Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #436431 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Booklist
American Indian scholar Deloria has an unerring eye for the secret assumptions of American culture. In Red Earth, White Lies (1995) and God Is Red (1973), he unpacked the religious and mythological baggage that burdens Americans. Here he extends that shrewd analysis to acknowledge another kind of myth--science--as he argues that both sides in the evolution-versus-creationism debate are wrong. Far from submitting to a simple, we-are-right-and-they-are-wrong resolution, this intellectual duel finds only mistaken orthodoxies in the field, for creationism has no scientific basis, but evolution is far from proven. Indeed, Deloria argues that scientists routinely bury evidence against evolution in order to remain within the fold of scientific orthodoxy. The situation isn't that different from that of those who argue the ostensibly religious point of view, one that Deloria is quick to point out represents the creation myth of only a minority. What, he suggests, if the many cultures that have focused on emergence rather than creation are correct? What if the earth has been formed by a series of catastrophes, the memory of which is encoded in the many myths of worlds extant before this one? Certain to be controversial, likely to outrage the faithful of both camps, and a stunning good read. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher
A critical examination of human and Earth's origins from one of our greatest thinkers.

About the Author
Vine Deloria, Jr., is a leading Native American scholar, whose research, writings, and teaching have encompassed history, law, religious studies, and political science. He is the former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, a retired professor of political science at the University of Arizona, and a retired professor emeritus of history at the University of Colorado. He is the author of many acclaimed books, including Evolution, Creationism, and other Modern Myths, Spirit & Reason, God Is Red, Red Earth, White Lies, Power and Place: Indian Education in America, Custer Died for Your Sins, and Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties.

Vine Deloria, Jr. was honored at the 2002 National Book Festival on Oct 12, 2002. Vine also received the Wallace Stegner award from the Center of the American West in Boulder Colorado on Oct 23, 2002. This annual award is named after one of the most influential writers in the modern West.

Customer Reviews

Pseudoscience and New Age Baloney
Vine Deloria's book manages to do nothing more than slap on a fresh coat of paint on the same tired old Creationist rants about the incompletness of the fossil record, alleged intelligent design, and the constraints of orthodox scientific menthdology. Deoria also embraces the false presumption that any question, regardless of its merit or lack thereof, is entitled to equal consideration. Hogwash! For example, the germ theory of disease is not of equal intellectual integrity as the magical pronouncement that plagues are means of divine punishment meted out on the unfaithful. And to suggest that there should be any assessment of such nonsense as ancient astronauts or sacred rock power is simply mind-boggling in the 21st century.

Deloria my be an adroit rhetorical technician but his grasp of the fundemantals of evolutionary theory, structural geology, stratigraphy and paleontology leaves much to be desired. As for the creationist v. evolutionist controversy, it is a contrived dilemma engineered by Fundamentalist Christians to foist their brand of religion on the American public. The author's allegedly balanced snapshot of the science/religion debate, smacks of thinly disguised Native American victim politics than any real atempt at objective analysis. Don't waste your money - get it out of the library, or wait until you can pick it up for $3.99, or so on the discount tables.

Just Plain Silly
Vine Deloria has done brilliant work in the past. It's sad to see him dilute his legacy with silliness like this. The lack of intellectual rigor that underlies his superficial (mis)understanding of the theory of evolution is shocking to anyone who has read his previous work. He simply hasn't sat down, rolled up his sleeves, and done the groundwork necessary to take on a project of this nature.

Disingenuousness
I must state upfront that I only read a small portion of this book, just to get the "flavor" of it. It left a bad taste! In his chapter on evolution, he tosses in a couple quotes by Keith Ward, who is a THEOLOGIAN. Deloria cites an inconsistency in Ward's (ignorant) statements about evolution, and tries to use that inconsistency as a criticism of evolution itself. This is, at best, very sloppy writing, and arguably dishonest.