Why Evolution Is True

by Jerry A. Coyne

Book Overview

"Coyne's knowledge of evolutionary biology is prodigious, his deployment of it as masterful as his touch is light." -Richard Dawkins

In the current debate about creationism and intelligent design, there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned-the evidence. Yet the proof of evolution by natural selection is vast, varied, and magnificent. In this succinct and accessible summary of the facts supporting the theory of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143116649
• ISBN13: 9780143116646
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

"Fair shape at best"

This is covered in markings and highlighter definitely not 'very good' shape. Disappointed. Try to do my best to reduce and recycle, but now I have to rebuy.

Great book on evolution!

Coyne does a fantastic job describing evolution. His examples are varied and made the subject matter very interesting 😊

Excellent summary of evidence for Darwinism

This is an excellent overview of the massive evidence for evolution and easily compensates for its minor flaws, such as: 1. Bats use echolocation, not radar. Duh. 2. Nicholas Steno wasn't canonized in 1988, but beatified; and if Pius XI did it, that would be pretty remarkable, since he died about 50 years earlier. (I'm Catholic. I know these things ;-) 3. More seriously, Coyne implies that theories can become facts. That's very problematic. Probably a better view is that theories are explanations, and explanations never become facts (at least, not in the sense that Coyne meant). Coyne probably should have said that evolution, like gravity, is both a fact and a theory; i.e., evolution is a fact, because it actually happened; and the explanation of how the fact of evolution occurred is called the "theory of evolution." But let's focus on the book's many strengths. In Chapter One Coyne lists six major, testable claims of evolutionary theory and uses the rest of the book to present a sample of the scientific evidence that shows how those claims have been confirmed as accurate. This highlights the contrast between the success of evolution and the failure of creationism (including intelligent design) in the scientifically crucial -- repeat, crucial -- area of making successful predictions. (Since the dawn of science, accurate predictions have been the hallmark of successful theories.) Chapter Two discusses the fossil record of transitional forms, both in general terms and with specific, fascinating examples, including: fish-to-amphibian; reptile-to-bird; and hippos (or their land-dwelling cousins) -to-whales. (Coyne could have been more specific about why intelligent design is such a failure here. ID makes no testable claims at all -- none at all! -- about the fossil record.) Chapter Three was my favorite chapter, with numerous, interesting examples of how vestigial organs, pseudogenes (vestigial DNA), embryology, and atavisms confirm some of evolution's key claims. Humans born with monkey-like tails, snakes born with lizard-like legs, and whales born with malformed legs fit in much better with evolutionary theory than with ID. And the development of mammal embryos through successive stages, first mimicking fish, then amphibians, and then reptiles, before reaching the final, mammalian phase is very convincing. Ditto for the discussion of various pseudogenes and endogenous retroviruses found not only in humans but also in closely related species. (Note: the discussion of pseudogenes and retroviruses, like every other issue in the book, is simple enough even for complete beginners.) Chapter Four discusses biogeography, the distribution of specific species in specific times and specific places. Evolution makes numerous testable claims about biogeography, and the evidence confirms those claims as accurate. The discovery of marsupial fossils in Antarctica was especially interesting. (In contrast to the success of evolutionary ex

