Lee Strobel endorses Ball State’s teaching of creationism in a science class

Lee Strobel is a Christian apologist and author whose book, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence that Points Toward God,  is on Dr. Eric Hedin’s reading list for his creationism-infested “science” course at Ball State University. Strobel claims that he was once an atheist, but that the evidence turned him religious. Wikipedia characterizes […]

A modern bestiary

by Greg Mayer Last month the University of Chicago Press published The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Caspar Henderson. I’ve not seen the book yet, but it seems to be a natural history of a diverse set of odd and interesting animals, in the style of a classic or medieval bestiary, and The New […]

Four horsemen, one seaman

Just FYI, there’s a profile of Dan Dennett by Jennifer Schuessler in yesterday’s New York Times “Book” section: “Philosophy that stirs the waters.” I knew Dan was a sailor, but didn’t realize that he once had a 42-foot “cruiser” (I guess that’s a sailboat). His books must be doing pretty well! The piece highlights Dan’s […]

Matthew haz a new book!

Matthew Cobb has posted many times on this site, and I wanted to call attention to his new book—the third from his pen—that has just been published in the UK by Simon and Schuster.  Here’s the cover: Nice cover photo, eh? And there’s lots of great photos inside. There’s no U.S. deal yet, but interested […]

Books on the Cambrian worth buying

by Greg Mayer Jerry has recently noted a forthcoming book on the Cambrian by the infamous Stephen Meyer. There is a brand new book, The Cambrian Explosion, by the famous Douglas Erwin of the USNM and even more famous James Valentine of UC-Berkeley, that you might want to read if you really want to learn […]

A (formerly) reputable publisher sells out to creationists

This isn’t an ad for an upcoming book showing that Jesus caused the Cambrian explosion of animal life (the rapid origin of many phyla about 540 million years ago); rather, it’s an indictment of a once-reputable publisher, HarperCollins, who, under the imprint of HarperOne (its “religion” subsidiary), is going to publish this book in June: […]

A bizarre critique of Christopher Hitchens: he wasn’t a skeptic about his cancer

Thanks to alert reader Michael, I’ve made my first visit to the Dublin Review of Books site, where you can read a review of Christopher Hitchens’s last book, Mortality. The review is by Seamus O’Mahony, who seems uniquely qualified for the task: Seamus O’Mahony is a physician with an interest in medicine and literature. He […]

Goodall apologizes for plagiarism

About ten days ago I called attention to accusations that Jane Goodall, in her new book Seeds of Hope (co-authored with Gail Hudson), had been accused (and was apparently guilty) of plagiarism (lifting passages from sources like Wikipedia and a tea-selling website), fabricating conversations, and using sloppy science to criticize GM foods. Asscording to Straight.com […]

Jane Goodall apparently guilty of plagiarism and sloppy science writing

Jane Goodall’s observations of the chimps at Gombe is perhaps the most famous work in primatology in the 20th century, and she’s rightly famous for her meticulous observations, her absolute dedication to her fieldwork, her discovery of many traits in our closest relatives that were thought unique to humans, and her tireless work on biological […]

Susan Jacoby on atheism: “Five Books” interview and her recommendations for godless readings

On the occasion of Susan Jacoby’s new book, The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought (nice discount at Amazon!), she’s interviewed by Five Books‘ Sophie Roell on the topic of “Atheism”.  It’s a really nice interview and I’ll leave it to you to read it and see what five books on atheism Jacoby recommends […]