UN1001: Perspectives on Inquiry
Assignment for Paper 3 and Class Presentation
Fall, 2005
Consider the following topics for your 3rd paper and class presentation. Indicate your
1st through 10th choices in the spaces provided below. You will be assigned a topic
based on your preferences as well as those of other students in the class. If you wish
to do so, you may suggest a topic for consideration. If your suggestion is judged to be
a suitable topic, then it may be assigned to you. However, suggested topics will be
assigned only if they are judged to be acceptable. If you wish, you may confer with
the course instructor about the acceptability of your suggested topic beforehand. Give
enough details for your suggestion to be evaluated. If you would like to do your
project (paper + presentation) collaboratively with another student in the class, so
indicate by checking the box below.
Please turn in your requests by classtime Thursday, November 10, 2003.
Possible Topics
1. Consider Dawkins’s arguments on p. 77 of Climbing Mount Improbable. There
he claims that the Intelligent Designer hypothesis does not explain the “dazzling
array of living things.” He also argues that Darwinism is the only view that solves
the problem of the “astronomic improbability of eyes and knees, enzymes and
elbow joints and other living wonders.” Are his arguments successful, in your
view? Why or why not? [Note that the question you are supposed to answer is
whether Dawkins’s arguments are logical arguments—not whether you agree
with his conclusions.]
2. How serious a problem for Darwinism is the problem of “gaps” in the fossil
record? Consider the arguments against Darwinism based on the (alleged) lack of
transitional forms in the fossil record and evolutionists’ attempts to explain the
“gaps.”
3. In your judgment, what is the likelihood that sight in mammals evolved by
natural-selection-plus-random-mutation? Consider the views of Darwinists and of
Intelligent Design proponents on this question.
4. What is the current thinking about Michael Behe’s “irreducible complexity” idea?
How have scientists reacted to his proposal? What are the main criticisms? How
convincing are they?
5. Find at least 6 reviews of Dawkins’s book Climbing Mount Improbable. Confine
your search to reviews written by authorities on the evolution-creation topic and
published in reputable scientific journals, magazines, and newspapers. Select the
2 best (generally) positive reviews and also the 2 best (generally) negative
reviews. Give short summaries of those reviews and state which review comes
closest to your own evaluation of Dawkins’s book? Explain why.
6. Find at least 6 reviews of Johnson’s book Darwin on Trial. Confine your search
to reviews written by authorities on the evolution-creation topic and published in
reputable scientific journals, magazines, and newspapers. One of your 6 reviews
should be Gould’s review in Scientific American. Select the 2 best (generally)
positive reviews and also the 2 best (generally) negative reviews. Give short
summaries of those reviews and also state which review comes closest to your
own evaluation of Johnson’s book and why?
7. What is the current state of the research on prebiological evolution? Have there
been any important experimental results recently? If so, what are they? Is there
any consensus among scientists about prebiological evolution? If so, what is it?
8. What is the current thinking among evolutionary biologists on the Gould-Eldridge
“punctuated equilibrium” hypothesis? What do they see as the major pros and
cons of the hypothesis? Is there any consensus among scientists about whether the
hypothesis is correct? If so, what is it?
9. Find and study the opinions of the justices of the 1987 U. S. Supreme Court on
the constitutionality of the 1981 Louisiana law requiring balanced treatment of
evolution-science and creation-science in Louisiana public schools. Summarize
those opinions—both majority and dissenting. Which opinion did you find to be
the most convincing? Why?
10. What is the current thinking among evolutionary biologists about the relative
importance of natural selection and genetic drift as mechanisms of evolution? Is
there controversy among scientists on this issue? If so, what is the nature of the
controversy?
11. What is the current state of the research on human origins? Have there been any
important recent developments? If so, what are they? What light do they shed on
the evolution-creation issue?
12. What is the current state of the research in evolutionary biology on the reptile-tomammal transition? Have there been any important recent fossil finds? If so, what
are they? Has any light been recently shed on the question of whether such a
transition actually occurred?
13. What is the current state of the research on the “Cambrian explosion”? Have there
been any important recent fossil finds? If so, what are they? Has any light been
recently shed on the question of whether multi-cellular organisms evolved from
single-celled forms? Does the evidence of a “Cambrian explosion” support
evolution? Does it support the Intelligent Design theory? If it supports one or the
other, how strong is that support?
14. Does Intelligent Design Theory qualify as science? How do we tell whether
something is a science?
15. Does young-earth creationism qualify as science? How do we tell whether
something is a science?
16. Does the evidence from molecular biology support Darwinism? If so, how strong
is that support?
17. Is evolution a “fact”? (Consider Johnson’s criticisms of the distinction between
the “fact of evolution” and theories about evolutionary processes.)
18. Investigate the Dover, Pennsylvania school board decision to mandate the
teaching of Intelligent Design in its public schools and the lawsuit to overturn
their decision. What are the main issues in the case? What are the principal
arguments on the opposing sides? Which side has the better arguments, in your
judgment? Why?
19. Is evolutionary biology based on faith? If so, explain. What exactly do you mean
by “faith”? Is it the same concept of faith as in “religious faith”? Is all science
based on “faith”? If not, is evolutionary biology different in this regard? Explain.
20. Study the 1982 U.S. District Court case concerning the Arkansas law that
mandated “balanced treatment” of evolution-science and creation-science in
Arkansas public schools. Do you agree with Judge Overton’s reasoning in that
case? Why or why not?
21. What is the current state of the evidence for transitional forms? What recent
discoveries have been made? How strong is the evidence?
22. Suggest your own research project on the evolution-creation topic. Describe it in
enough detail for it to be evaluated as a possible research assignment.
Name _________________________________
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