AN OVERVIEW OF A NUMBER OF SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSIES AFFECTING EVOLUTION
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Richard Ward Morris (1939--003) was an American author, editor, and poet. He wrote in the Preface to this 2001 book, "Although there is broad agreement among evolutionary scientists on many points, there are important scientific issues that remain unsettled. I have written this book to explain what the arguments are about, to summarize those on each side, to take a look at the relevant empirical evidence, and to suggest what kinds of evidence are needed to bring the controversies to an end. It would be foolish to come down in favor of one side of another while controversy is still raging within the community of evolutionary biologists, so I have taken no sides in the arguments." (Pg. x)

Chapters include "The Fossil Record and the Evidence for Evolution"; "How Gradual is Evolution?"; "Evolutionary Psychology," etc.

About Stuart Kauffman's computer models of genetic networks, he wrote, "Since Kauffman's ideas have not been empirically tested, there are questions about the extent to which his models accurately represent biological reality. There is still widespread skepticism among biologists about this matter. Some of them have suggested that one can get anything out of a computer model, depending on the way one sets it up and the numbers one puts in. Many of them feel input based on observation of real biological organisms is lacking." (Pg. 136)

Of Derek Freeman's conclusions in his book,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Margaret-Mead-and-Samoa-The-Making-and-Unmaking-of-an-Anthropological-Myth-Pelican/dp/0140225552/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth (Pelican)</a>, he states, "But Freeman's findings aren't quite as conclusive as they might appear to be. Freeman studied a different village than the one studied by Mead, and he did his work some four decades later. In the intervening years, a U.S. military base had been established in Samoa, which may have had an influence on Samoan culture in general. Freeman interviewed some of Mead's informants in the role of an honorary chieftain. If they told him a different story, this could have partly been due to the fact that an elderly woman might tell a different story to a high-ranking male than the one she told to a young woman when she was an adolescent. Some psychologists have described Mead as the victim of a hoax. However, the facts are not perfectly clear." (Pg. 165-166)

This book has some interesting "overviews" of several scholarly controversies; but those seeking deeper analysis will perhaps have to look elsewhere (Morris provides a helpful "Selected Bibliography").
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Michael Ruse, a Professor of Philosophy at FSU, and a veteran of the evolution-vs.-creation tug-of-war for the hearts and minds of the American public provides an excellent overview for the layman of the intellectual debates that have raged between supporters and opponents of Charles Darwin and his theory of descent with modification, commonly referred to as evolution.

Ruse also highlights and elucidates the points of view of the various types of evolutionary scholars, including the classicists, neo-Darwinists, sociobiologists, etc., and offers his own perspective regarding the relative merits of each of these approaches.

The book is meticulously referenced, and each chapter includes comprehesive lists of additional reading material for those interested in more in-depth study of the particular chapter's subject matter.

Overall, this book is an invaluable resource to those interested in understanding the current status of evolutionary thought among scientists, and how that thought (pardon the pun) "evolved" over the past two and a half centuries.
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A good point to this book: it is actually a critical book on Darwin's theory, but the reader can be certain that the authors are not some hidden creationisms. They are true scientists and philosophers.

However, the style is sometimes rather complex, and the authors seem to give a great importance to establish some parallelism between  the Darwin's theory and the work of somebody called "Skinner", which deals with the mechanism of learning. This link is not very useful and could have been omitted without any loss of information.

