THE JESUIT AND THE SKULL: Teilhard De Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man

By Goldberg, Cait

THE JESUIT AND THE SKULL: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man AMIR D. ACZEL Riverhead, 2007, 288 p., hardcover, $24.95. As the battle between the proponents of evolution and of intelligent design rages on, Aczel examines the earliest days of the controversy. The 1929 discovery of a skull of Homo erectus in a cave in China provided a much-sought link between humanity’s ancient ancestor and modern Homo sapiens. The fossil, which became known as the Peking Man, could well have produced an internal conflict for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of the paleontologists who discovered the skull, who was a Jesuit priest. Teilhard, however, did not believe that his religious beliefs should preclude the scientific study of human evolution. Aczel covers Teilhard’s writings on science and religion, the Catholic Church’s attempt to suppress his work, and the disappearance of the Peking Man fossils during the Japanese occupation of China. Finally, Aczel examines the proliferation of the fossil record and what post-Peking Man fossil discoveries can tell us about human origins.

Copyright Science Service, Incorporated Oct 20, 2007

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