Doubting Darwin?: Creationist Designs on Evolution

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction.

a. The Central Argument.

b. The Evidence for Evolution.

c. Rejecting Theories.

d. Plan of the Book.

2. The Legacy of Darwin and Wallace.

a. The Theory of Natural Selection.

b. “Absurd in the Highest Possible Degree”.

c. Darwin’s Unfortunate Retreat.

d. Wallace and Weisman.

e. The Decline of Darwinism.

f. Mind and Culture.

g. Contemporary Implications.

3. The Argument from Design.

a. Adaptation and Design.

b. Function, Design, and Selection.

c. Blind Variation.

d. Dembski’s Resurrection.

4. Mere Evolution.

a. Mendel’s Legacy.

b. The Modern Framework for Evolutionary Theory.

c. Selectionism and Neutralism.

d. Reconstructing the Past.

e. Contemporary Debates.

f. Terminological Choices.

5. The Cost of Lunch.

a. Evolutionary Algorithms.

b. The “No Free Lunch” Theorems.

c. Dembski’s Excitement.

d. Utter Irrelevance.

e. Adaptationism.

f. Final Assessment.

6. Complexity is Complicated.

a. Irreducible Complexity?.

b. Pathways to ICSs.

c. The Citric Acid Cycle.

d. The Blood Clotting System.

e. The Bacterial Flagellum.

f. Protein Evolution.

g. Irreducibility and Design.

7. Questions of Information.

a. What is Biological Information?.

b. Information and Evolution.

c. Specified Complexity.

d. The Law of Conservation of Information.

e. The Cambrian “Explosion”.

f. Taking Leave of Creation Biology.

8. Cosmic Coincidences.

a. Physics and Biology.

b. Anthropic Principles?.

c. The Force of Improbability.

d. A Cosmological Design Argument.

e. Is Fine-Tuning Surprising?.

f. A Concluding Note.

9. Naturalism and Its Discontents.

a. What Naturalism Is.

b. Nagel’s Legacy.

c. The Problem of Normativity.

d. Creationist Critiques.

e. Metaphysical Naturalism.

10 Conclusions.

a. Critiques of Evolutionary Theory.

b. Is ID Science?.

c. Back to the Classroom.

Notes.

References.

Index