The Geeky Atheist

Over the past few weeks I've been reading Why Evolution Is True by Jerry Coyne. In my original acceptance of evolution, I didn't really dig into the evidence for it initially. Rather, I saw my arguments against it being deconstructed as logical fallacy after logical fallacy via The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe Podcast. Seeing my arguments against evolution destroyed, I read Francis Collins' The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Being a Christian at the time, I wanted some input on what really changes if I decided to accept evolution.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, where I listened to Coyne being interviewed about this book. He explained that there are many scientists who never encounter the true breadth of evidence behind evolution. Back in the early 1900s, the evidence was very crucial to accepting evolution as a fact. But as we got closer and closer to today, we've stopped teaching as much of the evidence because the scientific community largely accepts evolution as truth. This is where he felt he could contribute with his book.

His book is a step by step walk through the breadth of evidence that supports evolution, and he does it with such an eloquent voice. I'm not a scientist, but I didn't encounter a subject that I wasn't able to comprehend. Beyond comprehension, it was truly an entertaining book. His love of biology is evidenced in his writing.

He starts off by explaining the six principles of evolution: gradualism, speciation, common ancestry, natural selection, and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change. The remainder of the book sets forth to back up each of these principles with the breadth of evidence found in, but not limited to, the fossil record, the biogeography of plants and animals, and molecular genomic data.

His book does a wonderful job of proving what he set out for in his title: evolution is true. This book is not an end-all-be-all book of evolution, but it's a great primer with lots of facts and examples, and is a great starter or refresher for anyone interested more in the evidence behind evolution.