On Tuesday Sept. 29, Richard Dawkins will be coming to U of T to give a lecture promoting his new book, The Greatest Show on Earth. When the two of us sat down to read this evolutionary bible, we were already firmly among the choir to whom Dawkins preaches. Dawkins didn’t need to convince us. Evolution has framed the way we view the humanity, all other species, and the world in which we all co-exist.
Neither of us come from the world of science, and it’s not too often that a political science professor goes into the acute details of speciesization; art history professors aren’t likely to wax poetic on continental drift. If Dawkins can present the complex, intricate, and marvelous science behind the greatest show on earth in a way that we can understand, then that’s a feat worth rewarding indeed.
Over the course of more than 400 pages, it would be uncharacteristic of Dawkins to entirely restrain himself from mentioning the ignorance of creationists. He has, however, kept his atheist assaults on the religious masses to a minimum here. Instead, in what he has referred to as a “switch back,” a refocusing on writing about science, he sets his sights on demonstrating that evolution is indeed real.
Although the two of us are more than happy with taking aim at the ridiculous arguments of creationists, we’re glad to see that Dawkins departed from the tactics used in The God Delusion, and rather focused on the positive. Yes, to the evolutionary thinker creationists seem ignorant, dogmatic, and small-minded, but calling them so won’t do any good. The best way to convince someone of your argument is to present a case so solid, so filled with incontrovertible evidence, that anyone in their right mind would have to agree with you. By the end of this book, Dawkins leaves no facet of evolution untouched, and argues so convincingly for evolution, it leaves no room for doubt.
But despite all of his evidence and arguments, this book will most likely be lost on those who need it most. Indeed, the greatest challenge to the evolutionary argument lies in the southern heartland of the most powerful country in the world: the United States. Here evangelical faith has become an increasingly business-driven enterprise and, since the days of Ronald Reagan, a vital political demographic key to winning elections. It seems unlikely that Dawkins’ new book will find many readers in places like Alabama, where the values that stand so contrary to his arguments are deeply entrenched in every aspect of public life.
Nearly 40 per cent of Americans do not “believe”—as if it were a matter of belief—in evolution.
The majority of the available evidence will not reach these people, despite the depth and accuracy of Dawkin’s knowledge.
He tackles natural selection by drawing upon such examples as orchids in Madagascar that have tubular nectaries extending nearly 20 centimeters. Over generations the probosces of moths in the region have elongated so that they can reach down far enough. He discusses sexual selection in pheasants, and artificial selection of desirable traits in dogs, illustrating the many forces that have created the species we know today.
Throughout the course of the book, many myths surrounding evolution are dispelled. The most common is that we developed from the chimpanze. In actual fact, we only share a common ancestor with the ape. He explains that “missing links” are a bit of a fiction, and are a result of poor scientific nomenclature created by scientists, rather than a flaw in the fossil record. The notion that evolution is a set of random forces is also done away with, as it becomes clear that survival and breeding drive nearly every change.
Most strikingly, he points out that the fossil record is merely a reaffirmation of the existence of evolution, and not the only piece of evidence. He says that even if we had never found a single fossil, we’d still have more than enough evidence to prove evolution is true. Tree rings, as well as radioactive and molecular clocks prove that the earth has existed for billions of years. Relics of past tails in humans, hind legs on whales, wings on ostriches, and eyes on troglobites (creatures that live in pitch-black caves) prove that we have all evolved from ancestors who once used those features. And finally, a remarkable experiment conducted by bacteriologist Richard Lenski gives us an eye witness account of evolution. Lenski took 12 strains of the same e.coli bacteria and separated them into different flasks. For 20 years he moved the same strains to new flasks, always injecting glucose for food. This equals about 7,000 flasks, and 45,000 bacterial generations. He found that over time and due to a mutation, one of the strains was able to make better use of the glucose, and its population grew exponentially. Evolution literally happened right before our eyes.
Unfortunately, the millions of wayward creationists in this world will not have the courage to pick up this book and challenge their archaic beliefs. So many of the fascinating, enlightening, and truthful facts will be passed by. Nevertheless, for evolutionist thinkers like ourselves, The Greatest Show on Earth gives us a well articulated, easy to understand presentation of the immense amount of evidence behind evolution. We no longer have to take Dawkins on blind faith.
