That ought to get the Religious Right all riled up this morning, LOL!

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/05/the-whys-of-religion-vs-evolution/

Has anyone here read Jerry Coyne's book “Why Evolution Is True”? I'd be interested to hear your take on it.

Whoops! "Why is God more IMPORTANT than Darwin?"

:-)

"Why Evolution Is True" was the first book I chose to read on the subject while taking a geology class because I realized I knew very little about how science described the distant past other than fossils were really old and the earth was too.

The book was effective at opening my mind to the idea that reliable science extended to the realm of making evolution a firmly supported theory. I was shocked that I had grown up with such an ignorant view for so long since the theory has been widely accepted by the science community for over a hundred years!

I was blown away most by the facts about how the development of embryos clearly show their evolutionary traces. I remember taking a life science class in Junior High, why wasn't this even mentioned? I never had one class that discussed natural history, I had to wait until, by almost chance, to run into it during my second year of college, which then triggered a radical worldview change. Kids deserve to have the opportunity to think about these things when they're growing up.

I think it is a book that you can recommend to anyone including a religious teenager or adult and they will enjoy it.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2012 12:31PM by Brian M.

being highly religious and rejecting evolution? Social ills don't explain that, nor do they explain American notions of "American exceptionalism" and "Manifest Destiny" that are still very prevalent among wealthy, secure Americans today.

OTOH, your comment is so full of unexplored and unsupported superlatives I feel it necessary to ask you to support your own contentions.

I agree with xyz that your claims are unsupported.

But then, even if they claim (like virtually all politicians do) to be religious, are they really? Or is it just that it is expected of them? Or, does it just help them to maximize profits by appealing to the masses, and maintaining the dysfunctional status quo that made them "haves" in the first place?

I saw his lecture and bought his book. Interesting concepts. He is interesting to listen to.

Marshall