The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA

by Gordy Slack

Book Overview

A compelling eyewitness account of the recent courtroom drama in Dover, Pennsylvania that put evolution on trial. Journalist Gordy Slack offers a riveting, personal, and often amusing first-hand account that details six weeks of some of the most widely ranging, fascinating, and just plain surreal testimony in U.S. legal history--a battle between hard science and religious conservatives wishing to promote a new version of creationism in schools. During...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470379316
• ISBN13: 9780470379318
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A highly compelling and intelligent book

In The Battle over the Meaning of Everything, Gordy Slack skillfully illuminates the complexities of the Intelligent Design/ Evolution debate, bringing to light the many social, political, scientific, and moral ramifications. As well, Slack personalizes the debate through frank examination of his own belief system, in contrast to that of his father, a born-again Christian. The result of these many strands of inquiry is a multi-layered, probing, and engaging book. Slack guides us through each step of the Dover trial, deftly describing and providing insight into many of the participants. He elucidates the debate from a variety of angles, from the legal to the historical, the biological to the religious, and never loses sight of the underlying issues at stake. Slack's intelligence, curiosity, and compassion pervade these pages. It is a captivating book - either an excellent introduction to those who may have hesitated to enter the seeming morass of the ID debate, or a means of deepening one's already existing knowledge. I heartily recommend this book as a thought-provoking exploration into one of the most important trials, and issues, of our times.

Easy Access to Deep Stuff

Gordy Slack, a science writer with a gift for narrative flow, clarity, and a nifty mix of the personal and the general, observed and thoroughly grasped the subject matter, the issues, and the implications of the Dover, PA trial on evolution vs. intelligent design. He announces his bias (evolution) right away and does a fine job of being as objective as he can in laying out the opposing arguments, the views and commitments of the people on both sides, the nature of the evidence, and what the parties believed was at stake in this trial. This is one of those books one can wish there were more of, where a smart guy and fine writer takes on an issue that concerns us all and the principles that, no pun intended, have evolved from the Enlightenment forward.

from the personal to the metaphysical

An intellectually honest and unpedantic look at what is still/again a major faultline in American culture. The Battle over the Meaning of Everything doesn't bridge this gap, but it strives to map out some of its features in detail. Gordy Slack does a good job in taking in the vast scope of the issues (hence the title) and also a magnifier's view of the court case and the cast of individuals around which it turns. A great read.

A Wonderful & Important Book

I loved this book, and didn't want to put it down. I stayed up too late & neglected my responsibilities in order to finish it. Mr. Slack's book is written with great clarity and with respect - respect for all the characters involved as well as for the complexity of the issues. There is a lovely and powerful balance in the writing - between broad, big-picture implications and personal, individual details that ground the story in it's specific place & time. The author's reflection on aspects of his own family history adds another dimension & enriches his analysis.

fascinating and well-written

This book is a great read. More than ever I could see how two sides could both use English and yet underneath be speaking in completely different languages. Slack respects the reader and doesn't try to push his own point of view. Still, he keeps a warm human touch to the whole book, managing to tell the story in both objective and intensely personal terms at the same time. This guy is a fantastic writer, IMHO. Don't read this book if you just want to pat yourself on the back that you've chosen the "right side". Do read it if you really want to learn something about the culture war that is now dividing this country. I already know which side I sit on - I don't need another book to help me with that - but I couldn't put this book down.