REVIEW: “Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes”

This is a review of the book Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes by Derrick Peterson.

In the Jewish writings of the Mishna, it is stated that there are 70 faces to Torah, meaning that if one studies the Torah, there are many layers to it and that and one will never run out of things to glean from it. Means and significance of the Torah are not clear cut. This is a similar idea which Derrick Peterson tries to convey about history in his book Flat Earth and Fake Footnotes -specifically the idea of a “war” between science and Christianity. Boiled down, Peterson attempts to demonstrate -and fairly well- that any idea of a historic war between religion and science is complicated to define because of how much Christianity was interwoven throughout the scientific advancements. The issue is complex and not straightforward. Further, any “war” between science and Christianity was really over-hyped because of how someone stood to benefit from it.

When I first picked up the book, its size and feel very much reminded me of a textbook. And given the topic, I was expecting that type of reading experience. Happily, I was wrong. While Flat Earths is a book loaded with research, historical information and narrative, and plenty of footnotes (not fake ones, and sometimes running longer than the actual text on the page), its pace is long enough and slow enough adequately to cover each subject and person in the book without feeling drawn out and slow in getting to the point.

One quote from around the first third of the book that sums up a lot of the work and narrative of the writing project is that “Everything we now know about the crisis of faith, the rise of atheism, and the decline of traditional religious practice where it did occur, however, tells us that ‘the smoking gun of science never fired'” (p. 84). All through the book, Peterson presents the assumed or common understanding of different science vs. religion showdowns, and then deconstructs each one to show that a battleline cannot be drawn cleanly and neatly. Peterson does a respectable job presenting happenings that happened both in Europe and the United States, and then explaining their implications for our modern context. Also, thanks to Peterson, I now have a long list of names of people I have never or barely heard of to do some research (or at least some Googling) on.

If you want an informative book on the topic of the historical dialogue of science and religion which is well rounded and accessible, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes is a solid choice.

I received my copy of this book for free in exchange for reading and reviewing it. I was not obligated to write a positive review; the opinions expressed in this review are my own.