Abstract
Dobson's comprehensive volume (the title reflects a quotation from Darwin) includes a review of the Sumerians (chap. 2), ancient Egyptians (chap. 3), Presocratics (chap. 4), classical philosophy (chap. 5), early and medieval Christianity (chaps. 6 and 7), and science (chaps. 8-11). The first and last chapters (1 and 12) outline Dobson's convictions and assumptions, such as "Every religion contains some form of myth" (p. 9), and "Natural science provides a very different way of making sense of the world" (p. 11), one that is ordered and explainable. Modern science includes knowledge seeking, with questions and answers that have no absolutes (a self-correction process). A "scientific truth" is "that relation derived by careful observation and some form of verifiable experimentation, usually involving measurement" (p. 18). Dobson states clearly his own views: