Why Evolution Is True

Why Evolution Is True
By Jerry A. Coyne
(Viking, 282 pages, $27.95)

In a couple of weeks, on Feb. 12, biologists the world over will celebrate Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Throughout the year, at festivals galore marking his bicentennial, "On the Origin of Species," a mere 150 years old, will be hailed as one of the greatest works in the history of the sciences. News of these events is likely to leave many American citizens bemused, possibly even irritated, for, as public-opinion surveys reveal, most of our countrymen have grave doubts about the truth of Darwin's theory. The skeptics are not just rustic provincials, people deprived of serious educational opportunities. Prominent politicians and recent presidents are among them.

That would be one George Walker Bush, surely.

Despite what you might have heard, the mere fact that a majority of Americans would prefer to have Darwinism "balanced" in the biology classroom with "rival theories" is not one of the major tragedies of our time. For thoughtful and accomplished scientists, however, the public's inclination is a sign of a dismal attitude toward science, a blind stubbornness in responding to evidence -- in short, the triumph of prejudice over reason.

How refreshing to read such words: not one of the major tragedies of our time. Too often leftists and liberals and academics make it seem that unless their opinion is heeded the universe will collapse.

Darwinism is thus a claim with several basic components, and the book is structured by carefully exhibiting the evidence for each. Making that structure explicit allows readers to recognize just where they are in the argument. As they follow Mr. Coyne's parade of evidence -- his discussions of the fossil record, of vestigial traits, of the ways in which living things constantly make novel use of the bits and pieces they have inherited, of the distribution of plants and animals -- the components of Darwin's thesis are sequentially supported. We have a list of things to be shown, they are shown and the truth of evolution is established.

Of course, then there is bumper-sticker expression that the faithful simply accept as true: God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.