his masterpieces to extinction?" (Pg. 127)
He suggests, "Critics of evolution have always loved to ask, 'Of what use is half a wing?' ... It's easy to show living examples of forelimbs only partly modified for flight that have useful functions as gliding appendages. Half a wing, under the right circumstances, can be very useful." (Pg. 149) Later, he adds, "many [creationists] were foolish enough to assert in print that paleontologists would NEVER discover transitional fossils linking land mammals to the cetaceans, swimming mammals such as whales and dolphins... [But] By 1994, [Philip] Gingerich and fellow paleontologists... had found not one, but THREE intermediate species linking land mammals to the... oldest swimming mammals. The midpoint of the series... displayed exactly the combination of terrestrial and aquatic adaptations that critics of evolution had called impossible, even in principle." (Pg. 264)
After quoting Darwin's statement ["...with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one..."], he closes with the statement, "What kind of God do I believe in? The answer is in those words. I believe in Darwin's God." (Pg. 292)
This book is absolutely essential reading for anyone studying the Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design issues.
Kenneth Raymond Miller (born 1948) is an American cell biologist and molecular biologist who is currently Professor of Biology at Brown University; he has also written/cowritten 'Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul,' 'Biology: California Edition,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1999 book, "The common assumption... is that Darwinism is a fatal poison to traditional religious belief... Lost in the fury is the hope that Darwin expressed in his epigraph [to 'Origin of Species']---that true knowledge could be found as much in 'the book of God's works' as in the book of his word. I have written this book to make exactly that point." (Pg. xii) He states that "When I answer [students'] questions about evolution and religion by telling them that I happen to believe in God... almost every time I get the response, 'You believe that despite evolution?' Yup, despite evolution... or maybe, as I will explain ... BECAUSE of evolution." (Pg. 19)
Against Philip Johnson's [Darwin on Trial] argument of the lack of transitional forms between amphibians and fish, he observes, "Not only were the first tetrapod amphibians remarkably fish-like and rhipidistian fish remarkably amphibian-like, but their mix of characters removes any doubts as to when and where the key tetrapod characteristics of breathing and locomotion first evolved. Every objection of Johnson's has been answered. The fossils have been found in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, with exactly the right characteristics to document evolution." (Pg. 124-125)
He argues, "Intelligent design advocates have to account for patterns in the designer's work that clearly give the appearance of evolution. Is the designer being deceptive? Is there a reason why he can't get it right the first time?... He must be clever enough to design an African elephant, but apparently not so clever that he can do it the first time. Therefore we find the fossils of a couple dozen extinct almost-elephants over the last few million years. What are these failed experiments, and why does this master designer need to drive so many of his masterpieces to extinction?" (Pg. 127)
He suggests, "Critics of evolution have always loved to ask, 'Of what use is half a wing?' ... It's easy to show living examples of forelimbs only partly modified for flight that have useful functions as gliding appendages. Half a wing, under the right circumstances, can be very useful." (Pg. 149) Later, he adds, "many [creationists] were foolish enough to assert in print that paleontologists would NEVER discover transitional fossils linking land mammals to the cetaceans, swimming mammals such as whales and dolphins... [But] By 1994, [Philip] Gingerich and fellow paleontologists... had found not one, but THREE intermediate species linking land mammals to the... oldest swimming mammals. The midpoint of the series... displayed exactly the combination of terrestrial and aquatic adaptations that critics of evolution had called impossible, even in principle." (Pg. 264)
After quoting Darwin's statement ["...with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one..."], he closes with the statement, "What kind of God do I believe in? The answer is in those words. I believe in Darwin's God." (Pg. 292)
This book is absolutely essential reading for anyone studying the Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design issues.
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