SOURCE: Weigel, George. Review of Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life, by Stephen Jay Gould. Commentary 107, no. 5 (May 1999): 67-70.

In the following review, Weigel argues that there are several biases evident throughout Rocks of Ages.

Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard/NYU paleontologist whose formidable skills as a popularizer have made him one of the world's most successful science writers, now deploys those same skills in discussing for nonspecialist readers the future relationship between scientists and religious believers. His aim [in Rocks of Ages] is to resolve what he aptly terms “the supposed conflict between science and religion.”

However fevered its history, the quarrel between science and religion, is, Gould argues, “a debate that exists only in people's minds and social practices, not in the logic or proper utility of these … equally vital subjects.” The conflict, in short, is an artificial one, sustained by...