While conservatives are presumed to be critical of Darwin’s theory, many on the right, such as George Will, James Q. Wilson, and Larry Arnhart, have mounted a vigorous defense of Darwinism. As Discovery Institute’s John West explains in his book, Darwin’s Conservatives: The Misguided Quest, their attempts to reconcile conservatism and Darwinian biology misunderstand both.

In this small but incisive book, Dr. West addresses how Darwin’s theory, contrary to its conservative champions, manifestly does not reinforce the teachings of conservatism. According to West, Darwinism promotes moral relativism rather than traditional morality. It fosters utopianism rather than limited government. It is corrosive, rather than supportive, of both free will and religious belief. Finally, and most importantly, Darwinian evolution is in tension with the scientific evidence, and conservatism cannot hope to strengthen itself by relying on Darwinism’s increasingly shaky empirical foundations.  This book issues a challenge to conservatives they cannot afford to ignore. According to According to,  Prof. J. Budziszewski of the University of Texas, Austin, hails the book for “showing clearly that Darwinism is not a source of conservative insight into human nature, but only a source of confusion.”

Dr. John West is a Senior Fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, where he is Associate Director of Discovery’s Center for Science & Culture and Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs. Dr. West holds a Ph.D in Government from Claremont Graduate University and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington.

What They Are Saying:

“Darwin’s Conservatives is concise, precise and convincing. …” — Phillip E. Johnson author of Darwin on Trial

“John West rolls through the arguments for a pro-Darwin conservatism like an Abrams tank leveling a street barricade: methodically and irresistibly. If there are any conservative Darwinists left after this rout, it’s only because they won’t stand and fight.” — George Gilder, author of Wealth & Poverty and Telecosm.

What does it mean to say that God “used evolution” to create the world? Is Darwin’s theory of evolution compatible with belief in God? And even if Darwin’s theory could be reconciled with religious belief, do we need to do so? Is the theory well established scientifically? Is it true?

In the century and a half since Charles Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution, Christians, Jews, and other religious believers have grappled with how to make sense of it. Most have understood that Darwin’s theory has profound theological implications, but their responses have varied dramatically.

Some religious believers have rejected it outright; others, often called “theistic evolutionists,” have sought to reconcile Darwin’s theory with their religious beliefs, but often at the cost of clarity, orthodoxy, or both. Too few have carefully teased out the various scientific, philosophical, and theological claims at stake, and separated the chaff from the wheat. As a result, the whole subject of God and evolution has been an enigma wrapped in a shroud of fuzz and surrounded by blanket of fog.

The purpose of this anthology of essays is to clear away the fog, the fuzz, and the enigma. Contributing authors to the volume include Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery; Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design; William Dembski, author of The Design Revolution; Jonathan Witt, co-author of A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature; Denyse O’Leary, author of By Design, or by Chance?; and David Klinghoffer , author of Shattered Tablets.

Dr. Jay Richards is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and Director of Research for the Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. His previous books include The Privileged Planet; Money, Greed, and God; The Untamed God; and Are We Spiritual Machines? Dr. Richards holds a Ph.D. (with honors) in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. His work has been covered in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal; and he has appeared on many national radio and TV programs.

In this wide-ranging collection of essays on origins, mathematician Granville Sewell looks at the big bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, and the evolution of life.  He concludes that while there is much in the history of life that seems to suggest natural causes, there is nothing to support Charles Darwin’s idea that natural selection of random mutations can explain major evolutionary advances (“easily the dumbest idea ever taken seriously by science,” he calls it).  Sewell explains why evolution is a fundamentally different and much more difficult problem than others solved by science, and why increasing numbers of scientists are now recognizing what has long been obvious to the layman, that there is no explanation possible without design. This book summarizes many of the traditional arguments for intelligent design, but presents some powerful new arguments as well.

Granville Sewell is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas El Paso.  He completed his PhD in Mathematics at Purdue University in 1972 and has worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Purdue University, the University of Texas Center for High Performance Computing (Austin), and Texas A&M University.  He also spent one semester teaching at Universidad Nacional de Tucuman in Argentina on a Fullbright Scholarship.  Dr. Sewell has written three books on numerical analysis, and is the author of a widely-used finite element computer program.

