02 May '14 16:56>
Taken from "Why evolution is true" by Jerry A. Coyne:
This is an excellent read if you trust that evolution is the best available, scientific
explanation for the diversity of life, but find yourself stomped by clever creationist rhetoric.
It deals with everything from paleontology to genetics. Don't let any fool tell you that your
"belief" in evolution is anything like a religious belief. It's simply not.
Actually, the nested arrangement of life was recognized long before
Darwin. Starting with the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1635,
biologists began classifying animals and plants, discovering that they
consistently fell into what was called a "natural" classification. Strikingly,
different biologists came up with nearly identical groupings. This means
that these groupings are not subjective artifacts of a human need to
classify, but tell us something real and fundamental about nature. But
nobody knew what that something was until Darwin came along and
showed that the nested arrangement of life is exactly what evolution
predicts. Creatures with recent common ancestors share many traits,
while those whose common ancestors lay in the distant past are more
dissimilar. The "natural" classification is itself strong evidence for
evolution.
This is an excellent read if you trust that evolution is the best available, scientific
explanation for the diversity of life, but find yourself stomped by clever creationist rhetoric.
It deals with everything from paleontology to genetics. Don't let any fool tell you that your
"belief" in evolution is anything like a religious belief. It's simply not.