The Other Side of the Coyne: A Review of "Why Evolution is True"

Onslaught #5

by Douglas Wilson

A review of Jerry A. Coyne's patronizing evolutionary screed. Features hilariously apt metaphors as it deconstructs presuppositions about creationism and science.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Christianity, Audiobook, Theology, Science

58 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

I write in order to make the little voices in my head go away. Thus far it hasn't worked.

Reviews

[Aurora Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Evolution is true. Wilson's continued efforts to "disprove" it are embarrassing.

[Jeffrey Swanson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Short and simple: creationists need to start considering the sources of their science. Over and over again they pit apologists employing motivated reasoning and possessing no formal training in the sciences - Nada! - against people with deep expertise in a field. They convince only the faithful who were looking to confirm their predetermined beliefs and provide another example of sorry Christian fundamentalist / evangelical scholarship.

When an evangelical actually is a top notch scientist, you actually see a much more satisfying reconciling of faith and reason - e.g., see Dr. Francis Collins book, "The Language of God."

Douglas Wilson also published a Neo-Confederate pamphlet on slavery that noted historians derided as "spurious as Holocaust denial." And you, potential reader, are considering getting your science from this guy?

As an evangelical, I was completely sheltered from evolutionary science. I finally decided to exercise some critical thinking and read BOTH sides of the argument. I found Coyne's book to be very informative. It filled in gaps, and effectively deconstructed creationist straw-man arguments and misrepresentations of science and evolution. Read Coyne's book instead. Seriously!

[Shea Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I miss the days when arguing young earth creationism, intelligent design or evolution seemed to be the most important battle for the Christian. I remember when Ken Ham debated Bill Nye and as a kid I thought that was one of the most important cultural moments of my life... Looking back I may have been a sheltered homeschooler with no grasp of how the culture actually was, but enough personal story.

Doug Wilson does a fine job of poking holes in the hot air balloon of evolution. No matter how much hot air the unbeliever keeps pumping into this theory it just simply won't hold. I look forward to the day when we look back in history and scoff that anyone ever believed in evolution.
Enjoyed on my drive home from work.

[Caleb M. Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little book, critiquing a book on evolution into smithereens.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very brief book but Doug Wilson's common-sense objections to the evolution narrative are compelling and downright entertaining.

[Leandro Dutra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bite-sized but solid arguments for the ideological nature of evolutionism & the philosophical, scientific nature of intelligent design. Looses a star for a few sloppy (but nonessential) arguments, and for not having been properly edited from blog posts into book form.

[Kyle Grindberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really solid arguments, and a delight to read. Highly recommend.

2023: listen to it on the Canon app, excellent.

[Wade Stotts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook coming soon...

[Peter Adams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This read more like a long book review written for likes and reactions than a thought-through and researched book, and I expected better for something I spent ten bucks on.

If you're looking for a book that would convince you that "evolution is false," you're on the wrong corner of the internet. Wilson is more interested in attacking Coyne's particular arguments, especially his weakest ones. If you want to have a chuckle at Wilson's witty shadowboxing, it might be entertaining - but mostly there's nothing much enlightening here.

He starts off this book by trying to discredit Coyne as a materialist by quoting him in some debate he had, unrelated to the book itself. Where Coyne said "the view that all sciences are in principle reducible to the laws of physics must be true unless you're religious" and Wilson attacks this by saying that "if thoughts are simply these chemicals in my bone box then I have no reason for supposing my beliefs to be true."

There's nothing inherent in what Coyne said that calls for the belief that thoughts are made out of material. There's a distinction between the claim that the brain is physical and mental processes have a physical correlation and that thoughts themselves are material.

Wilson conveniently avoids the strongest arguments of Coyne and tries to appeal to an audience who wants to reinforce their beliefs that evolution isn't true by hearing some zingers.

On the occasions where Wilson does tackle strong arguments for evolution, he is hand-waving them by either being ridiculous or just asking questions of which the answers are readily available online if you bother to check. It's clear Wilson is not genuinely curious but instead filters everything through an unnuanced worldview where evolution is the same as materialism and classical Darwinism is the same as evolution.

The only instance where he attempted to take on a strong argument is that evolution is falsifiable. If you find a rabbit in the pre-Cambrian, you would have proven the theory of evolution false. Wilson says that if you were to find a fossil that would be from the pre-Cambrian era then they would say "that's a rabbit, you doofus" and he thought this argument was so strong that he named the chapter after this zinger. I totally get the attack on authoritarian scientists who are the gatekeepers of truth - but the truth is that nobody has found a rabbit in the pre-Cambrian.

If you were to find a rabbit from the pre-Cambrian era you could date it and verify where it was from. The science of dating fossils - radiometric dating, stratigraphy, fossil context, etc. - is well established and Wilson apparently didn't understand it or bother to take it into account when making his "argument."

Coyne mentioned that whales sometimes grow legs as an example where biological forms reveal their imperfections - as proof of evolution. Evolutionary theory predicts that whales evolved from mammals - and their anatomical quirks, and our genetic understanding - is something Coyne uses as proof of evolution. Wilson doesn't even bother to research it and just asks out loud in his book that I paid for with my hard-earned money if the leg was just a big pimple.

Fossil records show that whales retained hind limbs that gradually reduced over time. Modern whales still have vestigial pelvic bones, and sperm whales are often found with limbs from 5cm to 7cm, that include femurs or tibias. Ever heard of a pimple with femurs? In 1919 they found a humpback whale with 4-foot limbs.