What They Are Saying:

“As the debate over intelligent design grows increasingly heated, with critics engaging in vicious polemics, it is refreshing to find a discussion of the topic that is calm, thoughtful, and far-ranging, with no sense of having to advance an agenda or decimate the opposition. In this regard, Granville Sewell’s In the Beginning succeeds brilliantly.” — William A. Dembski, author of The Design Inference and The End of Christianity

When it comes to some of life’s most profound questions—the origins of life, of matter, of the universe itself—does modern science already have everything all figured out? Many scientists would like us to think they are mere steps away from solving all the deep enigmas of physical existence.

Consummate skeptic David Berlinski shows that all such confidence is at best a bluff. In essays about evolution using humor and wit, Berlinski shows how lost today’s scientists really are. His new book The Deniable Darwin frees us from the superstition of preening scientism and illuminates the path to a renewal of real science.

In The Deniable Darwin & Other Essays Berlinski wields his famous skepticism excluding neither Darwinism nor intelligent design from his critical eye.  Included among the 32 essays spanning 15 years are his award winning essays “What Brings a World into Being?”, and “On the Origins of Mind” (Best American Science Writing 2002, 2005 respectively).

David Berlinski is a senior fellow in the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He is the author of numerous books, including The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and It Scientific Pretensions (Basic Books 2009). Berlinski received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University and was later a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University. He has authored works on systems analysis, differential topology, theoretical biology, analytic philosophy, and the philosophy of mathematics, as well as three novels. He has also taught philosophy, mathematics and English at Stanford, Rutgers, the City University of New York and the Université de Paris.

What They Are Saying:

“David Berlinski is to science writing what Tiger Woods is to golf. He can score from anywhere, against any opponent, on any course. The Deniable Darwin is a compulsive revel of his incandescent prose and jugular polemics. As irresistible as Gödel’s Proof.”—George Gilder author of The Israel Test, Wealth and Poverty, and Telecosm

“Berlinksi’s rapier wit is the antidote to the insufferable smugness of modern scientism. When, without any seeming effort, he notes that ‘like the Communist Party under Lenin, science is infallible because its judgments are collective,’ the reader is forever immunized against grandiose claims for scientific ‘consensus.’ Much more awaits the readers of this wonderful collection.”—Michael Behe professor of biochemistry, Lehigh University, and author of The Edge of Evolution and Darwin’s Black Box

“David Berlinski’s ability to weave the lessons of history with the wonders of modern science is unmatched, as is his use of subtle humor that enlivens his text. These essays will delight many and annoy others, regardless of on which side of the ideological aisle of science you may stand—for science has an ideology as Berlinski so well documents.”—Gerald Schroeder author of God According to God: A Physicist Proves We’ve Been Wrong About God All Along and The Science of God

“Berlinski is a genuine intellectual hero, one whose challenge to the certainties of evolutionary biology and Big Bang cosmology–the comfortable certainties of conventional wisdom about the origin of man and the origin of the universe–does not come from allegiance to rival certainties such as biblical creationism. Instead, Berlinski turns the methods and assumptions of science on itself to demonstrate the implausibilities underlying the arrogant claims of the grand theorists.”—Ron Rosenbaum author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars

The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us analyzes the multiple wars against terrorist groups that ensued after September 11, 2001, and their roots.  Topics of particular focus are the rise of Islamic communities in the West, and conflicts with non-Islamic communities, the debate in the West over civil liberties versus security, the role of the executive, legislative and judicial branches in applying national security law, the status of related battlefield conflicts around the globe, especially in the Mideast and Asia, personnel and material resource challenges in defending the homeland and fighting overseas, protecting critical infrastructures, especially communications, energy and ports, neutralization of WMD threats from hostile nations and sub-national groups, and lessons learned for policymakers since September 11.

John C. Wohlstetter is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and author of the blog Letter From the Capitol.  His professional background includes Wall Street, corporate and communications law and national security telecommunications.

