Best book for introducing someone to the workings of evolution?

My name is URL

Hey. I couldn't think of a better place to put this so here goes..

Last night out of the blue, my mam asked me about evolution and why it disproves her (catholic) god. I was quite shocked because she has never ever even entertained the idea that there may be no creator before now.

I tried my best to explain my own views but ended up getting a bit frustrated with her and myself because i was unable to explain it in a way that she could contemplate meaningfully. She understood what I was saying but seemed unable to quantify it as anything other than an explanation for some small part of what she was asking about.

Are there any decent books which gently but adequately explain the basics of evolution and what it means in the 'bigger picture'? I don't want to give her something which explicitly sets out to disprove god, she's devout and would probably disregard it if it was overly assertive in its purpose.. I'd prefer if she was able to reach her own conclusions or indulge her own curiosities further having read the book.

Thanks in advance.

smk89

Bill Bryson A short history of nearly everything has a good evolution section, but it might be a bit wordy.

MagicMarker

The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins.

She's not going to find any answers as to why it disproves god though, because it doesn't. She might realise that the world doesn't need a god to be the way that it is though.

IrishKnight

Just a little point, evolution doesn't really disprove god, it just disproves the creationism idea of design. Now if she is catholic and follows catholic teaching then (as I understand it), the church sees evolution as a mechanism which was "set up" by God. Evolution says nothing on how life started, just how such a diversity came about.

As for books about evolution, I'd say Oxford Universitys Press, Evolution: A Very Short Introduction would be good. These tend to be short (well ya..), written for a general readership and written by people in the know. I have a pdf copy which I'll have a look over and come back to you with if it is good or not...

challengemaster

MagicMarker wrote: »

The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins.

She's not going to find any answers as to why it disproves god though, because it doesn't. She might realise that the world doesn't need a god to be the way that it is though.

That is the main thing - It's the turning point where people stop acting like an ostrich and dig their head out from the ground.

IrishKnight wrote: »

Just a little point, evolution doesn't really disprove god, it just disproves the creationism idea of design. Now if she is catholic and follows catholic teaching then (as I understand it), the church sees evolution as a mechanism which was "set up" by God. Evolution says nothing on how life started, just how such a diversity came about.

Is that what they've moved their stance to these days? Funny, that.

Also you're wrong about Evolution not saying ANYTHING on how life started - It shows life did not start as were are today, it started from the common ancestor of protista. I'd love to know how that fits with the "All made in the image of god" concept

Dades

The Greatest Show on Earth bored me, tbh.

Unless she really wants to get her teeth into the science of it perhaps a good National Geographic feature or even a David Attenborough DVD would be better.

IrishKnight

OOO, +1 to the David Attenborough DVDs...

MagicMarker

Yeah, ''Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life'' would be a good one to watch, but you're obviously never going to get much detail in 60 minutes as you would from a book on the subject, but it would be more entertaining!

Plus it's on youtube!!:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQJ4wIHPQHI

Byron85

Two things would do it for me.

Firstly there's a great documentary specifically on evolution which David Attenborough did.

Secondly, get The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins. It's a fantastic book and I would say it's the Origin of the Species of our generation as it brings together all of the evidence from various fields into one extremely accessible and fantastic book.

Karamoja

Watch & read Carl Sagans Cosmos, he covers evolution in the first few chapters. I think it's also on youtube.

branie

The most famous of evolution books, On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, could work as well

krudler

This pretty much covers it :pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBAjIgjPebg

amacachi

challengemaster wrote: »

Is that what they've moved their stance to these days? Funny, that.

Also you're wrong about Evolution not saying ANYTHING on how life started - It shows life did not start as were are today, it started from the common ancestor of protista. I'd love to know how that fits with the "All made in the image of god" concept

I'm pretty sure either God guides evolution or set the ball rolling know what would come of it at the end (us). If the first idea is true then he's very bad at it, if the second one is true then he really likes a challenge since he could have simplified things somewhat with his total power etc. :pac:

IrishKnight

challengemaster wrote: »

Also you're wrong about Evolution not saying ANYTHING on how life started - It shows life did not start as were are today, it started from the common ancestor of protista. I'd love to know how that fits with the "All made in the image of god" concept

You are of course right, I should have been more clear. What I was saying was it says nothing about how that one single common ancestor came about.

amacachi wrote: »

I'm pretty sure either God guides evolution or set the ball rolling know what would come of it at the end (us). If the first idea is true then he's very bad at it, if the second one is true then he really likes a challenge since he could have simplified things somewhat with his total power etc. :pac:

I recommend watching "Mr. Deity" on youtube, they cover these points rather well

Dave!

For me, this is a great explanation of the concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMoC1M-GYw

aidan24326

Dades wrote: »

The Greatest Show on Earth bored me, tbh.

Unless she really wants to get her teeth into the science of it perhaps a good National Geographic feature or even a David Attenborough DVD would be better.

The Greatest Show On Earth may bore someone who is already well versed in the subject, but it would work well as a general overview for someone who isn't, as it doesn't get into too much technical detail.

Karamoja

branie wrote: »

The most famous of evolution books, On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, could work as well

I would definitely not recommend that book to a beginner.

Dades

aidan24326 wrote: »

The Greatest Show On Earth may bore someone who is already well versed in the subject, but it would work well as a general overview for someone who isn't, as it doesn't get into too much technical detail.

