I just finished a fantastic book aptly titled Why Evolution Is True by biologist Jerry Coyne. Coyne is not only a biology professor at the University of Chicago, but a talented science writer. Science writers have a tough job. They need to convey scientific information in a way that non-scientists can understand, while staying true to the underlying science and not presenting a bias. Coyne presents a mountain of scientific information in a fashion that conveys that you are looking at a mountain, but not climbing it. And there is a mountain of evidence supporting evolution through natural selection presented in the book.
Coyne doesn’t take very long to get down to the business of presenting the scientific fact of evolution through natural selection. The fact? Yup. Coyne drives home the point that evolution is not “just a theory” in the world of science. Amongst paleontologist, geneticists, biologists and other scientists, evolution is considered a fact. There is no debate. Coyne doesn’t spend a lot of time talking politics, but he does spend some time putting the idea that their is any debate to bed. Evolution is a fact, and this book takes a nice cross-sampling of hard-data from a number of scientific fields to present why scientists have come to this conclusion.
Along the way Coyne basically destroy so called “intelligent design”. Coyne doesn’t do so with venom or malice, but I would imagine it would be fairly embarrassing to the ID crowd, if they took the time to read his book. Coyne doesn’t really have to go out of his way to do this. The arguments of ID seem shallow and poorly thought through when compared to the work done by scientists of the last 150 years.
The book is also littered with numerous scientific trivia. I particularly enjoyed learning the fact that all humans actually grow fur in the womb, and shed it before they are born. This is just one of many evolutionary artifacts that Coyne highlights in the book. The illustrations are also fantastic. There are a number of hand-drawn illustrations throughout the book that helped to highlight various scientific .
If you are into science at all, or are looking for an interesting read on how we came to be, I would highly recommend you read Why Evolution Is True.
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