Product Description

Miller is a believer, but he is also certain that we evolved - and this book is about why the two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, the idea of each enriches the other. There is an enormous market out there for whom this issue is of real interest and import. Much of contemporary thought on evolution has centered on the mistaken assumption that evolution requires a strictly materialist view of the origins of all organisms - including human beings. This book will debunk that myth, arguing that the real world is less certain and far more interesting than either the scientific mainstream or creationists assume. Properly understood, evolution adds depth and meaning not only to a strictly scientific view of the world, but to a spiritual one, as well. Readers will find this fascinating, very clear, incisive, exciting, and thoughtful. This should sell like Gould and Wilson-brilliant, cutting-edge thinking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92979 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Ken Miller is a professor of Biology at Brown, where he has won distinguished honors as an outstanding professor. His writing has appeared in Discover and other scientific journals and magazines.

Customer Reviews

Brilliantly Written
Miller's book is an attack on Creationism but not creation. He believes in God but not a God of the gaps or an Intelligent Designer (qua Behe/Irreducible Complexity). ...Indeed, Miller gives several examples of claimed irreducibly complex organisms the kind Intelligent Design advocates use and shows very convincingly, that they are actually reducible. He actually did the same thing in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, demonstrating the reducibility of the Bacterial Flagellum, Michael Behe's favourite demonstrative organism, for claimed Irreducible Complexity.

Miller actually defends God not through scripture but ironically through Darwin's evolution. He attempts to show that one can be both an evolutionist and a theist.

My favourite chapter in this book has to be "The Road Back Home" ...I would happily give this book Five Stars for this chapter alone. For the none scientific amongst us and that includes me, this gives an excellent laymans rudimentary understanding of quantum mechanics. I never understood Einstein's comment "God doesn't play dice" until I read this chapter, now I get it, this is not the purpose of the chapter though, the purpose goes something like this: A light beam is a wave, which is deterministic as a wave, thus, a light wave hits a mirror and one can determine that the light will be reflected... However, light waves consist of particles called quanta... Because these particles act at the quantum level they do something rather strange. A percentage of the particles aren't reflected but actually pass through the mirror. Now it has been shown that this quantum behaviour is non-deterministic in that, the actually particles which pass through the mirror can never be predicted... Thus, at the quantum level "God does play dice".

This is where Miller gets very clever, he points out that creationists are so anti-evolution because it is completely deterministic and thus as a scientific theory can be reduced to fundamentals and so, leave no room for God, Miller demonstrates that this is not so. At the level of genes where genetic random mutations take place we approach the very small... At this level quantum behaviour takes over... It is this quantum behaviour that allows for random non-predictable mutations (which are of course what Darwin's natural selection act upon).

He also goes on to say that the creationists are shrinking the need for God because the shadows of unknown mysteries that they could use as an attack on science are shrinking. What Miller does is to say they are looking for God in the wrong place. Miller believes he has found a place for God, not a God of the gaps as claimed by creationists, such as those found in the fossil record... But rather, a god of the gaps at the quantum level.

Unlike Ken Miller I am an atheist, however... though I cannot find room for a supernatural God that can perform miracles, that would defy the laws of physics. I can look at the quantum level and at the most, agnostically think of the possibility of a quantum intelligence... Indeed, is that how our consciousness works at the quantum level. From that thought I can extrapolate at least the possibility of advanced conscious beings that would seem God like to us, but would have evolved through the same evolutionary processes as us. Would such evolved individuals be Gods of the universe and would their consciousness be found in gaps at the quantum level.

I would say following on from this... If quantum actions did not take place, then surely evolution could not take place ether, because randomness would not be possible. We would have to be a different kind of species, that was not evolved as part of a random proccess... By definition, we would be in a deterministic universe.

Whatever the ulimate answers, I can only call Ken Miller's book a brilliant achievement.

Fundamentalists will hate it - for everyone else this is brilliant
Let me start by saying that both Christian and Atheist fundamentalists will HATE this book! This is a book that shows beyond doubt that religion and science need not be in conflict and the aims of one can be entirely compatable with the other. The fundamentalists on either side would much rather have us believe that having faith in God prevents you having faith in science and vice versa.

This is a book that is both entertaining and written so that it is understandable to those of us without any scientific training. Despite the fact that this book deals with some weighty subjects such as molecular biology, geology and particle physics, there is no point at which you think "this is too complicated for me" and yet you never feel he's talking down to you.

Miller shows that not only are the arguments of the creationists and the proponents of ID wrong, they are also incompatible with true belief - they impose human limits on God and the way He can act. He also shows that those scientists who try to claim that evolution and modern science has shown that God doesn't exist use similarly flawed reasoning.

Miller shows that science and religion can co-exist and more than that, that science shows us a God-created universe that is infinately more subtle, more complex and more fantastic than anything the "puff-of-smoke" creationists could ever envisage.

Forget Dawkins. If you are trully interested in the evolution/ religion debate read this. If you think the world is only 6000 years old - I wouldn't.

Letting science teachers teach science
Who might benefit from reading this book? The answer may surprise you.

If you are a conservative Christian, this book might help you understand why creationism and intelligent design are not scientific. It won't assuage your concerns about the influence of atheists in society but you might feel better to know there are Christians such as Dr. Miller who can champion evolution without falling into the hazards of materialism such as a sense of purposelessness or a lack of moral standards.

If you are a moderate or liberal Christian, you might learn more about evolution and how to explain to conservative Christians that creationism and intelligent design are not science, as well as more about what evolution is. You might feel comforted to know that God could have created a world in which evolution operates and can be studied scientifically.

If you are consider yourself an agnostic, atheist, or secular humanist, you might also learn more about evolution, what it is and is not. You might feel comforted to know that Dr. Miller is convincing Christians that evolution doesn't conflict with the beliefs of moderate or liberal Christians and that even conservative Christians can feel a little more at ease knowing that good Christians like Dr Miller might teach their children rather than atheists.

If you are a Buddhist or Hindu, you might be glad to learn more about evolution and the odd battles that Christians fight in the schools and courts about it, but you may also feel slighted that Dr. Miller focuses on the 3 major Western religions in this book. Well, it is called "Finding Darwin's God" so you probably shouldn't feel too surprised. Indeed Miller begins the book by sharing from his early religious training:

'Question: "Who made us?"
Answer: "God made us."'

Had the answer been:

Answer: We don't know.

or

Answer: Don't waste time wondering, focus on being good to others.

then Dr. Miller and other Westerners may never have gone done the path they did and we might have all avoided the current problems introduced by a belief in God. Virgin birth, the ruthlessness of natural selection as not necessarily being so bad, that God might hear our prayers, that it all finally can make sense if due to God's grace, all might become "meaningful" by possible appeals to a God who can do anything because, well of course, He is God and just happens to be the God of the Bible. What I'm grateful for is that, whatever Dr. Miller believes or thinks other Christians do, he has taken actions to help keep science classes free of religion.

One place I'd recommend to turn for the kinds of questions about purpose that Dr. Miller raises is Jiddu Krishnamurti's
Freedom from the Known
which acknowledges something special about life without stepping into beliefs that might bind one to the authority of any organized religion.