Learning to Love Evolution

Marking Darwin's 200th birthday on February 12th, Philip Kitcher has written a review of evolutionary geneticist Jerry Coyne's latest book, Why Evolution Is True, in which Coyne tries to persuade his readers that the theory of evolution is true. "As public-opinion surveys reveal, most of our countrymen have grave doubts about the truth of Darwin's theory," Kitcher writes in the Wall Street Journal, and he’s doubtful that even a book as well argued as Coyne's can change the fact that for many Americans, believing in evolution is the equivalent of rejecting religious morality. Still, Kitcher says, "whether or not he succeeds in bringing Americans en masse to learn to love evolution, he has offered Darwin a splendid birthday present."