Books about Evolution

There are tons of books about biology and evolution in particular, here is a list of some of the ones you'll really want to check out, and others we think really aren't worth your time. There are many books here that support views different from the ones supported on his page.

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Good Books --here are some books that anyone who cares to better understand their world should read. Why not take a walk to the library and expand your mind all in one day?!

Bad Books--here you'll find some books which are either poorly researched, poorly thought out, or simply dishonest (and sometimes all three!).
(Pardon me, did you say bad books?)


Good Books

The Blind Watchmaker--by Richard Dawkins

A very clear and eloquent explanation of how the mechanisms of evolution function. Very enjoyable to read. Reading this book is about the easiest way in the world to understand evolution.

River out of Eden --by Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene (1989 edition) -- by Richard Dawkins

Evolution and the Myth of Creationism--by Tim M. Berra

This book is really good at answering a lot of supposed evidence against evolution.

Cosmos --by Carl Sagan

The book to the famous TV series. It follows the order, but goes into more detail than the show can, and is very fascinating.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors--by Carl Sagan and Anne Druyan.

This is a really interesting book with lots of interesting anecdotes about various relatives to humans. Some of the notes are as interesting to read as the book itself.

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Bad Books
(Pardon me, did you say bad books?)


Darwin's Black Box --by Michael Behe

Michael Behe is a biochemist who attempts to show that Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection is insufficient for explaining certain "irreducible complexities" within biochemistry. Behe, however, fails to do his task well because he takes relatively newly discovered and hardly studied biochemical processes that we don't understand quite yet, and assumes that because we don't understand how they evolved yet, they must have been designed by an intelligent being. This is, of course, totally illogical and seems to be motivated by reasons other than pursuit of truth.

An objective and informed review of Behe's book

Evolution: A Theory in Crisis --by Michael Denton

In this book Denton tries to show that not only is some of the evidence used to support evolution nonexistent, but that the mechanism of evolution through natural selection is incapable of explaining macroevolution anyhow. Denton fails at his task because he doesn't have a strong enough grasp of the current data, or even a basic understanding of how evolution works.

An objective and informed review of Denton's book

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Bad Books?

Yes, that's right. We have books listed here that we think don't explain things very well or very honestly. We think they are not going to help you understand evolution any better. We think they aren't going to help you with much of anything, except perhaps with getting a good idea of what propaganda looks like. However, we don't want you making up your mind without reading what everyone's got to say. The bad titles are provided to let you make sure we're not trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Do be careful!


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May 3, 1997