IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020 - 77

that Richard Dawkins, a well-known
evolutionary biologist, was threat-
ening Christian belief with his book
on natural selection, The Blind
Watchmaker. Johnson responded
with his 1991 book, Darwin on
Trial, which claims that empirical
evidence undermines the theory of
evolution.He soon attracted sup-
porters in academia, some with
backgrounds in science but none of
them evolutionary biologists. Their
thesis is that man did not come into
being by chance and natural selec-
tion but by the intervention of an
intelligent creator. A particular
focus of Johnson's and his follow-
ers' animus are scientists and prac-
ticing Christians who maintain that
a simultaneous belief both in Dar-
win and Christianity is compatible.
Fitting the paranoid model, the
Intelligent Design acolytes assert
there is a conspiracy by scien-
tists to infiltrate the public educa-
tion system. A corollar y is that
the teaching of evolution in the
schools undermines morality and
leads to "progressive" sex educa-
tion and a general decline in stan-
dards of behavior.
Ultimately, the teaching of intelli-
gent design in schools is probably
harmless - a young person plan-
ning a career in biology or medicine
will come to accept the science of
natural selection even if her prior
education had told her otherwise.
The teaching of views opposing
man-made global warming is more
insidious since a badly educated
public gets to choose political lead-
ers on the basis of some doubt they
have been taught about anthropo-
genic climate change.
Most readers probably know that
the anti-abortion movement in

JUNE 2020

America takes as its fundamental
precept that human life begins at
the moment of conception. An
abortion performed hours later is
perceived as murder. Alumkal's
book steers clear of the abortion
controversy but deals with an
a llied  c ause in the Chr istia n
Right - efforts to prevent research
on embryonic stem cells. These are
cells harvested from human embry-
os as early as 4 days after concep-
tion. Stem cells can be stimulated
to form into special cells and can
become a viable source of replace-
ment cells and tissues that can be
useful in the treatment of such dis-
eases as Parkinson's and Alzheim-
er's as well as spinal cord injuries.
The Right objects to the necessary
destruction of a human embryo in
the harvesting process. For most
bioethicists the question of whether
an early stage embryo is a human
life is at best ambiguous. Christian
Right activists regularly employ a
"slippery slope" argument which
concludes that allowing embryonic
stem cell research will lead to
"designer babies" and a return of
eugenics. In August of 2001, at the
behest of the Christian Right, Presi-
dent George W. Bush ordered an
end to federal funding for embry-
onic stem cell research that would
require the destruction of any new
embryos. Alumkal cannot resist
pointing out the irony in Bush's
action: he sold the American pub-
lic on an unnecessary war with
Saddam Hussein costing thousands
of lives.
Paranoia is the leitmotif that
links the 4 chapters of this book
and Alumkal repeatedly references
Hofstadter's 1963 Oxford lecture.
But Hofstadter has written an entire

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

book that serves better to frame
Alkunal's argument: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life published in
1962. He devotes an entire chapter
to the history of evangelists and
Christian revivalists, detailing the
rise of semi-educated and ill-edu-
cated ministers in mid-19th century
America who asserted that an edu-
cated ministry, products of colleges
and universities, would become
secularized. Dwight Moody (1837-
1899) probably the most famous
evangelist of his era, announced
that, aside from the Bible, he had
read almost nothing and advocated
as much for his followers. It was
quite natural, starting in 1860, for
evangelical ministers to turn a blind
eye to Darwin, and the matter of
evolution really didn't come to a
head until July of 1925 in Dayton,
Tennessee, when John Scopes was
tried for breaking a Tennessee law
that forbade the teaching of evolu-
tion in the public schools. Scopes
was convicted and fined $100.
After winning a Republican pri-
mary contest in Nevada in 2016,
presidential candidate Donald
Trump announced, "I love the poor-
ly educated." On the same occa-
sion, he also mentioned winning
the evangelical vote. During his suc-
cessful campaign, Trump described
climate change as a hoax. Reading
Alumkal together with Hofstadter's
book might help us to make sense
of all this.

Reviewer Information
A. David Wunsch is Book Review Edi-
tor of this magazine. He is Professor
Emeritus of Electrical and Comput-
er Engineering at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell. His email
address is David_Wunsch@uml.edu.

77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020
