Richard Dawkins tells us that Evolution is fact. However, this book shows that his statement needs to be carefully nuanced. Here is a veritable list of incredibly clever men and women working in the field of evolutionary biology who dissent from the neo-darwinist claims. All of them believe in evolution, as in biological change over time, however, the centrepiece of the neo-darwinist modern synthesis is that 'natural selection from random genetic mutations' is the main driver of the evolutionary process. In 2008, a bunch of academics got together in Altenburg, Vienna to discuss an Extended synthesis that drives biological change.
This book is a series of blog-like posts that Mazur has put together. It can make for very frustrating reading. There is no plot, or unveiling of a narrative. It is a series of interviews, some from those who attended the Altenburg meeting and others who demur with the Modern synthesis. Dawkins is interviewed too, his hubris is truly ever-present.
I the found the Lima-de-Faria (a cytogeneticist) interview absolutely fascinating. Quotations like the following are eminently interesting:
"Selection is a political not a scientific concept. At the time of Darwin it fitted perfectly the expanding colonialism of Victorian England. At present, Darwinism has been equated with evolution in an effort to convert it into the ideological arm of globalization (sic)...everybody knows that selection occurs in nature, but the chromosome and the cell circumvent its effect by many molecular mechanisms." (pg.86)
Wow, the fallowness of Dawkins's brazen oversimplifications are manifest in the concerns of many, particularly in the question "What drives evolutionary change?" I came out of this book further affirmed that we just do not know.
The book is subtitled "An exposé of the Evolution industry." Nowhere in the book is that more explicit than the interview with Roger Buick (great name), an Australian (trust us to say it as it is), who is head of Earth Sciences and Astrobiology at the University of Washington.
"I don't think academics are co-opted into anything. But they do tend to follow the money. There's no coercion in it. Academics are greedy for cash like anybody else." (pg.160)
Science, like anything, is subject to the whims of man. Where there is money, the research will follow. Dr Chris McKay sums up the real problem with neo-darwinism.
"The Darwinian paradigm breaks down in two obvious ways. First, and most clear, Darwinian selection cannot be responsible for the origin of life. Secondly, there is some thought that Darwinian selection cannot fully explain the rise of complexity at the molecular level." (Pg. 213)
Dr Chris McKay is a NASA astrobiologist. In the only personal touch in the book that didn't make me roll my eyes, but made me laugh, Mazur says,
'Over the phone I detect a touch of William Shatner's Kirk in the voice of NASA astrobiologist Christopher P. McKay." (pg.200)
The evolution industry is beset by political pressure, money and High priest-like dogmatism and is muddier than what it's apologists would lead you to believe. Mazur's book shows some of this and it is no wonder that the PZ Meyers of this world vehemently decry it's worth. It is not really well written and can be a difficult book to grapple with because of it' structure. However, Mazur is an intelligent journalist and she knows her stuff, asks the right questions and draws coherent conclusions.
Some interesting content, too much repetition, too much with the familial statements - could have been better presented. Also, while the book contains full transcripts of interviews, the salient details could have been extracted for a book 2/3's it's size. Good to ensure context - lots of laborious reading.
3 out of 5 stars.
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