Not brilliant.

This book, which is not brilliantly read, is just a school level argument setting out the reasons to accept evolution as a fact rather than a theory which is likely to be true.
There is no discussion of the different theories of evolution or why Darwin moved towards a more Lamarkian approach with successive editions of his books. He turned out to be wrong about this by the way. The lack of a proper discussion on genes is especially alarming.
The author also seemed to miss that it was human evolution and not evolution generally that prompted the great conflict in the USA about the teaching of evolution in schools.
He also completely ignores some of the issues that fuelled the arguments against evolution, for example social Darwinism and eugenics.
Generally I found it had an overly simplistic approach to a subject that is far more interesting than it would appear from this book.
Instead of this book I would recommend the Great Courses audiobook on the Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy by Edward J. Larson.

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1 person found this helpful

Shermer at his best

Loved it. Shermer at his very best. A must read. poignant and refreshing. insightful

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