Todd's Blog

Many months ago I mentioned that the 29-volume works of Charles Darwin were being reprinted in an affordable paperback edition by New York University Press. Though Darwin's works are now online, there is still great pleasure and convenience in being able to sit back and read a regular book. So I ordered a set for the CORE library. After being on the waiting list for the reprint and fixing a mix-up with the credit card, I am delighted to report that the works have just arrived. They look great. If you're in the market for some interesting reading (and certainly definitive reading in the origins debate), I definitely recommend the set.

Over the years I've studied Darwin's Origin and people's interpretations of it, and I've come to a fascinating conclusion. Darwin's work is often misinterpreted. I know, it's not a shocking secret, but there is one persistent and pernicious misreading of Darwin that really gets my goat. I've been procrastinating on writing this, but a comment I left over at Steve Matheson's blog got my thoughts going. So here we go. Darwin frequently discusses the "theory of creation" in Origin , often contrasting it to his own ideas of descent with modification. I think it's very easy for those of us who hold to a "theory of creation" (there are many) to react negatively to Darwin's constant chiding that creation offers no explanation for a host of facts. In doing so, I think we risk losing track of Darwin's point. In other words, I think it's important to swallow our pride for a moment and actually listen to what Darwin is...

Shortly after becoming a genuine college professor, I started getting catalogues from The Teaching Company , which manufactures and sells video and audio recordings of special courses taught by genuine college professors (like me, only smarter). Their catalogue includes titles on just about every subject, and a year or so ago, I finally decided to give them a try. Since I travel a lot, I'm always looking for ways to pass the time in airports, and lugging around big, scholarly books isn't always ideal. Reading while I drive is also ... challenging. I can now say from personal experience with about six of their courses that they really deliver quality material. So when I saw "The Darwinian Revolution" on sale earlier this year, I couldn't resist. The course is taught by Frederick Gregory , a professor of the history of science at the University of Florida and a graduate of the history of science programs at UW Madison (M.A.) and Harvard (Ph.D.). As usual, I opted f...

This book has an unintentionally accurate title, since the version of Darwin's life presented in this book is mostly mythological. The Darwin Myth was written by Benjamin Wiker, who holds senior fellowships with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and the Discovery Institute, according to the book jacket. Of course, the book jacket's accuracy is open to question. It also raves that the book "casts aside Darwinism's politically correct veneer and offers a critical, scientific analysis of Darwin's life and his history-changing theory." Scientific? Not even close. The book suffers from a basic lack of evidence. It's a lot like Davies's The Darwin Conspiracy in that regard, inflating a story in the missing pieces of Darwin's life (to be fair to Wiker, this book does not repeat the "Darwin is a plagiarist" myth). Wiker's Darwin differs from the real Darwin in two significant ways: (1) Wiker's Darwin is an evolutionist from the...

I finally watched The Voyage That Shook the World , the new Darwin documentary from Creation Ministries International . From the accounts I've read, it cost CMI more than $500,000 to make, and it definitely shows. It's quite a lovely film, and the re-enactments are fairly decent. CMI's strategy of setting up a production company called Fathom Media to covertly arrange the filming of historical sites and interviews generated some controversy , which of course they dispute . You can find a positive review by Ted Baehr at Movieguide (no surprise there) and a critical review from Jim Lippard here (also no surprise). To be fair, Lippard's review is pretty balanced and not overly fanatic, unlike Baehr's. Initially, I thought I'd write a detailed review of the film, but after seeing it, I changed my mind. To be honest, it wasn't really all that bad. It wasn't great either. It's pretty much what I expected. If you're familiar with CMI's ta...

With all the hubbub about the 150th anniversary of Origin , it's easy to forget that Darwin was more than just the father of modern evolutionary theory. He originally established his reputation with his geological research on the Beagle voyage. That was followed by the first extensive study of barnacles, published in four volumes (1851-1854). After that came Origin , which was followed by a book on orchid pollination. Darwin revised Origin five times and wrote related works on variation in domesticated animals and plants, the descent of man, and the expression of emotions in humans and animals. He produced other books, too, on such diverse topics as carnivorous plants and the action of worms. I'm delighted to report that the works of Darwin have been reprinted once again by New York University Press. Previous hardback editions of this set of 29 volumes are priced at thousands, but this new paperback set goes for just $525. (Yes, CORE has a set on order.) Along with D...

I suppose it would be presumptuous of me to review Darwin's Origin of Species , but it seems fitting to kick off Darwin week by looking at a new edition of Origin . This year, Harvard University Press released The Annotated Origin , a facsimile of the first edition with new notes by James Costa. Costa is a professor at Western Carolina University and director of the Highlands Biological Station in North Carolina. According to Frederick Gregory's review in BioScience , the book is the result of Costa's course on Origin , which he has taught now for a decade (Gregory also highly praises Costa's work). When Darwin was surprised by Alfred Russel Wallace's independent formulation of natural selection in 1858, he dropped the extensive manuscript he had been working on (about half finished at the time) and wrote instead a 450-page "abstract" of his theory of evolution by natural selection. OK, 450 pages is a little more than just an abstract, but Darwin inte...

Exactly 150 years ago this week, Charles Darwin's Origin of Species began to change the world. In honor of that anniversary, I'm going to review five Darwin-related "products" (books, movies, etc.) this week, one each day. I'll kick off the series tomorrow with my review of The Annotated Origin , published by Belknap with annotations by James Costa. That will be followed on subsequent days by my comments on the complete works of Darwin (published by NYU Press), CMI's new movie The Voyage that Shook the World , Wiker's book The Darwin Myth , and Frederick Gregory's The Darwinian Revolution , an audio course from The Teaching Company . In the meantime, I've made a list of all my other Darwin-related reviews from the past year: 1. Answers Magazine 's Darwin issue 2. Janet Browne's Darwin biographies 3. The Darwin Conspiracy 4. "Darwin's Big Idea" exhibit at the Natural History Museum 5. "Darwin's Confession...