| Current Rank | 7-Day Average | 30-Day Average | 90-Day Average | Lifetime Average | Best Rank | Worst Rank |
| 31,981 | 28,459 | 21,442 | 21,442 | 21,442 | 4,539 |
| Current Rank | 7-Day Average | 30-Day Average | 90-Day Average | Lifetime Average | Best Rank | Worst Rank |
| 112 | 235 | 1,229 | 6,869 | 13,117 | 166 | 79,226 |
Guess which one is which?
Top: Design of Life - Dembski and Wells
Bottom: God Delusion - Dawkins
And the funniest one
| Current Rank | 7-Day Average | 30-Day Average | 90-Day Average | Lifetime Average | Best Rank | Worst Rank |
| 22,778 | 13,796 | 12,699 | 14,195 | 14,392 | 178 | 235,162 |
From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin’s Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals) by Charles Darwin
The fact that Dawkin’s book is still improving in rank after being available for awhile is interesting. What is the start date for Darwin’s books?
Somewhere around 2005 when this one was published
Its current rank is even better than its best rank … that’s a miracle!
You’re right. The FSM must have been interfering in its ranking! :-)
Is this like bowling, where a high score is good, or like golf, where a low score is good?
fusilier James 2:24
The y axis range is very large. Is there a version of the plots with y axis in logarithmic scale?
I would like to believe these sales numbers show that ID is running out of steam. If that is really true , it won’t be long before the campaign managers pick it up in the polls and surveys. The Republicans would ratchet down the rhetoric and Dems would hawk their science support credentials. Things like the 12 Florida county resolution, Texas ed agency shenanigans of ousting Comers etc are just due to the phase lag between shifts popular opinion and the recognition of the shift by the politicans.
But I could be reading too much in the info. May be most rubes taken in by ID are not much of readers or book buyers. Even when they buy books, they are likely to go to a local bookstore instead of Amazon.
Still, many many journalists must be buying and reading the books by Dawkins, Dennett and such authors and the journalists would eventually see how patently unfair it is to give equal time to evolution and creationism for “balance” and NPOV.
fusilier, Ranks are usually like golf scores. Rank 1 means best selling book. Dawkins’ rank of 112 means there are just 111 books that sell better than TGD.
A quick look at the chart should tell you that. Since “From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin’s Four Great Books” lists the best rating as 178 and the worst as 235,162, the answer is obvious.
As important as that, of course, is the trend. Better to start high and trend low than the reverse, as that shows increasing interest for the title (Of course, best is to start low and stay there, but Hey, we’re not talking about Harry Potter, after all!!!).
Also, the longer the title stays with a low rank, the better–shows the title has enduring interest.
Should you need clarification on other points, feel free to mention it.
DPR Luther thought James should be booted from the canon
D P Robin
A misconception. Luther had a preface where he called it an epistle of straw compared to the canonical gospels. He later retracted that statement from the preface of his translated bibles. Also, there is documented evidence of his preaching from James.
My mistake, but I think it would not be too much to say that Luther was no great fan of that epistle. Still nice to know his views evolved.
DPR
He’s leaving out a few more quotes from Luther
The epistle of James gives us much trouble, for the Papists embrace it alone and leave out all the rest…Accordingly, if they will not admit my interpretations, then I shall make rubble also of it. I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove, as the priest in Kalenberg did. (Luther’s Works 34, 317)
We should throw the epistle of James out of this school [i.e. Wittenburg], for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ. Not once does it mention Christ, except at the beginning. I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any. Since he heard that Christians place great weight on faith in Christ, he thought, ‘Wait a moment! I’ll oppose them and urge works alone.’ This he did. (Luther’s Works 54, 424)
(copied from http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2006/02[…]t-james.html)
So, a lot of people got Dawkins for Christmas. Will sales be great on 2008?
To be fair you need to subtract the copy of Dawkins’ book that the DI bought in order to mine quotes.
Dawkins for Christmas??
What a marvelous thought - that IDers purchased science books just to quote-mine them. Do they buy them to burn them, too?
Ravylin Sanders, DPR, and heddle:
Thank you.
DPR and heddle:
Why yes, I am a Papist, peri-Vatican II, to be exact. My Beloved and Darling Wife is the Lutheran, LCMS. I chose my sig because Maccabees seems be too subtle for most fundies, and nobody understands Tobit. Certainly I don’t.
fusilier James 2:24
I don’t find it at all strange that some atheists celebrate Christmas. We even set up a manger by the tree. It’s a charming tradition that we have observed since childhood.
The start of the God Delusion run up corresponds to the release of the UK paperback version back in Oct. (You can also pre-order the US pb version now). Probably shows there are a lot of cheap skeptics out there :)
The anti-science group seems to be well organized at local levels and they seem to take a particular dislike for RDawkins. May be they quietly work to keep TGD out of the public libraries. And these cheapskates who would have read them for free in the library are forced to buy it in the market. Thus the sales rank went up. Talk about unintended consequences.
While we are quoting scripture, these amazon ratings seem to confirm Matthew 7 : 13-14:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Kind regards
Dolly
The implication seems to be that those people who purchased Design of Life have found the small gate and narrow road that leads to “life”.
Firstly, you didn’t get the memo: ID has nothing to do with religion, no sir.
Secondly, didn’t you know that ID was bad science and possibly worse theology since it obviates faith?
A couple of comments. As a Christian, I recognize that you must simply accept what Scripture is really talking about and not try to read into it what you want it to say. Matthew 7 was referring to Christianity, not science. Are we to ignore all popular scientific discoveries? (In a similar vein we shouldn’t be reading science into Genesis either; it’s not a scientific account of creation to be compared or contrasted with evolution.)
GuyeFuax is right; ID is very bad for theology. The Biblical stresses God’s actions within “normal providence,” i.e., the normal natural world – in this case evolution. Not in scientifically fanciful “gaps.”
I think it is absolutely hysterical how Dembski and his fellow intellectually-challenged pals over at Uncommon Descent have bragged about how much an Amazon.com “bestseller” “Design of Life” is. Sounds like a potential “Saturday Night Live” skit, presided over by Dana Carvey’s “The Church Lady”. Doesn’t it?
Cheers,
John
David Butler, go back and read “The God Delusion” again. If this isn’t the wide gate that leads to destruction, I dont know what is! And this book, by no stretch of the imagination can be called science.
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