My main critiscism is that, in an heavy style, the authors repeat again and again with various presentations the same argument (which is right) that the Darwin 's theory is a tautology , briefly : "The natural selection selects the fittest organisms . The fittest organisms are defined as the ones which can survive. The natural selection is thus the selection of the organisms that can survive ..." ... which is obviously circular. This argument has been previously developped by Popper, who is only marginally quoted by the authors. There are only few other arguments. The argument about the "irreductible complexity" (which, according to me, is also very serious) is only very shortly presented. The scientific inconsistencies, which seems nowadays arising in many fields of biology related to the theory of evolution, are almost not seriously considered. At the end, I think that the old book of Denton, "Evolution, a theory in crisis" is still more comprehensive that this book.
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The Assumptions Behind the Theory of Evolution is not like most other books that document the many problems with macroevolution. Instead of page after page of facts, it focuses on logic to deal with what the author concludes are the 20 major assumptions behind macroevolution, dismantling each. If the author was successful, I will let readers judge, but he clearly gives open minded readers something substantial to think about. His appendix lists 130 pages of proteins and their size (many are enormous in size), many of which a biochemist would readily recognize. This 440 page book covers a lot of material that helps one to determine the validity of evolution to create all life, essentially by natural selection selecting mutations, without intelligent intervention. Many examples are given to illustrate the authors points and defend his position. He covers not only the common Intelligent Design arguments for a designer, but many others as well from not only the field of biology but other academic fields as well. All in all this book was a very interesting and informative read!
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Like all TED talks, this extrapolates from today's science. The topic of human controlled evolution is an interesting one (we have done it to many species [ex. cats, dogs, corn, wheat, etc], but very little to ourselves). This has one of my all time favorite charts in it, showing concurrent hominids to demonstrate that humans being the lone living hominid is an odd situation. If you want to see a decent forecast for our species, this may not be a bad place to look.
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Let's see, my take on the book in a nutshell: the conditions under which evolution operated during the Cambrian/Vendian times were different from the conditions following that time in two main ways, and these differences can potentially account for the origin of the many animal body plans during those early periods and the lack of new ones since.

First, ~550 million years ago most animals were very much simpler (fewer cells, for example) than they are today, so changes to their developmental programs would have been better tolerated.  The more complex any system is (the more parts it has, the more coordinated and well-matched those parts must be, etc.), the more rigidly constrained and less amenable to a given magnitude of change it is.  So the simpler developmental processes (simpler adult-form end product, fewer interactions between developmental genes, etc.) of early animals would have allowed for a 'large-scale' change to be incorporated into that animal's ontogeny, though if a change of the same magnitude were to occur today, it would be too disruptive to the complex developmental program and would be eliminated (note that 'large-scale change' refers to the adult form: the actual change that caused that altered end result could be a typical small scale mutation, in an early developmental stage).  The author is not proposing Goldschmidt's "hopeful monsters" that occur due to 'macromutations', but rather an intermediate position between that and the "only micromutations" view of gradualistic neo-Darwinism.  And, as just mentioned, mutations in developmental processes (even ones that resulted in 'macromutations' in the adult form) would have been more tolerated in the simpler animals that existed ~550 mya than they would be in today's.

Second, ~550 million years ago animal diversity was extremely more limited than it is today, so there was a huge number of open niches: a plentitude the likes of which has never again existed on our planet.  An organism that happened to find itself in one of the multitude of open niches (by means of a "semi-macro" mutation, the product of a change in a developmental gene) would have faced little if any competition.  The reduced external competition would potentially allow the morpholigical variation(s), that would otherwise likely have been eliminated, to persist. (The sudden change could leave the organism with a lower level of internal coordination: over time, internal cooadaptation could evolve to 'catch up' with the change in morphology: these internal adjustments would leave no trace in the fossil record).

Combining these two ideas produces a reasonable explanation of the 'explosion' in new body plans in Vendian/Cambrian times.

Of course there's much more to the book than my above "nutshell" presentation.  The Evo-Devo perspective presented in the book allowed me to view evolution in a new way: it gave me a better understanding of the "creative" side of evolution than I had before when viewing things solely from a gradualistic, neo-Darwinian frame of reference.

PS:  The book is "aged" (1997) but is not outdated.
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A debate has raged, politely you may be sure, among archaeologists concerning whether Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and other pre-modern humans were ferocious hunters or skulking scavengers. That debate is not even near resolution, and may well be conducted on false questions, but authors hunt and Sussman want us to consider human evolution from another angle, that of primates in general and hominids in particular as more preyed upon than preying. Their evidence derives from two sources: observation of depradation on primate species in the world today, and forensic examination of bite and claw wounds in hominid/homonoid fossils. Some reviewers seem to have read an ethical issue into the book, addressing aggression in human nature. Frankly, if such issues were raised, I hardly noticed them. My attention was riveted to the question of the central importance of predation in evolution, not only of Homo sapiens but of all multicellular life.

