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AS Science for Public Understanding - Heinemann

AS Science for Public Understanding. Editors: Andrew Hunt and Robin Millar. Heinemann. 2000.

This textbook is designed for students taking an AS level in Science for Public Understanding . This course, which started in September 2000, aims to show science in its broader context. It devotes a chapter (Evolution: understanding who we are) to orgins.

As the title of the chapter on evolution suggests, the authors do not play down the significance of evolution for society.

The theory of evolution has major implications for how we see ourselves. (page 101).

This is developed further on page 113:

The Darwinian view of life therefore causes us to re-examine ideas of progress and purpose...And what is the purpose of life?...Is the purpose of life for humans to produce children? Or have we stepped beyond the confines of evolution so that we are able to determine for ourselves what our purpose is and how our life has meaning?

They admit that there is a current controversy over evolution

...theories of evolution have always been controversial, and never more so than nowadays.

but these are explained in terms of science versus religion, rather than debates between scientists about the validity of evolution. There is a hint of a scientific controversy, but this is restricted to the debate between strong selectionists and proponents of Punctuated Equilibrium.

Some biologists believe passionately that natural selection alone is sufficient to account for all of evolution. Other biologists believe equally strongly that natural selection alone is not enough.

The authors admit to some short-comings of the evidence for evolution:

There is a limit to how much designed experiments can tell us about evolution...This means that a great deal of interpretation is required.

However, they do not consider scientific objections, except in one case:

The only good examples of beneficial mutations are of mutations which allow organisms to survive better as a result of human changes to the environment...People who don't accept the theory of evolution conclude that there is no evidence that mutations ever help organisms in the natural environment. Evolutionary biologists maintain that it is simply that most of the recent changes to the environment have resulted from human actions.

The debate here is presented as being between people and evolutionary biologists. This issue covered is not the main objection which is held by scientists who are skeptical of evolution. The major problem of evolution is the fact there are no known mutations which increase the information content of genomes. It is the issue of where information comes from which is crucial.

Much historical background is given for the development of the theory of evolution, including reactions to Darwin's work in his own time. The incompatibility of evolution with the Bible is outlined, particularly with reference to the creation of Adam as perfect sinless immortal created by God . Recent controversy over evolution in Oklahoma State and Kansas is briefly covered.

In other parts of the book, religion is depicted as something which can slow down scientific progress. A quarter of page 3 is taken up by an engraving by Holbein of Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden of Eden, and the caption says:

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God says to Eve, "I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth". Some doctors preferred to accept this as an explanation for childbed fever rather than Ignaz Semmelweiss' more scientific explanation, which he demonstrated clearly in two different hospitals.

Similarly, the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to Copernicus and Galileo is covered in Chapter 15, though the authors are sophisticated enough not to decribe this as a conflict between science and religion, and investigate other explanations (page 202). Unfortunately, the textbook does not document any cases demonstrating the positive influence which Christianity has had on the progress of science.

Although this textbook is up to date and discusses the broader issues of evolution, it is biased towards the Darwinian paradigm, and does not properly explain modern scientific objections to Darwinism.

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Speculations on the chemical origins of life are almost universally covered in school curricula under ‘Evolution’, despite the questionable relevance of the topic for evolution, and its rather uncertain scientific basis.

Moore, A. (2008) Nature 453:31-32

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