What They Are Saying:

“John Wohlstetter’s The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us is a tour de force that not only outlines the problems we are obliged to confront, the misperceptions that surround the conflict, but the methods and assumptions that should be applied for the ultimate victory.”– Herb London, President, Hudson Institute

“After many years pondering policy at some of our finest think tanks, John Wohlstetter has produced a readable, cogent, and informed book on the challenges we face in this new world of rogue states, Islamofascists, and general purpose terrorists motivated merely by dispendious wrath.  It is must reading for policy makers and the general public, lest we suffer more and worse 9/11s ahead.” — R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Founder and Editor in Chief of The American Spectator

“Far-seeing and wise, John Wohlstetter in the tradition of true American patriots has written a brilliant guide to the principles, practices and priorities vital to victory in The Long War Ahead.” — Claudia Rosett, Journalist-in-Residence, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

“John Wohlstetter comes to the business of strategic analysis naturally.  His father, Charles, his uncle, Albert, and his aunt, Roberta, were among the most brilliant, respected and successful practitioners of this valuable craft of their generation.  With this book, John promises to become one of his.” — Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President, Center for Security Policy

According to the modern version of Darwin’s theory, DNA contains a program for embryo development that is passed down from generation to generation; the program is implemented by proteins encoded by the DNA, and accidental DNA mutations introduce changes in those proteins that natural selection then shapes into new species, organs and body plans. When scientists discovered forty years ago that about 98% of our DNA does not encode proteins, the non-protein-coding portion was labeled “junk” and attributed to molecular accidents that have accumulated in the course of evolution.

Recent books by Richard Dawkins, Francis Collins and others have used this “junk DNA” as evidence for Darwinian evolution and evidence against intelligent design (since an intelligent designer would presumably not have filled our genome with so much garbage). But recent genome evidence shows that much of our non-protein-coding DNA performs essential biological functions.

The Myth of Junk DNA is written for a general audience by biologist Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution. Citing some of the abundant evidence from recent genome projects, the book shows that “junk DNA” is not science, but myth.

Jonathan Wells has received two Ph.D.s, one in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley, and one in Religious Studies from Yale University. He has worked as a postdoctoral research biologist at the University of California at Berkeley and the supervisor of a medical laboratory in Fairfield, California. Dr. Wells is also the author of Charles Hodge’s Critique of Darwinism (Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), Icons of Evolution: Why much of what we teach about evolution is wrong (Regnery Publishing, 2000), and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Regnery, 2006).

Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision is the first book to critique federal Judge John E. Jones’ decision in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, the first trial to address the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design in public schools. In this concise yet comprehensive response, Discovery Institute scholars and attorneys expose how Judge Jones’ decision was based upon faulty reasoning, non-existent evidence, and a serious misrepresentation of the scientific theory of intelligent design. Despite Jones’ protestations to the contrary, his attempt to use the federal bench to declare evolution a sacred cow turns out to be a textbook case of good old American judicial activism. The authors conclude that because of Judge Jones’ ruling, “teachers seeking to ‘teach the controversy’ over Darwinian evolution in today’s climate will likely be met with false warnings that it is unconstitutional to say anything negative about Darwinian evolution.”

The book is written by David K. DeWolf, professor of law at Gonzaga University; Dr. John G. West, associate professor and chair of the political science department at Seattle Pacific University; Casey Luskin, attorney and program officer for public policy and legal affairs at Discovery Institute; and Dr. Jonathan Witt, senior fellow and writer-in- residence at Discovery Institute.

What They Are Saying:

“A disturbing feature of the debate over evolution, especially for those of us who are distantly interested but have no settled conviction on the matter, is the aggressive campaign by many in the scientific and judicial establishments to silence the opposition so that only the Darwinist story will be heard. That campaign was in full force in the recent Dover, Pennsylvania ‘intelligent design’ case, and it was rewarded with a dubious victory in Judge Jones’s mammoth, meandering opinion. Traipsing Into Evolution is a gallant attempt to present the other side of the story. If you followed the Dover controversy and especially if you managed to wade through all or part of Judge Jones’s opinion, you owe it to yourself to read this book.” – Steven D. Smith, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego and author of Law’s Quandary (Harvard University Press, 2004)

“Traipsing Into Evolution is a timely criticism of judicial overreaching arising out of the Kitzmiller v. Dover intelligent design trial. It gives a thoughtful, yet succinct, analysis of the errors of the Kitzmiller court. This book is a must read for both proponents and critics of intelligent design. Unless critics of intelligent design grapple with the arguments in this book, their criticisms will be as intellectually anemic as that of the court.”–Randall L. Wenger, Esq., attorney specializing in constitutional and public policy litigation