That might be true. I have read his earlier stuff and have always had a preference for Sagan over Dawkins, too.

seamus

I bought the David Attenborough Tree of Life DVD for my mother after she similarly asked about evolution, but I never got any feedback.

I found the greatest show on earth interesting coming from the opposite side - I understood and (obviously) accepted evolution, but I had never really looked into any specifics of particular species or experiments on evolution. So for me, it was somewhat like looking at a NatGeo DVD and just saying, "Ha, that's awesome", as opposed to any groundbreaking revelations.

branie

Karamoja wrote: »

I would definitely not recommend that book to a beginner.

Why not?

smokingman

Dades wrote: »

That might be true. I have read his earlier stuff and have always had a preference for Sagan over Dawkins, too.

With you on that one, I didn't enjoy any of Dawkins books and while I agreed with a lot of points he made, I'd consider them poorly written compared to anything Sagan did. Sagan da man!

nozzferrahhtoo

I would not be so quick to play the „Evolution disproves your god“ angle at all. I would also be wary of hitting her with Dawkins in case her more pious friends do the usual “Dawkins is the patron Saint of Atheism” angle on her or she may even have some preconceptions about him herself already.

To be honest if I was going to hit a devout Catholic with evolutionary text using a popular science type of book I would recommend Catholic author Kenneth Miller one of the Key pro-evolution expert witnesses at the Dover Trial. If you want a preview of his book just watch his 2 hour talk on it on you tube entitled Ken Miller on Intelligent Design

The book is called Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul. The book is not JUST about evolution either but the court drama that exploded in Dover, so the different subject matters are more likely to keep a lay person interested than a total evolution text like the Dawkins books being recommended here.

He has another one I have not read yet which I think is more about finding common ground between science and religion.

I have never read Jerry Coynes „Why evolution is true“ but maybe someone here can tell you if it is worth a recommendation too.

magicbastarder

branie wrote: »

Why not?

it's not written for the likes of the OP's mum, it's written to convince 19th century naturalists, and as such, it's very repetive - darwin had to come up with case after case to convince people.

a similar if more extreme example - if you wanted to explain special relativity to a layperson, you would not point them at einstein's original paper.

Beruthiel

seamus wrote: »

I bought the David Attenborough Tree of Life DVD for my mother

I also gave the above to my mother.
I also gave her the BBC series by Dr Alice Roberts called The Incredible Human Journey.
Both of these programmes are easy to follow and are very entertaining.

Galvasean

David Attenborough's First life (DVD and book) is excellent. Gives you great scope as to how the world's earliest creatures came about. The book is fully illustrated while the DVD it'self is just shy of 2 hours long (split into two parts) so it would make a good 'jump in' point for abeginner.. Plus everybody loves Attenborough.


There is also abook called 'Darwin's Gift To Science And Religion' by Francisco J. Ayala which I would stronly recommend to theists such as the one outlined in the OP:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darwins-Gift-Religion-Francisco-Ayala/dp/0309102316/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306840542&sr=1-1

Turtwig

The Origin of Life by Paul Davies. Not so much heavily focused on evolution, but I'll bet once she reads it she'll never go the creationist or ID route.:D

aidan24326

smokingman wrote: »

With you on that one, I didn't enjoy any of Dawkins books and while I agreed with a lot of points he made, I'd consider them poorly written compared to anything Sagan did. Sagan da man!

To be fair, most popular science books are poorly written compared to Sagan, but that's only like saying most pop bands aren't much good compared to The Beatles. For me Dawkins writings overall have been very good, it's just unusual to have a scientist write as brilliantly as Carl Sagan did.

autonomy

My name is URL wrote: »

Hey. I couldn't think of a better place to put this so here goes..

Last night out of the blue, my mam asked me about evolution and why it disproves her (catholic) god. I was quite shocked because she has never ever even entertained the idea that there may be no creator before now.

I tried my best to explain my own views but ended up getting a bit frustrated with her and myself because i was unable to explain it in a way that she could contemplate meaningfully. She understood what I was saying but seemed unable to quantify it as anything other than an explanation for some small part of what she was asking about.

Are there any decent books which gently but adequately explain the basics of evolution and what it means in the 'bigger picture'? I don't want to give her something which explicitly sets out to disprove god, she's devout and would probably disregard it if it was overly assertive in its purpose.. I'd prefer if she was able to reach her own conclusions or indulge her own curiosities further having read the book.

Thanks in advance.

The bible, good bit of information about evolution in that

IamtheWalrus

I wouldn't recommend The Greatest Show on Earth for a complete beginner. Bit heavy in parts.

This taught me the basics. Very clear and simple:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/evolution/evolution.htm

Turtwig

autonomy wrote: »

The bible, good bit of information about evolution in that

Bit of excess reading there considering only the Genesis part of the bible provides allegorical information on evolution.

Ant

The Blind Watchmaker was the first book I read which explained evolution by natural selection. It was an eye-opener to me but the book can be hard to follow in parts so I'd recommend Evolution: A Graphic Guide as an easy-to-read introduction to the subject which gets the basics across.

My name is URL

Thanks a million for the suggestions guys. I already have a few of the DVDs mentioned (Cosmos and First Life) so I'll pass them on to her today.

magicbastarder

Malty_T wrote: »

The Origin of Life by Paul Davies. Not so much heavily focused on evolution, but I'll bet once she reads it she'll never go the creationist or ID route.:D

is that the one which examines the possibility that life arrived here from mars?

Bottle_of_Smoke

Human instinct by Robert Winston. He claims to believe in God so obviously not gonna offend