Evolutionary Tales : Rhyme and Reason on Creation/Evolution, with Apologies to Chaucer and Darwin

by Ecker, Ronald L.

• ISBN13: 9780963651273
• ISBN10: 0963651277
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-30
• Publisher: Hodge & Braddock Pub

Summary

Third edition. In the form of a Canterbury Tales parody, ten fictional experts swap commentaries, in rhymed iambic pentameter verse, on evolutionary theory and creationism.Eight scientists and a philosopher tell nine "tales"-lively verse essays in their fields of specialization-about evolutionary theory ("All have descended from a common source," / As Darwin summarized, "and in the course / Of that descent have all been modified") and the pseudoscientific nature of "creation science" and "intelligent design" (with a young-Earth creationist saying of evolution, "Darwin was the conduit / For this great lie, the devil made him do it"). The concluding Scholar's Tale then seeks to reconcile evolution and creation from a religious perspective.

Author Biography

Ronald L. Ecker received his B.A. in English at the University of Florida, and served two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru. He earned a Master of Library Science degree at Florida State University, and did postgraduate work in biblical studies at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He worked for several years as a librarian at Barry University and with the state of Florida. He is now a full-time writer. His other books include the DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE AND CREATIONISM and AND ADAM KNEW EVE: A DICTIONARY OF SEX IN THE BIBLE. His complete modern-English translation (with Eugene J. Crook) of Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES is a widely adopted text in college and university literature courses.