The most successful predators on primates in the world today - leopards, eagles, and crocodilians - would seem to have been likely predators on australopithecines as well. Then there's some archaeological evidence that hyenas were on gastronomic terms with "Cro-Magnon" folk in China. But did fear of predators and the skills needed to avoid them play a significant role in human evolution. The authors think so, and their case, if not proven, is at least entertaining to the jury.

I'm prompted - unrepentant carnivore that I am - to ask a broader question of evolutionary theory. Has predation been a significant accelerator of evolution, a driver if you will, since the pre-Cambrian?
It's generally supposed that the development of our "large-but-not-quite-large-enough" brains was fueled by the calories of hunted or scavenged flesh. Long before "us", however, was predation the driver of intelligence. Could we Wise Homos ever have existed without someone being eaten?
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"The Beak of the Finch:  A Story of Evolution in Our Time", by Jonathan Weiner. Vintage Books (Random House) 1995, NY. ISBN: 978-0-679-73337-9, PB 332 Pgs. in 8" x 5 1/8" format that includes 15 Pg. Biblio. plus 8 Pg. Index.

 Inveiglements include several dozen B/W illustrations, most enticingly a dozen Galapagos Finch drawings by Charles Darwin and an essential map of the Galapagos Islands and the route taken by Darwin on his biological sojourn, particularly useful while reading of the various ecological areas of Darwin Finches, fauna and flora areas being researched, independently, by various investigative biologists, most notably Peter and Rosemary Grant.

Author Weiner is an esteemed science writer, editor and authored "Planet Earth" and "The Next One Hundred Years". He writes in erudite prose easily understood by non-scientists and in a style that provokes active thinking on the part of the reader: - this reader/writer interaction leads to a much fuller understanding of his informational-educational mission in writing this book than too-oft seen in most science books, and is significantly crisp when the subject of evolution is being discussed, a topic that is more abstracted of being theory than most static reviews of geology, history, and the various arts.