I wish this was the first book on evolution I read as a YEC

This is the best book on the evidence for evolution I have read. I wish I would have read it years ago. I went to a Young Earth Creationist (YEC) teaching high school and have attended very conservative, Genesis-is-literal churches my whole life. I attended required YEC conferences by Kent Hovind and another by Ken Hamm in my High School science classes, and heard John Morris and Duane Gish speak several times in my church. Several years ago I decided to read a book on evolution because I couldn't understand why anyone would believe it. So I read "Why Darwin Matters" by Michael Shermer (also a very good book) and then started reading all the books I could find on evolution. The subject is fascinating and I have a new love for science and nature as a result of understanding how evolution works. "Why Evolution is True" is the best book I have read and I will recommend it to any young or old earth creationist, or intelligent design proponent, I meet. The explanation of the dating techniques of superposition, radiometric, and coral dating was very straightforward. Wells' experiment with radiometric dating and comparing the dates to the daily and yearly growth rings of coral was one of the best and most straightforward evidences I have read for an old earth. The book looks at all the important fossils, especially tracing the development of whales, discussing Haikouella lanceolata being the earliest chordate, and explains Tiktaalik roseae well. The fossils in the human lineage are also explained in excellent detail. The genetic portion of evolution books is always the strongest evidence for evolution, in my opinion, and "Why Evolution is True" was no exception. Besides the normal explanations of pseudogenes, Coyne shows how dolphins have 80% of their olfactory receptor genes deactivated through mutation because they are no longer needed underwater. This obviously shows that dolphins evolved from an ancestor that walked on the ground. The section on biogeography is especially strong. The evidence presented makes no sense in light of creationist ideas, but all the sense in the world by evolutionary standards. "Why Evolution is True" is especially strong at showing how evolution predicts the evidence. Coyne sets up several sections by explaining what evolution predicts in a certain area and then showing how the evidence fits. This rhetorical technique is especially strong if the reader has a good understanding of the scientific method. Because I am a biology major and the emphasis every class puts on the scientific method, it was great to see how strongly evolutionary theory fits into the prediction/test portion of the scientific method. The religious and non-religious alike should find "Why Evolution is True" to be accessible. Coyne does not spend much time trying to bash God or hurt religion, just prove evolution true. Because of this I think this book is stronger than many of Dawkins', at least for introducing evolution to religious people. Unf

THE intro book for the evolution-curious, but uninformed!

I was raised in a very conservative Christian environment and taught Young-Earth Creationism (anti-evolution, anti-Big Bang, etc.). I bought into it for a long time. In college, I finally began to investigate some of the claims for myself---reading what was _really_ being said by "the other side", rather than what I was being told was being said. The disparity I discovered can hardly be exaggerated: what I had been taught bore essentially zero resemblance to the real thing. Genuine evolutionary theory was virtually unrecognizable in the creationists' caricatures of it. I learned that I had been lied to---intentionally, or not, I do not know---and that the quantity, diversity, and quality of evidence in support of evolution was simply crushing. It wasn't just that it could not be ignored or dismissed as trivial; it was that it was so cohesive and mutually supportive and overwhelmingly convincing that it simply HAD to be accepted as true. (As Gould said, it would be "perverse to withhold provisional assent.") This discovery sparked a long (and ongoing) journey of reading books on the topic of evolution---books by authors such as Stephen Jay Gould, Sean Carroll, Richard Dawkins, Charles Darwin, Neil Shubin, and others. I was enthralled with the elegant simplicity and beauty and shear explanatory power of the ideas I was learning. They not only made sense, but had tremendous evidentiary support in nature and the lab (as well as mathematical modeling, game theory, use in other disciplines, etc.). But, as my journey progressed, and I continued to absorb ever more information and improve my understanding, I began to realize something. As I interfaced with many of those from my upbringing (i.e., those uninformed on evolution), it dawned on me that I hadn't yet found a truly excellent "introductory book" that clearly and accessibly discussed what evolution is (and is not) while relying heavily upon concrete evidentiary examples across many different disciplines. I had read many great books specializing in this or that discipline, or focusing more on the understanding of evolutionary concepts (but with looser reliance upon examples in nature), or whatever. But, I wanted a single, superb book to provide a solid overview of evolution that was inseparably intertwined with many diverse supporting evidentiary examples. When a curious friend actually asked, voluntarily, for such a book suggestion, and I could not provide a single title (as opposed to a long list, which is too much to ask of the casually curious), I decided my desire for such a book had transformed into a bona fide need. "Why Evolution Is True" is that book. It covers so much in so few pages in such an accessible way that it is difficult to capture in only a few words. Dr. Coyne eloquently writes on: * what evolution is, and is not (specific defining features, testability, etc.; chapter 1 is all about this) * the fossil record (including specific examples and discussion of transitional form

