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Title: A Naturalist Out of His Element
Review: In his introduction, Eldredge asserts that we have to get beyond such myths as the assertion in Genesis that God meant man to have dominion over all of nature, and that stories are important. Much of the book reviews the science of paleantology, which the field of his discipline. But I saw little convincing connection between that material and the extinction of animals which existed in prehistoric times. He speculates that the cave man artists who lived at least 30,000 years before the writing of Genesis, painted animals as a symbolic means of gaining dominance over them. In the Afterward, he proposes "A New Story", in which he ignores real history of human understanding of our place in the world. He offers no clear evidence of a connection between his exegesis of Genesis and the massive extinctions of species in our times. Perhaps he should read more widely and become aquainted with St Francis of Assisi.
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