Why Darwin Matters (30 page)

I would also like to recognize
Skeptic
magazine’s board members: Richard Abanes, David Alexander, the late Steve Allen, Arthur Benjamin, Roger Bingham, Napoleon Chagnon, K. C. Cole, Jared Diamond, Clayton J. Drees, Mark Edward, George Fischbeck, Greg Forbes, the late Stephen Jay Gould, John Gribbin, Steve Harris, William Jarvis, Lawrence Krauss, Gerald Larue, William McComas, John Mosley, Richard Olson, Donald Prothero, James Randi, Vincent Sarich, Eugenie Scott, Nancy Segal, Elie Shneour, Jay Stuart Snelson, Frank Sulloway, Julia Sweeney, Carol Tavris, and Stuart Vyse.

As always, I wish to thank my agents, Katinka Matson and John Brockman, for the always professional manner in which they treat the literary business, as well as to acknowledge Paul Golob at Henry Holt / Times books, who oversaw the project, and most notably Robin Dennis, my editor, whose opinions on literary matters I trust more than my own. Jessica Firger in the Holt publicity department has unfailingly supported our long-range mission of promoting science and critical thinking by reaching larger audiences, and for this I am deeply grateful. I also thank Emily DeHuff for
sharp-eyed copy editing of the manuscript, Lisa Fyfe for the creative cover design, Victoria Hartman for the elegant interior design, and Rita Quintas for the editorial production process.

Thanks as well go to David Baltimore, Kip Thorne, Christof Koch, Susan Davis, Chris Harcourt, and Ramanuj Basu at Caltech for their continued support of the Skeptics Science Lecture Series at the institute. Larry Mantle, Ilsa Setziol, Jackie Oclaray, Julia Posie, and Linda Othenin-Girard at KPCC 89.3 FM radio in Pasadena have been good friends and valuable supporters for promoting science and critical thinking on the air. Robert Zeps, John Moores, Thomas Glover, Robert Engman, Gerry Ohrstrom, and Glenn Camni have been especially supportive of the Skeptics Society, and to them I am especially appreciative.

Finally, I acknowledge Kim and Devin for being my family and all that that means—which is everything; and most notably for this book, special thanks go to Frank J. Sulloway, who has taught me more about science and evolution than I could learn from a library of books, and whose influence is reflected in the dedication of this book.

adultery,
134
–35

Ahmanson, Howard, Jr.,
112

Ahmanson Foundation,
112

AIDS virus,
75

allopatric speciation,
10
–11

altruism,
130
,
132
,
133

AMDG Foundation,
112
,
114

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
25
,
100
,
102

Ancestor’s Tale, The
(Dawkins),
14
–15

Anthropic Cosmological Principle
(Barrow),
55

Anthropic Principle,
54
–59

anthropocentrism,
xxii
,
54
–59

appendix as vestigial organ,
18

Aquinas, Thomas,
124

archaebacteria,
61
,
70
,
86

Archeaeopteryx
,
69

Aristotle,
124

artiodactyls,
51

Asimov, Isaac,
88

atheism,
118
–19

autocatalytic systems,
64
,
82

Aveling, Edward,
118

bacteria flagellum, irreducible complexity argument and,
66
–67,
69
,
70
–71

bait-and-switch logic,
67

Baltimore Sun
,
25

Bardwell, James,
75
–77

Barrow, John,
56
–57

Behe, Michael,
66
,
67
–68

Bengston, Stefan,
144

birds:

vestigial organs of,
18

wings, functions of,
68
–69

black holes,
58

blood clotting process,
68

bottom-up design,
6
,
65

Brattstrom, Bayard,
xxi

British Association for the Advancement of Science,
1

Browne, Janet,
118

Bryan, William Jennings,
25
,
26
,
32

quotes,
21
–23

Scopes trial,
23
–29

Bryan’s Last Speech: The Most Powerful Argument against Evolution Ever Made
,
24

Buckingham, William,
101
,
104

burden of proof,
50
,
63

Bush, George W.:

court appointments,
102

the teaching of Intelligent Design and,
xviii
–xix,
126

Buss, David,
134

Calaveras Man,
83
,
85

Cambrian “explosion of life,”
143
–44

Candide
(Voltaire),
61
–62

capitalism,
136
–37

Carroll, Sean,
78

Carter, Jimmy,
127
–28

Case for Creation, A
(Davis),
102

cause-and-effect relationships,
60

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca,
15

Chaney, Lee Anne,
111

Chapman, Bruce,
113
–14

Christians, American:

acceptance of evolution,
127
–28

evangelical,
see
evangelical Christians

reasons to accept evolution,
129
–36

Clark, Russell,
134

Clarke, Arthur C.,
40

coccyx,
18

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
159

comparative method,
15

competition,
131

complex adaptive systems,
64

complex design:

complex specified design argument,
82
–83

explanations of complex life,
145
–46

Explanatory Filter argument,
62
–65

Irreducible Complexity argument,
66
–71

complex specified information (CSI),
71
–72

Computer Assisted Design (CAD),
77

conclusions, scientific,
97

conflicting-worlds model of relationship between religion and science,
119
–20

Conservation of Information argument,
71
–75

conservatives, reasons to accept evolution for,
136
–38

convergence of evidence,
12
–15,
51
,
87

dogs, ancestry of,
14

cooperation,
131

Copernicus,
30
,
31

coral reef evolution, theory of,
2
–3

court cases,
xix
,
95
,
166

Arkansas trial of 1981,
95
–96

Edwards v. Aguillard
,
96
–99,
102
,
108

Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District
,
10
,
99
,
100
–105

Louisiana case of 1987,
96
–99

pending,
113

Scopes trial,
see
Scopes trial

Cox, Kathy,
127

Coyne, Jerry,
67
–68

creationism and creationists,
xxii

court cases,
see
court cases

as cultural issue,
xvii
–xviii

Darwin as,
xv

debating,
see
debating Intelligent Design

demographics of belief in,
xviii

different positions of,
166
–67

fears about theory of evolution,
24

geographic differences in attitudes,
xviii

liberal,
31
–32

relationship of Intelligent Design to,
102
–4,
108
,
110

Scopes trial,
23
–24

statistics on creationists,
xvii
–xviii,
128
–29

theologians, arguments of,
4
–5

creation stories of other cultures,
168

Crowell Trust, Henry P. and Susan C.,
112

Dalai Lama,
120

Darrow, Clarence,
25
,
27
–28

Darwin, Charles,
139
–40

autobiography,
3
–4

background of,
116
–17

coral reefs, theory of,
2
–3

creationism and,
xv

death of daughter Anne,
118

Descent of Man
,
130
–31