These days we can be confident that, so far, there have been three major steps in our understanding of evolution.

The first came in 1859 with the publication of “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin, who put together a vast amount of data about natural selection, which he claimed was the major, but not the only, cause of evolution. The fact that organisms had evolved had been accepted decades before Darwin wrote: he provided the necessary mechanism for what had been observed.

The second came in the 1920s and 1930s when new knowledge about genetics was incorporated: Darwin had no idea about how characteristics were passed from one generation to the next. The best popular summary of this is Julian Huxley’s “Evolution: The Modern Synthesis” of 1942.

The third got under way in the 1980s, with the unexpected discovery that the genes which are responsible for controlling the genes which determine the overall body structure were virtually identical in flies and mice – and then it was discovered that they are virtually identical in all animals, using “animals” in the broadest sense. This is still under way. I don’t know whether a popular book has yet appeared on this… It gets a small mention in some popular books, but I don’t know if there is one devoted to the topic.

And by thye 1960s there were plenty of popular books which covered the first two areas – try some of the textbooks written for school biology classes. The Australian Academy of Science’s series of books on biology with the general title of “The Web of Life” would do for a start.

Creationists don’t get a look in when it comes to teaching science, since their arguments aren’t backed up by scientific data which supports their case. Note “supports their case”. Claims that there is evidence against some aspect of evolution, and that this is evidence for creationism is a logical fallacy, and there are so many of these scattered throughout creationist literature that scientists simply don’t take them seriously…

Ken Smith.