So, Weiner presents us with a three part dissertation on "Evolution in the Flesh", "New Beings on the This Earth", and "G.O.D".  Overall, Weiner provides convincing facts and ideas with on-going experimental studies indicating that evolution is an on-going phenomenon and pays homage to Charles Darwin's tedious studies and contemplations prior to publication of his "Origin of Species".
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I was prepared to really like this book. It is centered on Darwin's study of barnacles and their contribution to his evolutionary thinking. In some ways the author sort of got there, but along the way she often got off the track and uses some strange analogies in the process. There were several typos that were disturbing. Perhaps the worst is that we are told on page 21 that the marine segmented worm Aphrodita aculeata has stinging hairs (it does not! - see Sue Hubbell's excellent book "Waiting for Aphrodite"), and that it is parasitic (it is a carnivore, as Hubbell also noted). In stating that Aphrodita has stinging hairs Rebecca Stott was repeating an error that has come down to us through a book published in 1558 by Rondelet! Also "aculeata" does not mean, "stinging", but spiny! One would think that by now this misinformation would not continue to be repeated. However, the main problem is that the author rambles a bit too much and covers a lot of ground not pertinent to the subject. In fact she covers a lot of the ground in regard to Darwin's personal problems that is better explored in several other recent books. This is not a fatal flaw, but the book would have been more original if the focus had been kept on the barnacles rather than on background material that nearly every biographer of Darwin has investigated. As for the book being "lavishly illustrated," I am wondering what the writers of the dust jacket blurb meant! I would not have described it in that manner at all! Maybe "adequately illustrated" would have been better!
This book is worth reading and does give us some of the details left out of other books on Darwin, but the author has not answered the questions about Darwin's barnacles I would have liked to have had answered.
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"Thank you for sharing with me your book, 'Evolution and Reason-- Beyond Darwin.'  I've had a chance to peruse the book and I think it is really quite amazing!  I'm so impressed that any single person could pull together so much evolutionary information on such a diverse array of topics, and furthermore to then intersperse it with interesting thoughts about the nature of logic in the evolutionary sciences.  Congratulations on a very august body of work."  --JOHN C. AVISE
Distinguished Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
School of Biological Sciences, University of California at Davis
(with permission)
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If you are interested in a book discussing the significance of human morality, religion and evolution, this book might be for you.  This book is largely a religion-friendly point of view, trying to defend religion in light of the evolutionary or psychological critiques.  It has a mix of articles discussing the connection, impact, and significance of human evolution and morality.  It doesnt do so much to offer theories as to why religion arose, so much as it tries to explain why religion and its morality matters in an evolutionary, scientific world.  Overall it is a helpful book, a compilation of article by concerned authors in the field.
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Duane Tolbert Gish (born 1921) is an American biochemist and a prominent member of the "young earth" creationist movement (as well as a former vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research/ICR, with whom he has long been associated). He was probably the most well-known creationist debater, as well as the author of key creationist books such as&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Evolution-The-Fossils-Still-Say-No/dp/0890511128/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Speculations-and-experiments-related-to-theories-on-the-origin-of-life-A-critique/dp/B0006CB8QM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Speculations and experiments related to theories on the origin of life: A critique</a>, etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1993 book, "In response to the highly effective lectures, seminars, and debates (almost always won by creationists, according to evolutionists), and the many books and publications produced by the creation scienitists, evolutionists finally awakened and reacted vigorously to this challenge... they poured forth an avalanche of journal articles and books attacking creation scientists and creation science. For the most part, these attacks have been vicious... This book is a response to these attacks."

He states, "one can readily cite several instances in which evolutionary theory has retarded progress in science. For decades much research in embryology had been mis-directed by the now thoroughly discredited theory of embryological recapitulation... For many years research on the true importance and function of such organs and structures as the pineal gland... were neglected because, according to evolutionists, these were useless vestiges... One also wonders at the cost... of devising evolutionary phylogenies which not only serve no practical purpose but all of which are eventually discarded." (Pg. 43-44)

He is critical of Kenneth Miller&nbsp;], who will "create ridiculous caricatures of several of the creation scientists' theories and then ... poke fun at them. Miller does have a unique ability to reel off, in rapid succession, one argument after another, and this no doubt impresses many in the audience, regardless of whether or not they grasp much of what he is talking about." (Pg. 88)

He admits his mistake about the bombadier beetle: "As soon as I learned of this little hitch [the beetle's chemicals were NOT 'explosive'] in the story... I modified the story I related in my lectures. I had to wait until the publisher was ready to publish a revised edition of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dinosaurs-Those-Terrible-Lizards/dp/0890510393/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards</a>, however, to correct the story there." (Pg. 103)

He declines to discuss the age of the earth, since "the scope of this book is limited to the HOW of origins... [and] significant numbers of both conservative theologians and creation scientists hold to an old age of the earth and long time intervals between the many acts of creation. Thus creationists take both sides of the controversy..." (Pg. 260)

This is one of Gish's most significant books (along with 'The Fossils STILL Say No'), and will be of great interest to anyone studying the Evolution/Creation controversy.
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This book contains over 25 papers originally delivered at the 1985 Conference on Geology and the Biblical Record. Its authors are noted scientists, theologians and legal experts.

Creation Reconsidered addresses the many issues that generate tension between the faith and scientific communities, and offers keenly insightful analyses of where the discussion of creation and evolution has been, where it currently lies, and where it is headed.

The book broaches diverse topics, among them paleoclimatology and chronology, the creation of biological diversity, ecological zonation theory, the literary structure of Genesis 1 and 2, the extent of the Genesis flood, contemporary perspectives on Genesis and geology, and the development of faith in a scientific culture.

