A Student Guide to Man's Selection: Charles Darwin's Theory of Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design provides a scientific inquiry into two competing theories regarding the creation and evolution of life - the Case for Chance and the Case for Design. Scientists with starkly different opinions on the subject, from Dr. Wernher von Braun to Dr. Richard Dawkins, have stated that both theories are a matter for scientific study. However, most public school science curriculum does not consider the Case for Design out of the misguided belief that it is incompatable with secularism. Instead, some in the scientific community insist that theories of creation and evolution must align with the Case for Chance, and have advanced neo-Darwinism as the basis for the Modern Evolution Science Synthesis. However, this directly contradicts what Charles Darwin observed and documented in his trilogy of publications, The Origin of Species, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, and The Descent of Man.
Charles Darwin observed that several forms of Variation were the catalyst for creation. He also observed that multiple types of Selection preserved the most favorable variations for adaptation by the organism, preserving traits that could be inherited by its offspring and passed along to future generations. Complex combinations of variation and selection, governed by "laws impressed on matter by the Creator," result in the creation and evolution of life. Darwin's findings were based on rigourous scientific observation and therefore can serve as the basis for inquiry into this phenomenal and mainly unknown area of science. Darwin bridged the "case for chance" with the "case for design" through his analogy of an architect who masterfully creates noble and purposeful edifices from seemingly meaningless uncut stones produced by natural laws unrelated to the edifice created.
The Student Guide to Man's Selection addresses the following student concerns.
What do you think? Two different theories attempt to explain the creation and evolution of life; the Case for Chance and the Case for Design. These competing theories have prompted two opposing sides of the most fundamental questions of humanity. Who or what created life? Why are we here? How are we supposed to behave? Is there a plan of creation?
Why does this matter? The answers to these questions have driven human behavior and shaped civilization. Was life spawned as a happenstance of matter and natural law, or was it "originally breathed by the Creator" into one or more forms, as Darwin observed. Are humans simply a twig on the evolutionary tree - a meaningless form of ape? Or were we created for a higher pupose through a process analogous to what Darwin called "man's power of accumulated selection," or Man's Selection. The answers to such questions compel consideration of moral and ethical behavior as the foundation of a rule of law and human rights that transcend the singular law of nature and the natural right of the Survival of the Fittest - the driving force of Natural Selection. Darwin asserted that through the study of Man's Selection, we may reveal what he called the "plan of creation."
How is this book different? Today's students are our future. They are SMART learners - endowed with Singular Intelligence and the capacity to use Science, Math, Art, Reason, and Tradition to advance their understanding of the complex issues that shape our world. This scientific inquiry will take a fresh look at Darwin's observations. Students will be challenged to consider the evidence on both sides of the question - the Case for Chance and the Case for Design.
