Complete works and correspondence

Sample

Richard Dawkins

Britain's greatest science writer comprehensively rebuts the creationists by pulling together the incontrovertible evidence for evolution. Charles Darwin's masterpiece, _On the Origin of Species_, shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In _The Greatest Show on Earth_ Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects; the 'time clocks' of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution; the fossil record and the traces of our earliest ancestors; to confirmation from molecular biology and genetics. All of this, and much more, bears witness to the truth of evolution. The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is now flourishing as never before, especially in America. In Britain and elsewhere in the world, teachers witness insidious attempts to undermine the status of science in their classrooms. Richard Dawkins provides unequivocal evidence that boldly and comprehensively rebuts such nonsense. At the same time he shares with us his palpable love of the natural world and the essential role that science plays in its interpretation. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and totally convincing.

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Bruce Kuklick

In this book, Kuklick traces the continuities between early American theology and scientific philosophy. This book outlines the speculative discourse of New England Congregational Calvinism. The intellectual tradition began with Edwards in the middle of the eighteenth century and concluded with Dewey at the end of the nineteenth. The central protagonists are Trinitarian Congregationalists: Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Hopkins, Nathaniel Emmons, Nathaniel William Taylor, Horace Bushnell, Edwards Amasa Park, the orthodox "progressives" at the Congregational Andover Seminary in the 1880s, and John Dewey. - Publisher.

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Maureen Mancuso

The ethical standards of the British House of Commons depend almost entirely upon the personal ethics of its individual members. Parliament expects that its members, as holders of a public trust, will be "honourable members" in both name and deed. Maureen Mancuso examines the current state of British legislative ethics and raises important theoretical questions about whether the ethical standards of an institution should be left in the hands of individual members. Based on extensive personal interviews with more than one hundred MPs, Mancuso's is the first systematic investigation of British legislative ethics. Identifying significant divergence in ethical attitudes, she divides MPs into four types: the Puritans, who stake out the moral high ground; the Servants, who conform to the traditional ideal of the MP as public-spirited constituency advocate; the Muddlers, who are not bothered by personal conflicts of interest; and the Entrepreneurs, who use their position to achieve any end not explicitly prohibited. The implications of this unexpectedly diverse ethical ecosystem are explored, as well as various possibilities for reform.

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Kathryn Spellman

"An estimated 75,000 Iranians emigrated to Britain after the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. They are politically, religiously, socio-economically and ethnically heterogeneous, and have found themselves in the ongoing process of settlement. The aim of this book is to explore facets of this process by examining the ways in which religious traditions and practices have been maintained, negotiated and rejected by Iranians from Muslim backgrounds and how they have served as identity-building vehicles during the course of migration. While the ethnographic focus is on Iranians, this book touches on more general questions associated with the process of migration, transnational societies, diasporas, and religious as well as ethnic minorities."--Jacket.