This book does not end the ages-old conflict between religion and the sciences, nor is that its final goal. Instead, it offers a well-rounded, highly cogent, thoroughly-researched view of the rugged terrain that makes up the science-and-creation landscape. It is a valuable resource for Christians and non-Christians alike who take interest in the ongoing conversation between faith and science.
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For decades, the self-named "Scientific Creationists" have been using scientific-sounding arguments against evolution to try to gain ideological and political support for their brand of Christian fundamentalism. Their goal is to eliminate science from the public school curriculum, on the grounds that it contradicts their reading of the Bible.  Futuyma does a very good job debunking the arguments raised by the Scientific Creationists, looking at a number of common arguments made by them and thoroughly demolishing them. At the same time, he does a good job of showing how the Scientific Creationists' reasoning is fundamentally flawed, their arguments based on misdirection rather than fact, and their greatest spokesmen willing to lie.  Futuyma also gives the reader a good introduction to and overview of the theory of evolution. He gives a brief history of the theory, touches on some of the major lines of observational evidence that lead to and support the theory, and discusses the major points of the modern theory. Overall, Science on Trial provides the reader with a solid understanding of the failings of the Scientific Creationists, while also introducing you to the theory and facts of evolution in a clear and readable fashion.  For readers interested in more on the creation/evolution "debate," Kitcher's Abusing Science is highly rated, and the web site <[...] offers much of the same material in a little different format (click on the "Browse the Archives" link, and read the FAQs).  Readers preferring to read about evolution while steering clear of the creation/evolution quagmire should read Edey and Johanson's Blueprints. I also recommend Weiner's The Beak of the Finch.
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An informative book about evolution and our ancestors.
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This DVD is clear, concise, and shows the problems with Darwinism and it's latest variations.  The problem is not "survival" of the fittest (which works, is evident, is almost a tautology, and fits creation, ID or any other rational model of origins) but rather that evolution cannot provide an answer to the "arrival" of the fittest (by that I mean there is no good theory for the random generation of the extremely exquisite design in every complex and functional feature of living things.)  We ALWAYS seem to see evolution in HUMAN designs, for example the new Ford is a lot better than a 1956 Ford because human intelligence intervenes in the usual entropy of existence and efficiently keeps the best features while purposefully inventing complex new features to improve the brand.  Random changes to a Ford never help - when a ring gear on an Indy car fails and the car goes airborne, the driver is never happy because his car just improved or 'evolved'....  New features come by intellect and hard work, and then he may win the race.  In nature, as in human designs, random changes or mutations do not help.  Instead, we find massive and lopsided evidence that mutations cause disorders, disease, and death.  The fossils show massive evidence of extinction of species and the loss of their exquisite design information.  We find a startling shortage of "missing links" - there should be millions of them in the fossil record - but we find little to convince us that small changes could have bridged the gap between major species.  This video is sometimes amusing, sometimes scientific, but generally high quality.  Some evolutionists may be open minded enough to consider the claims made in this video - but generally they will retreat into a thicket of slogans, and when cornered admit "we hope to find a solution" to the problem of 'arrival'....
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This book is thorough and well-argued.  Jerry Coyne sets out to convince you that evolution is true, and along the way exposes you to evidence from a number of areas that together point to it being the best explanation of the world we see around us.  And not just an explanation: It also showed various predictions made in advance that were confirmed by later fossil discoveries, reproduced in the lab, or explored through various simulations. Some of the areas I remember being covered are embryology, biogeographical distribution, the fossil record, genetics, the new species originating today (both in the lab and in the wild).  But I'm sure there were more areas that I don't remember.

As a former creationist, I liked the fact that it didn't just stick to demonstrating a positive case, but also shows why that positive case rules out common criticisms of evolution.  Before I read it I accepted evolution was likely, but still had a number of reservations about it, and the book was very effective in convincing me to drop those reservations.

To go back to basics, it made sense, it was interesting, and it taught me a lot that I was unaware of.  And what more can you expect from a popular level science book?