Excellent account of evolution

Jerry Coyne is a bit annoyed that it was necessary to write this book. I am glad he got annoyed enough to write it. In part he is writing against the intelligent design movement, and against creationism and he shows the flaws in these viewpoints not with rhetoric, but with well chosen evidence. The book is a powerful and straightforward account of evolution showing the strength of the theory, its ability to make predictions, and giving many examples of the evidence on which evolution is based. After reading the book you have a good idea of what evolution is about, and what fields of study it applies in. Coyne is clear that evolution is a theory in biology of great explanatory power. The key idea is that of descent with modification. He is also clear (in his final chapter evolution redux) of the limits to evolutionary thinking. Good scientists know what they know, and also have some idea where their knowledge stops. Coyne demonstrates this ability well. By doing this he becomes a far better advocate for evolution than Dawkins. Evolution is not an ontological or moral theory. You can derive no moral lesson from evolution- it just is (p253). David Hume pointed out that deriving an ought from an is is usually to make a specious argument. The fact that the idea of evolution as progress has been misused by many is not an argument against evolution. It is an argument against the misuse of ideas. Coyne (p248)describes that, "There is an increasing (and disturbing) tendency of psychologists, biologists and philosophers to Darwinize every aspect of human behaviour, turning its study into a scientific parlour game." He liberates us (p250)from some of the genetic determinism that sometimes accompanies evolution, "There is no reason, then, to see ourselves as marionettes dancing on the strings of evolution. Yes certain parts of our behaviour may be genetically encoded, instilled by natural selection in our savanna-dwelling ancestors. But genes aren't destiny...."genetic" does not mean "unchangeable."" Coyne liberates evolution from its role as chief evidence for atheism.(pxix) "Nor must it promote atheism, for enlightened religion has always found a way to accommodate the advances of science. In fact, understanding evolution should surely deepen and enrich our appreciation of the living world and our place in it." Denis Alexander makes a similar point in his recent book,"Creation or Evolution:Do we have to choose." This book does have one notable omission which arises because it sticks closely to the facts. There is no account of how the first cell ever got started, maybe because there is not yet any great evidence for how this happened. So far as I can understand evolution it describes the mechanisms of relationship between ancestors and descendants, but the tracing back of ancestors can only go back so far- to some original reproducing cell. This book is timely this year. It's a great account of how evolution works from its 6 basic principles namely

Sterling Defense of Evolutionary Biology from One of Its Greatest Scientists

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution". That classic quote from the great Russian-American evolutionary geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky is replete with far more truth now than when he uttered it in 1973. Thousands of scientists around the globe are using the principles of evolution towards understanding phenomena as simple as bacterial population growth to those as complex as the origin and spread of such virulent diseases as malaria and HIV/AIDS, and the conservation of many endangered plant and animal species. There is no other scientific theory I know of that has withstood such rigorous, and repeated, testing as the modern synthetic theory of evolution. The overwhelming proof of biological evolution is so robust, that entire books have been written describing pertinent evidence from sciences that, at first glance, seem as dissimilar from each other as paleobiology, molecular biology and ecology. But alas this hasn't convinced many in the court of public opinion, especially here, in the United States, who remain skeptical of evolution as both a scientific fact and a scientific theory, and who are too often persuaded by those who insist that there are such compelling "weaknesses" in evolution, that instead of it, better, still "scientific", alternatives exist, most notably, Intelligent Design creationism. Distinguished evolutionary geneticist Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution Is True" is not just a timely book, but it is quite simply, the best, most succinct, summation I can think of on behalf of evolution's scientific validity. No other modern evolutionary biologist has attempted to convey, with such excitement, and enthusiasm, a comprehensive, quite compelling, proof of biological evolution, unless you consider the notable literary careers of Coyne's graduate school mentors; Ernst Mayr and Stephen Jay Gould. Coyne's achievement is especially noteworthy for covering virtually every major evolutionary aspect of biology in a treatment that barely exceeds two hundred and thirty pages. In essence, "Why Evolution is True" can be viewed as an updated, modern rendition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", but encompassing those biological sciences, such as population genetics, molecular systematics, evolutionary developmental biology - better known as "evo - devo" - and, indeed, even paleobiology, which were unknown to Darwin; to put it bluntly, this is "one long argument" on behalf of evolutionary biology, told via Coyne's respectable, occasionally lyrical, prose and compelling logic. Coyne asserts that there are six principles of evolution in the book's first chapter (having been preceded by two brief prefaces devoted to the nature of science and the ongoing intellectual threat posed by Intelligent Design creationism); evolution - which he defines as a species undergoing genetic change through time - gradualism, speciation, common ancestry, natural selection, and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change. These are i