What would be the most important book to read if one wanted to understand evolution?

Question

What is one of the oldest books on evolution. Is there a classic that is so great that one would say it's the "bible" of the evolutionists.

Origin if the Species? oh, then i did know the answer LOL

Origin of the Species? oh, then i did know the answer LOL

Answer 1

Newer books are probably better = they will write with todays style, making them easier to read. Also, in science, ideas progress, so a newer book will incorporate a modern understanding of evolution that will be more complete than that found in older texts.

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I wrote the above intending to come back with some more info ... of course, in the interim, other people filled in most of what I had in mind.

For specific books, as mentioned below, The Beak of the Finch by Weiner is excellent. I also enjoyed Climbing Mount Improbable by Dawkins. I am currently reading Darwins Century by Eiseley. It's only OK - it was written 50 years ago and the prose is a bit thick for me - but it gives an overview of how the ideas that preceded the Origin of the Species contributed to Darwin's (and Wallace's) thesis.

Also, as mentioned below, a college book store would have texts on evolutionary biology that might be useful to you. And of course, Amazon or a big book store would have quite a number of books to peruse.

Lastly, I might add that I didn't need a book to realize the power of natural selection and I think it is pretty easy to understand. In my case, I remember watching a TV show about hyenas and marveling at how perfectly adapted they were for their lifestyle. Then it hit me: of course they were perfectly adapted because any hyena that wasn't strong, vicious, fast, and able to crunch bones didn't survive to reproduce.

And then I looked at my parents cat and realized that she was also perfectly adapted for a role as a small animal carnivore: reflexes, senses, and weapons were all honed for a lifestyle her ancestors would have needed to survive only a couple of generations before.

Once you start to see nature this way, I think it becomes easy to recognize the hand of natural selection on every species: in order to reproduce, any living thing needs to successfully exploit its ecological niche. If the environment changes, then a species either needs to successfully acclimate to the change by selection on its genes (to become faster or more drought resistant, etc.), or it dies off. Simple.

Anyways, good luck with the quest for info.

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Uh oh, back again ...

A perfect book for you might be The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins. He is the former director of the Human Genome Project and has long publicly professed to be a devout Christian (I've seen him on TV on the altar of the Crystal Cathedral). From the reviews I've seen, the book is uncompromising in its condemnation of creationism and ID, but makes a case for Darwinian evolution as the mechanism God has chosen for His plan.

Something else that might interest you is an essay by a geneticist named Theodosius Dobzhansky. The gist of it is that not only is Creationism wrong, but that to believe that God created nature in such a way that it is designed to fool good and well intentioned people into false beliefs - i.e. that all the evidence that scientists see and believe about things like evolution and the age of the universe is a lie - is a form of heresy. He phrases it better than I do.

Hmmm ... I seem to be writing my own book here!

Answer 2

There is no "Bible" of evolution. The Bible hasn't been updated in more than a millenium (additional texts like the Book of Mormon, the Talmud, and ecclesiastic works have been written).

Evolution is, if you'll pardon the expression, an evolving science. Origin of Species was the spark, but the literature fills thousands of journals and genome libraries. There were a number of excellent reading selections. I'd shy away from Dawkin's. His work, although good, is a little too agenda based. If the what you read is a little too, "thus it is so", remember that the principle of science is observe, infer, test. Apply a critical eye as you read. Make your own ultimate conclusions.

Reading Origin of Species alone would be akin to reading Genesis (or maybe all the books of Moses) and stopping. A lot has happened from where Darwin left off.

Answer 3

Start with reading two Richard Dawkins texts - The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene. These books are not old, but it doesn't make sense to seek out an old text for this purpose as our knowledge of evolution is scientific, not historic. Origin of the Species seems like the obvious choice, but it's really not what you want if you're after an actual understanding of how evolution works.

Answer 4

The book that started it all was the "Origin of Species" by Darwin. I've never read it, but I suppose that's where you'd go, right? One the other hand, it would not give you an understanding of modern Evolution, as that is more involving in molecular biology and all that jazz, which Darwin wasn't really a specialist on.

Answer 5

of course the "origin of species" by Charles Darwin is a great book to understand evolution. But any book from Stephen J. Gould will explain it very well also, like "panda's thumb" for example

Answer 6

The best book is "The Beak of The Finch" written by Jonathan Weiner and is the Pulitzer prize winner in 1995 in General non-fiction. It is written like a novel, what I mean is one wouldn't need to have a biology major to understand the book. It gives also a few example of evoulution happening before your eyes.
Beautiful, beautiful book that I suggest to anyone.

Edit:

I fixed the title, I had made a mistake. It's BEAK and not BOOK

Answer 7

Actually, since evolution is based on science, and science is always improving, and old book wouldn't be the best. I would look for a new book written by a scientist. To actually get the best "science" book on the subject, I would recommend going to a university book store and getting a text book for a physical anthropology class.

Answer 8

In the history of the Universe.? Described through the Mathematical Cycle of the Origins and Evolution of the Species, for the designer and scientist Tarcísio Brito (Brazil). It gained for the proper strong merit evidence of the existence of the life only in the Land. It suggests that throughout the history of the life, he was and still is proven beyond the man, the existence of varies species of lives in our planet. To I oppose it of passed mythologies, folklores, beliefs and faith of the gift; that still without evidences they make them they believe only abstract it are of the Land.

Answer 9

Its a bit advanced but very fun and interesting book by Stephen Gould, "Hens teeth, and Horse toes." I loved it. He is one of the few who has a true and thourough understanding of evolution and a great teacher. It is not old though
http://www.amazon.com/Teeth-Horses-Toes-Stephen-Gould/dp/0393311031

Answer 10

"Origin if the Species," by Charles Darwin.