Wilson seems to suggest that if they find something to be too strong of a proof - a viable strategy in the creationist arsenal is to deny the claims. Great strategy - I wonder how long you could keep that up.

1/5.

[Danny Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to first start my saying that I'm a little mad at the publisher. I bought this book for my kindle and they sent me a PDF. Come on guys, you sell books, you know what a MOBI file is. And if you can't do it, fine, just put it on your website. Because I really like highlighting things.

With that small aside, this book was really good. This is actually an extended book review of "why evolution is true" by Jerry Coyne. It appears that it was a series of blog post that were put into a punchy little volume.

Doug Wilson is not a scientist (although it's clear he knows more science than me.) Wilson's background is in philosophy, and it is on those grounds that he attacks Coyne's book. This was incredibly helpful to be because it is so easy to be taken in with science language, throw up my hands, and say "well, you actually have good Christians on both sides." Wilson primarily shows the holes in Coyne's logic more than he does in Coyne's science. And for a layman like myself, it's a breath of fresh air.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Bits and pieces of Coyne were going everywhere from just about each page. Coyne has the unfortunate task of proving something that isn’t true. Which means that not only does the tail wag the dog, but also he can’t account for its very existence. Naturalism and materialism are his cotton cornerstones upon which he builds a very tall ivory tower. Wilson pushes it over without much effort. The reliance of Wilson upon what it is called “intelligent design” was an interesting method of argumentation - if for no other reason than that the ID folk probably wouldn’t allow a YEC of his type among their ranks. Some portions were shaky because Wilson’s forte isn’t biological sciences and so the insistence on implementing the irreducible complexity line of thought was rough and forgettable.

[Mwansa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good but brief counter to a book on evolution. Doug Wilson points to the illogical views of evolution as proposed by Mr Coyne and using his usual wit points to the obvious flaws of the view and the errors that could result from it. He also goes on to show that Coyne not only misunderstands his subject matter but also mischaracterizes his detractors point of view. It is easy to ridicule your detractors if you inaccurately portray their views, which is what Coyne seems to have done

[Reagan Bon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brief but clever response to Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution Is True. I learned how important it is to, as a creationist, know exactly what it is you do and do not believe. Evolutionists will make assumptions about our beliefs, and then use those assumptions as "proof" that we are ignorant and unscientific. I'm thankful for Christian men like Douglas Wilson who are willing to take a stand against the seemingly impenetrable arguments of atheists and evolutionists like Coyne.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, albeit brief, as this was basically just a collection of short blog posts about Coyne's book "Why Evolution is True." I read it because Stokes referred to Coyne a few times in "How To Be an Atheist."

[Daniel Woodworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilson isn't a scientist, but he knows this, and interacts on his own turf, where he is more than a match.

[Jesus Salgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is evolution true? Can it be logically consistent? Doug Wilson does a splendid job of demonstrating that evolution is false and inconsistent.

[Sean Kewley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on pro-creationist anti-evolutionist thought. Wilson refutes Stephen Coyne's, "Why Evolution is True" with a mixture of both science and logic in his usual serrated wit. Fun.

[Caleb Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but nothing new. Hardly gets into the details.

[Isaiah Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good.

[Steve Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and solid read

Excellent polemical book contra evolution from Douglas Wilson. This is responding to an atrocious read by Coyne (which I, sadly, read)

[Muwahid · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not written by a scientist. If this was written by a scientist i would give this 1 star. However, since this isn't written by a scientist, i give this 2 star because the author gives valid argument against Coyne, although it's weak (not gonna lie) but it's still valid. (To be fair it wasn't written by a scientist though). At the end the author also points out Coyne's contradiction, so yeah. 3 star because he isn't a scientist and he know some stuff about evolution (probably by reading the book?), and he tried to counter it as best as he could. Maybe he also tried to not talk too much about something he doesn't know? If that's the case i respect him for that.
This is an unbiased review and to confirm this, you can read it yourself (if you have the book) :)

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilson doesn't engage the science on its own terms (i.e. arguing from scientific fact to scientific fact) but rather points out the numerous inconsistencies and special pleading that evolutionists (in this case, University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne) invariably employ to make the theory hold. While the hardcore empiricist may demur at Wilson's approach, he raises questions that must be answered before we are asked to give our full and unquestioning assent to the evolutionary explanation for life on our planet. I recommend it for these reasons, although more robust treatments are available that add depth and scientific pop to the claims he makes.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglas Wilson is not an evolutionary biologist, but he is a scientist when it comes to the art and science of argument, logic and critical thinking. And this is on full display as he shows off some serious holes in Jerry Coyne's book "Why Evolution is True". He does not have to go into full bore science refutations when the holes in the arguments are large enough to drive a semi through. And as usual Wilson does it with a good balance of snark, sarcasm and classic literature allusions. (I know I only caught a few, but the "Brave New World" one made me smile). Enjoyable and quick read. Highly recommended

[Andrew Mulnix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting with typical personality of Doug Wilson

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a rebuttal of another book, I found this short work interesting and helpful by itself. I was particularly interested about the mathematics versus evolution. Mathematics wins!

[Josh Sieders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, a compilation of blog posts put into a neat readable book form. I appreciate Doug Wilson because even when he speaks on a topic with a similar viewpoint than others, his voice is always unique. In this volume, I appreciated his logical arguments against evolution, something I seldom see or find intellectually satisfying.