{"id":10302,"date":"2011-10-26T21:43:47","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T21:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2011\/10\/26\/evolution-surrounded-by-creati\/"},"modified":"2011-10-26T21:43:47","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T21:43:47","slug":"evolution-surrounded-by-creati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/26\/evolution-surrounded-by-creati\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution Surrounded By Creationism? Arm Yourself with Books!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suppose you are an intelligent, thoughtful person with a thirst for information, a desire to be challenged, and a tendency to not accept received knowledge at face value. You are embedded in a traditional Christian culture where most of your family, your child’s teachers and friends and those friends’ families, the people where you and your spouse work and most people in your social circles assume that Evolution is “only a theory” and should be taught, if at all, along side alternative theories such as that the earth is 6,000 years old and was created in seven days. But you don’t want that. You want your children to be educated using modern ideas, or at least, ideas that date to the mid to late nineteenth century and later, about how life works, where it comes from, and how it has changed over time both in terms of details (what was when and where) and process (how). But despite the fact that you are well educated and well read, you’ve not been exposed to that body of knowledge.<\/p>\n

This will be a struggle, a fight even, against academic indolence, against strongly held opinions; An invasion across a sea separating two worlds … two world views. You might have to land on a beach somewhere. You hope, however, that this can be a surgical strike. You need to educate yourself on the basics of evolution. You need to find a way to talk your way out of confrontation should that happen. You need resources for your children. You may not realize it now, but you may also need training in Defense Against the Snark Arts, should you encounter paraprofessional creationists.<\/p>\n

You need to arm yourself. With books.
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\nBefore we lay out what books you need, I just wanted to mention that most issues in evolutionary biology can be addressed in one of four ways, looking at one of four different aspects of how life, the universe, and everything works: The phylogenetic (fossils, family trees of species, what an organism brings to the table from its past); Ontogenetic (how an organism develops in its own life time and how adjustments to that developmental process determine outcomes); Mechanistic (how stuff works … how does an eye make an image in the brain, how does skin function as part of the immune system); and, of course, Ultimate (the adaptive aspects of life, natural selection and its creative products). That may seem like a bit of a digression but you’ll find that most books related to evolution can be described in these terms, at least in part. So, if you want to know what a “great book on evolution” would be, I’ll need to know if you’re thinking fossils or adaptations.<\/p>\n

Here is what you will need, minimally.<\/p>\n