Why Darwin Matters

“Shermer is savage about the shortcomings of intelligent design and eloquent about the spirituality of science . . . An invaluable primer.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Science is on the defensive. Half of Americans reject the theory of evolution and “Intelligent Design” campaigns are gaining ground. Classroom by classroom, creationism is overthrowing biology.

In Why Darwin Matters, bestselling author Michael Shermer explains how the newest brand of creationism appeals to our predisposition to look for a designer behind life’s complexity. Shermer decodes the scientific evidence to show that evolution is not “just a theory” and illustrates how it achieves the design of life through the bottom-up process of natural selection. Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents are invoking a combination of bad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. He then appraises the evolutionary questions that truly need to be settled, building a powerful argument for science itself.

Cutting the politics away from the facts, Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.

“With zest but without gloating, Shermer takes on the arguments against evolution and mows them down.” —The Washington Post

“Let[s] the air out of intelligent design’s tires . . . with admirable patience and humility, he spells out each of the fancy I. D. tenents [and] shows how imperfect evolution, and not intelligent design, has been, for generations, the only quantifiable driver behind nature’s wonders.” —Salon