released 01 jun 08 / last mod 01 jun 08 / greg goebel / public domain
* EVOLUTION, a book by Caltech paleontologist Donald Prothero, provides a survey of the paleontological evidence for modern evolutionary science, using it to repudiate the claims of the only too energetic Darwin-basher community.
Alas, in his eagerness to deal with the Darwin-bashers, Prothero goes over the top, producing a work that comes across as abrasive and heavy-handed. Granted, the Darwin-bashers are 100% humbugs, but Prothero goes beyond merely demolishing their claims to throwing personal abuse at them in a tiresomely repetitive way, not merely calling them liars but even comparing them to neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. I kept feeling like I was taking flecks of spittle in my face as Prothero shouted red-faced at me at close range.
OK, maybe that's something of an exaggeration as well, but Prothero does lose his cool far more than he needs to. A reader finds the discussion of the concept of "hydraulic sorting" advocated by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb perfectly amusing, but it would have nailed them more accurately to have wondered what they had been smoking, instead of getting hot under the collar about it.
Similarly, comparing the Darwin-bashers to 911 "truthers" would have got the point across, but dragging in Holocaust deniers is just screaming NAZI NAZI! Yes, I have met Darwin-bashers who are also Holocaust deniers and the Darwin-bashers do not hesitate to scream NAZI NAZI! themselves, but still, if Prothero wants to think he's one of the White Hats -- as well as maintain credibility with his readers -- he needs to hold himself to a higher standard of conduct.
When Prothero warms to his topic, fortunately, this is an excellent book, a very nice review of leading-edge paleontology. (Hmm, looks like I better be careful before I ever mention "mammal-like reptiles" again!) Even when he's sticking to the science, however, he can come across as dogmatic, for example simply dismissing Dawkins' comments about "survival machines". One might not agree with Dawkins, but just tossing out the points he was trying to make without bothering to address them merely suggests Prothero was too indifferent to give them a serious hearing. I was also a bit disappointed that he made little or no mention of plant evolution, but since it tends to be given the short shrift in popular paleontology books to begin with, I can't complain too much. Besides, the Darwin-bashers never make much of a fuss about plant evolution, and Prothero had good reason to focus on other things.
Overall, I recommend this book, in fact I haven't seen any popular book on current paleontology in its league, but it's the kind of publication where I wish it had come with a volume control. This would have been a great book instead of merely a good one if Prothero had been given an editor who could have provided some balance, but unfortunately he didn't get that lucky.
