cover image Mythmaker's Magic

Mythmaker's Magic

Delos McKown. Prometheus Books, $34.98 (180pp) ISBN 978-0-87975-770-0

In a forceful critique, McKown exposes the fallacies of so-called ``scientific creationists,'' who maintain that the earth is less than 10,000 years old and deny the possibility of evolution. Documenting what he sees as the alarming influence of ``creation science'' in shaping public school curricula, he urges vigilance among those whom he considers secular humanists, warning that the Supreme Court's putatively accommodationist stance may abet the creationists' cause by blurring separation of church and state. McKown, a philosophy professor at Auburn University in Alabama, witheringly satirizes creation science as Orwellian ``Newspeak'' and classifies scientific creationists as ``Fundagelicals,'' his term for Fundamentalists, Evangelicals and other religious people united by their belief in the Bible's infallibility. A bogus tract-style lampoon of creationist dogma, excerpted from McKown's satirical novel With Faith and Fury, is included, along with nine essays, some of which have been published in magazines like Free Inquiry. (Feb.)