First, before I get into the books I’ve read this month, let me set one thing clear: we’re not becoming a book review site. I’ve had some requests for us to review a book. That’s not what we’re doing, but if you want to send us a free copy of your book, more power to you. What we’re up to is just chatting about what we’ve read this year.
OK, so on to what I’ve been reading. January has been a very strange month for me in that I haven’t gotten a whole lot read. Usually I read anywhere from eight to 10 books/month, but I only got through two in January. One reason is that I was busy catching up with a huge pile of magazines that consumed a good chunk of my month. Also, I seemed to be busier than usual, but I’m not sure why.
Anyway the two books I’ve read this month were Uncommon Dissent, edited by William Dembski, and Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method by Henry Bauer. I’m putting together a class on Intelligent Design with another guy from church (who is a science teacher) and my role is to discuss the metaphysical side of the issue: how much is the ID debate actually not related to science per se but actually a discussion of what constitutes science and what the philosophical/metaphysical foundations of science are and should be. I’ve got an hour and a half of teaching time to answer those.
I’ve read quite a bit about ID, even before I set out to teach this class, and Uncommon Dissent is one of the better books I’ve read. It’s not about ID itself, but about intellectuals who don’t find Darwinian evolution intellectually satisfying, and their reasons why. It doesn’t set ID as the answer but allows the authors to put forth their own ideas, some of which contradict with each other. I highly recommend it.
The other book (Bauer) was good. It reflects a heavy influence of Michael Polanyi in its discussion of how science is actually conducted (in comparison to the myth about the scientific method). It’s not an unimportant subject, especially as our culture becomes more and more a culture of the expert. Again, I recommend.
What’s next? I’m picking my way slowly through Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost as well as a couple books for leadership training at church.