Though originally scheduled to take place today, volunteers gathered yesterday on college campuses across the United States to distribute free copies of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species. The volumes included one extra item not found in the original book: an introduction by creationist Ray Comfort, which offers arguments against the theory of evolution. Among his challenges are the common ad hominem attacks against Darwin: accusing him of being a racist and sexist; assertions that Darwin’s theory is directly responsible for eugenics, euthanasia, infanticide, and Hitler’s philosophy; claims about the lack of transitional fossils; claims that DNA and other complex biological structures could not possibly have emerged via evolution; and even the claim that evolution violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. He also implies that one must reject evolution to be a good Christian.

The National Center for Science Education has already created their own online resource — The Don’t Diss Darwin Institute — to counter the arguments used by Comfort in the introduction. The site offers a detailed analysis of Comfort’s introduction along with explanations for why his challenges don’t stand up. They also provide a printable pamphlet and bookmark to help “correct” Comfort’s materials. The NCSE are not the only ones tackling Comfort’s “edited” Origins, however. Christian and evolutionary biologist Ken Miller has also released a pamphlet addressing the preface that was included in the distributed copies.

Though we see no need to compile a pamphlet of our own, the BioLogos Web site and Science and the Sacred have already addressed many of Comfort’s arguments against evolution:

• Karl Giberson’s post “Who Cares About Darwin?” looks at why ad hominem attacks against Darwin do nothing to disprove the validity of his theory, and addresses the supposed “link” between Darwin and Hitler.
• Our question “How is BioLogos different from Darwinism or Social Darwinism?” explains why the scientific theory of evolution is not the same as Social Darwinism — a gross misapplication of the theory. The two do not go hand-in-hand.
• Our question “What Does the Fossil Record Show?” gives several examples of transitional fossils, dismissing the idea that no transitional fossils have been found.
• Our question “How can Evolution Account for the Complexity of Life on Earth Today?” and our series of blogs “On Reducing Irreducible Complexity” show why many so called examples of “irreducible complexity” can be explained via evolution, and why the idea of irreducible complexity is philosophically unsound.
• Our question “Does Thermodynamics Disprove Evolution?” address this commonly used but scientifically flawed challenge to evolution.
• Finally, our Questions section, as well as many of our suggested books, challenge the myth that one must choose between Christianity and evolution.

Ultimately, despite its unique pairing alongside Darwin’s work, Comfort’s new preface adds nothing new to the dialogue on creation and evolution.  Comfort would have us believe that science and faith don’t mix.  For a different perspective, have a look at the upcoming statement generated by the participants at the recent BioLogos workshop.