Customer Reviews

Getting the Facts Straight: A Viewer's Guide to PBS's Evolution

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I will concede that PBS's "Evolution" miniseries is filled with omissions of fact, most notably in discussing current controversies regarding the tempo and mode of evolution, but it does a fine job nonetheless in introducing the Modern Synthesis Theory of Evolution to an interested public audience, stressing the importance of this theory towards our understanding of all aspects of biology, from developmental biology and population genetics to paleobiology and ecology, and last, but not least, both epidemiology and medicine. Carl Zimmer's companion volume to the PBS miniseries "Evolution" does an admirable job elaborating on some of the points briefly mentioned or not covered in the PBS program. That book, also entitled "Evolution", should be a potential reader's guide, not this error-filled, woefully misguided effort at critiquing "Evolution" from a pro-Intelligent Design perspective.

As a scientist who studies evolution, the PBS Evolution Series profoundly embarrassed me. How so much effort and money could be poured into a project that wound up so flawed is a potential case study in the failure of science education. Getting the Facts Straight is an excellent primer on errors, both in fact and logic, in the series. Every teacher who wants to show these videos in a classroom should first read the Getting the Facts Straight, then prepare lesson plans that help students to see why the PBS Evolution Series is a caricature of how science should be. In fact, anyone who saw the series and didn't drop off to sleep should read this book. It made viewing the series a lot more interesting for me, and it was great to be able to compare my own reservations about it with those of the writers of this book. I highly recommend Getting the Facts Straight to anyone who is interested in science, popularization of science or evolution.

I've enjoyed reading and re-reading this little book in its web version and am glad it is finally in paperback. Despite its size, it provides a lot of information that seems crucial to evaluating the claims of Darwinian evolution--info. that was not mentioned in the PBS series.

It covers stuff quickly and objectively, while providing ample notes and references for the research inclined [even the music from the PBS series is identified and footnoted]. Also, as it describes the material in the PBS series, one doesn't need to have seen the series for this book to be useful--it is quite sufficient as a stand alone piece.

Though not addressing intelligent design, this is one of the best materials to have come from the ID community: I'd say it is among the best as a quick reference on evolution, as topics are easy to find, brief to survey and it is a heck of a lot less expensive than others.

Good work with a priceless piece.

Instead of investing in this book as a companion to the PBS series, consider investing in other books on evolutionary theory such as Dawkins "The Selfish Gene" or even Darwin's classic "Origin of Species." While these evolutionists have been misinterpreted for years in North America, Gould's Just So Stories have been running rampant. Instead of looking to the so called evolutionists responding to the PBS series in this book, you would better spend your time looking to those that have spent their lives pursuing this science and have built the credibility to speak clearly on this subject.