Books about Evolution.

Besides the fact that nothing in biology (specifically behavioral and brain biology) makes sense outside of the context of evolution, there is another reason for my interest in evolution. Ever since Darwin, evolution has been a lightening rod for attracting the ire of folks who are taught in Sunday School that God created man by divine intervention. Before Darwin, physical scientists like Galileo got the brunt of such persecution for suggesting crazy things such as that the Earth is not the center of creation. As soon as the reactionary forces notice Crick's research program for the scientific analysis of the human soul, neuroscientists will be the next group of scientists who will have to battle the forces of religious repression.

Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution by Gary Cziko . When Linus Pauling was asked, "How do you have good ideas?" he replied, "You have a lot of ideas, and you throw away the bad ones."
Evolution is everywhere! Contrast Cziko with Behe....are these two from the same planet?

Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe. Here is science practiced with the cart before the horse.

Three books about the evolution of humans and human language: Kanzi, Bonobo, and The Symbolic Species.

Not satisfied with just Behe's demonstration that there must be a designer of life? Let Mike Cremo and Rick Thompson show you The Hidden History of the Human Race.

This is not a book, but a comment on how anti-science literature can be found everywhere in our culture.

My comments on The Extended Phenotype &The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

Unraveling Piltdown: The scientific fraud of the century and its solution by John Evangelist Walsh. Walsh tries to put an end to speculation about "who dunnit" by pointing his finger squarely at the person most involved with the Piltdown site, Charles Dawson. My review. Talk.Origins coverage of Piltdown by Richard Harter. Tom Turrittin's Piltdown site.

Two books related to evolution by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett.

The Runaway Brain: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness by Christopher Wills

The Origins of Order by Stuart Kauffman, also At Home in the Universe (less technical). What if there is more to the diversity of life than can be explained by natural selection?

Neural Darwinism Books by Gerald Edelman. Minds as a result of biological brains that have been selected by evolution and which select neural subsystems for modification in response to sensory input.

Here are some comments on Evolution and Creationism that I use for an introductory biology course for students who are not science majors.


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