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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Clear argument bolsters evolutionary truth

Reviewed by: Dr. Ted St. Godard

Posted: 05/24/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Why Evolution is True

By Jerry Coyne

Penguin Canada, 282 pages, $31

"Suffice for me to say... that, of course, like every other man of intelligence and education, I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions could be raised."

-- Woodrow Wilson (1922)

IT surely ought to disappoint, if not embarrass us all, that in the 21st century there continues to be any serious debate vis-a-vis the relative merits of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution on the one hand and creationism (now tarted up as "intelligent design") on the other.

Volumes, indeed libraries, have been filled with unequivocal evidence that life on Earth has evolved. Generations of thinkers have stood on each others' shoulders and added credence to the simple yet profound ideas presented to the world in Darwin's 1859 The Origin of Species.

Nevertheless, discussions and science curriculum deliberations continue, particularly south of the border. Into this milieu, University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne has launched a provocatively titled new book, Why Evolution is True.

Coyne's offering is a forceful and respectful attempt to render perhaps less opaque Darwin's elegantly simple ideas, and thereby further dispel some of the misunderstandings surrounding evolution.

Coyne refers to Darwin's Earth-shattering realization that all life on Earth has evolved over time as "the greatest idea that anyone ever had," but notes that natural selection, the mechanism of that evolution, is "the most misunderstood part of Darwinism."

Doubters with the courage to read him (repaying the courtesy of skeptics who have read, for example, Of Pandas and People, a creationist tome purporting to be a science textbook) will find that Coyne writes well, and clearly knows his material. He provides abundant notes, a good index, and a glossary.

Those looking for creationist-bashing might be disappointed with Coyne's even tone. Which certainly is not to say that putative merits of creationist theories are respectfully debated.

They deliberately are not, but neither are they given the obvious lampooning others (think of Christopher Hitchens) might deliver. You see, as Coyne is at pains to point out, creationism is "a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory," and one simply cannot argue with religion; dogma is not swayed by logic.

The price of Coyne's book is easily repaid if one reads only his clear discussion surrounding the misguided tendency on the part of some to dismiss evolution as "just a theory."

Evolution is a theory like gravity is a theory. Coyne emphasizes that evolution, like gravity, but unlike religious ideas like creationism, makes testable, verifiable and refutable predictions.

As he puts it nicely, "[d]espite innumerable possible observations that could prove evolution untrue, we don't have a single one. We don't find mammals in Precambrian rocks, humans in the same layers as dinosaurs, or any other fossils out of evolutionary order. ... Despite a million chances to be wrong, evolution always comes up right."

"Evolution is a fact," Coyne writes, and "scientists have as much confidence in Darwinism as they do in the existence of atoms, or in microorganisms as the cause of infectious disease."

That said, Coyne notes that although no serious biologist doubts Darwinism, "[this] doesn't mean that Darwinism is scientifically exhausted, with nothing left to understand."

There are abundant holes in our knowledge, but certainly no need to resort to the "realm of the supernatural," or to what the late Stephen Jay Gould referred to as the "God of the gaps."

Acerbic British biologist Richard Dawkins, himself no stranger to polemic, has cogently argued that those who do not subscribe to Darwin's theory are mad, muddled or simply ignorant.

Coyne's clear and forceful arguments may offer some clarity to members of the latter groups. One worries, however, that they won't bother to read it, taking as they often do their guidance from rather older books.

Ted St. Godard is a Winnipeg physician.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 24, 2009 D5

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