Date: April 9, 1989, Sunday, Late City Final
Edition Section 7; Page 34, Column 2; Book Review
Desk Byline: By RICHARD DAWKINS; Richard Dawkins, a
fellow of New College and lecturer in zoology at the
University of Oxford, is the author of ''The Blind
Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a
Universe Without Design.'' Lead: LEAD: BLUEPRINTS
Solving the Mystery of Evolution. By Maitland A. Edey and
Donald C. Johanson. Illustrated. 418 pp. Boston: Little,
Brown & Company. $19.95. Text:
BLUEPRINTS Solving the Mystery of Evolution. By
Maitland A. Edey and Donald C. Johanson. Illustrated. 418
pp. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. $19.95.
''Do you realize,'' said Don, ''that nearly half the
people in the United States don't believe in evolution?''
This sentence epitomizes both the provocation for and the
odd provenance of the book under review. To take the
latter first, ''Blueprints'' purports to be the joint
work of a distinguished scientist and a journalist,
Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey. It is their
second collaboration; the first was ''Lucy: The
Beginnings of Humankind.'' Such a combination is bound to
arouse suspicions of ghostwriting by the journalist,
cashing in on the name of the scientist. The difference
here is that the ghost manifests himself with unusual
frankness. Mr. Johanson enters the book only as Don, a
third-person character who occasionally drops in, looks
over the author's shoulder and comments on whatever he
happens to be working on at the moment. '' 'Those things
are called Punnett squares,' said Don, watching as I
laboriously completed the large square on the preceding
page. 'Boy, are they dull.' ''
In other places, especially in the sections on
molecular genetics and bacterial evolution, there is an
odd role reversal: ''Don'' comes off as pupil, his
colleague as master. ''Mait'' indulges in pedagogical
questions like ''Does that suggest anything to you?'' and
Don's answer is rewarded with a magisterial ''Right.''
Mr. Johanson, the director of the Institute of Human
Origins in Berkeley, Calif., is a fine paleontologist and
anthropologist. He has many achievements to his name, but
writing this book is not one of them, and I shall
henceforth refer to the author in the singular. But it is
a shame to carp, for this book should be welcomed by
anyone with a love of truth in a dark time. It has an
important and true story to tell - the story of
evolution. As far as I am able to judge (which is
adequately far), the science in the book is accurate and
up-to-date. On the whole it is pleasantly written, in
spite of the reservations entered above (and a few
others: I had earlier promised myself that if I had to
endure the silly story about Thomas Henry Huxley's
schoolboy triumph over Bishop Wilberforce one more time,
I'd scream; and I duly did so).
Following a history of Darwin and his predecessors,
the large middle section of the book covers the important
science of genetics, from Gregor Mendel through the
American geneticist T. H. Morgan to Francis Crick -
giving too little credit, for my money, to the English
geneticist R. A. Fisher and his colleagues in the 1930's.
The section called ''The Origin of Life'' is notable for
its courageous attempt (which I have shirked in my own
writings) to explain the difficult ideas of the German
chemist Manfred Eigen. For me, the most interesting
chapter is the one devoted to the work of the American
bacteriologist Carl R. Woese because it deals with the
earliest phases of evolution, the split between our
remotest cousins, the archaebacteria, and all the rest of
us.
The chapters on human evolution display predictable
expertise on fossils, but it is also good to see Mr.
Johanson's arid home ground irrigated by a refreshing
trickle of molecular evidence, and particularly
gratifying to find at last proper recognition of the
enormously important work of the American biochemist
Vincent Sarich. Contrary to the erstwhile conclusions of
all paleontologists, we now know from the work of Mr.
Sarich and his colleague, the molecular biologist Allan
Wilson, that our common ancestor with chimpanzees lived
astonishingly recently. Moreover, we are closer cousins
to African apes (chimpanzees and gorillas) than those
apes are to other apes (orangutans and gibbons). We are
not, then, merely like apes or descended from apes; we
are apes, and African apes at that. The final chapter, a
reflection on extinction and the dangers of being too
smart, moves toward being noticeably well written. Mr.
Edey may call himself a journalist, but he evidently is a
pretty high-class journalist.
So to the book's provocation, the statement that
nearly half the people in the United States don't believe
in evolution. Not just any people but powerful people,
people who should know better, people with too much
influence over educational policy. We are not talking
about Darwin's particular theory of natural selection. It
is still (just) possible for a biologist to doubt its
importance, and a few claim to. No, we are here talking
about the fact of evolution itself, a fact that is proved
utterly beyond reasonable doubt. To claim equal time for
creation science in biology classes is about as sensible
as to claim equal time for the flat-earth theory in
astronomy classes. Or, as someone has pointed out, you
might as well claim equal time in sex education classes
for the stork theory. It is absolutely safe to say that
if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in
evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or
wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).
If that gives you offense, I'm sorry. You are probably
not stupid, insane or wicked; and ignorance is no crime
in a country with strong local traditions of interference
in the freedom of biology educators to teach the central
theorem of their subject. I recently toured East Coast
radio stations, doing phone-ins. I came away optimistic.
I had expected hostile barracking from creationists with
closed minds. Instead, what I found was genuine curiosity
and honest interest. I got sincere questions from
intelligent people who really wanted to know because they
had literally no education in evolution.
I don't think it is too melodramatic to say that
civilization is at war. It is a war against religious
bigotry. In Britain recently our newspapers have shown
crowds of fundamentalists (they happen to be Muslim
rather than Christian, but in this context the
distinction is of no importance) baying for the death of
the distinguished novelist Salman Rushdie, displaying his
effigy with its eyes put out and publicly burning his
books. The truly appalling thing all such people have in
common, whether they are incited to murder by ayatollahs
or to less violent observances by television evangelists,
is that they know, for certain, that their particular
brand of revealed truth is absolute and needs no reasoned
defense. In Iran I don't suppose evolution is even an
issue, but in the United States a case can be made that
it is right there on the front line.
If you feel even vaguely in the mood to stand up and
be counted, evolution is a pretty good issue on which to
take your stand. It is an excellent standard-bearer for
reason and the gentle virtues of civilization. This is
because the more you read, quietly and soberly, the
evidence for evolution, the more powerful will you
discover that evidence to be. You are as safe taking your
stand on the fact of evolution as you would be on the
fact that the earth goes round the sun. But the latter is
not - any longer - at stake in the war against
fundamentalism. Evolution is on the front line because it
is an important issue disputed by fundamentalists, and
you can be completely confident that you can easily prove
them wrong.
''Blueprints'' is not the only book, and probably not
the best book, in which you may locate the ammunition.
Even in time of war one should not suppress criticism of
one's own side, and I haven't done so. But this is an
honest book, telling the truth in an area where half the
country claims to believe an absurd and palpable
falsehood. I say ''claims'' because a belief that is held
in carefully nurtured ignorance of the alternative is
hardly a belief to be taken seriously. For all its
faults, ''Blueprints'' is about more important matters
than many a book you will find displayed in your bookshop
or, I dare say, reviewed in these pages.