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Why Evolution Is True

Jerry A. Coyne

Why we're reading this: Scientifically meatier than the contemporary "Greatest Show on Earth" from Richard Dawkins.…more
[close] Scientifically meatier than the contemporary "Greatest Show on Earth" from Richard Dawkins.

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Nov 21, 2010 Elaine rated it it was amazing

This was such an awesome book. I have read a lot of books on evolution, but this is the first that actually made me interested in fossils. Very, very cool. Of course it wouldn't convince a dummy that evolution is true because you actually have to have some reading comprehension and be able to understand what you read, but for anyone with a brain that doesn't believe in evolution (I still can't undertand how there are people out there that fit that bill, but I digress), this book will remove all ...more

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Mar 27, 2011 David S. T. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, science

This book is fascinating and well written. I think the highest complement I could give it is, had I read it 10 years ago when I was in college, I'd likely be in the field of biology instead of computer science. This book starts off with a basic overview of evolution before heading into the bulk of the evidence. The first section of evidence is based off of fossils, I didn't realize just how many transitional fossils exist for certain species such as the whale (there a pretty good number of fossi This book is fascinating and well written. I think the highest complement I could give it is, had I read it 10 years ago when I was in college, I'd likely be in the field of biology instead of computer science. This book starts off with a basic overview of evolution before heading into the bulk of the evidence. The first section of evidence is based off of fossils, I didn't realize just how many transitional fossils exist for certain species such as the whale (there a pretty good number of fossils showing the progression from a land mammal to a sea one. Something else I found interesting is that in the human embryo, grow lanugo full body hair before losing it all (a remnant of their evolution heritage). Of course I haven't even scratched the surface of everything this book contains.

One thing I do wish he expounded on more is DNA, during one discussions on speciation he addresses how once the chromosomes are different enough they can no longer produce an offspring, but this left me confused because how did we get from the 24 ape Chromosomes to the 23 in humans, sadly for a book so full of information this much have been beyond the scope of it, I'll soon read Relics of Eden which appears to discuss the fusion of two chromosomes from the ape into one for man. This is also the one area where Dawkins' The Great Show on Earth does better (DNA evidence)

I'm still pretty new on learning about evolution so this book might be too basic for some, but so far its the best of the 4 books that I've read or am reading on the subject. It seems that this book is often compared to Dawkins The Greatest Show on Earth since they were written about the same time, in my opinion for a first book on evolution this one is better, its more concise but there's much more evidence presented in this 250ish page book than I've gotten out of the 350 pages I've read so far of Dawkins book (which is a great read also, but pretty unfocused, full of great information but not much evidence). As for the other two books I've read, ff you're a creationist or follow intelligent design, Finding Darwin's God is a great read. I'm also reading Darwin's On the Origin of The Species and I think anyone wanting to learn more about evolution should start elsewhere and only read that for historical/important work purposes.

Growing up in the bible belt, I've heard discussions on the validity of evolution, but without really knowing much about it, I never actually formed an opinion one way or the other. Its hard to have an opinion on hearsay, but after reading this and Finding Darwin's God, I think the evidence is pretty apparent. I wonder how many anti-evolutionists actually read up on the subject and not just follow what they've been taught. I'm finding evolution highly interesting, I wish more would read up on it before dismissing it and this book is a great place to start. ...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Melanie rated it really liked it

I listened to this as an audio book which was okay for me because I have a lot of prior exposure to evolutionary theory (including a graduate course on the topic) but I would not recommend the audio version for people without this background, even though it was very well read.

This book did a great job of outlining evolutionary theory in a very understandable and entertaining way. It treats the reader with intellectual respect and assumes they can follow scientific reasoning and don't need to be ...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Mark Gowan rated it liked it

Coyne makes a valid argument here for evolution via natural selection, but the book in simplifying the arguments may make for an easy target (via strawman arguments) against evolution. The book is a great introduction to those looking to better understand why some people look at them oddly when they say "evolution is 'just a theory'." Coyne's answer here is (in short): so is gravity.
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