Bastian Greshake Tzovaras reviewed Anarchy evolution by Greg Graffin
Review of 'Anarchy evolution' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I'm a huge fan of Bad Religion and an evolutionary biologist. So this looked like the perfect book for me. Unfortunately it's not, although I've tried hard. Graffin tries to mix anecdotes about his biography in Science & with Bad Religion along basic biology while criticising faith in a "Dawkins-light" way.
Which sounds like an awesome mix of topics comes short as Graffin doesn't succeed in weaving all those topics together. The jumps between biography/science/beliefs are abrupt and often don't seem to make much sense.
About each topic on it's own:
I enjoyed the bits about his biography & Bad Religion, they are good to read, give some interesting insights into Graffins live and his career in Science & Music (the parts about visiting the Amazonian rainforest is great).
His science descriptions are pretty basic and his usage of vocabulary is often quite sloppy. If you've read any other book …
I'm a huge fan of Bad Religion and an evolutionary biologist. So this looked like the perfect book for me. Unfortunately it's not, although I've tried hard. Graffin tries to mix anecdotes about his biography in Science & with Bad Religion along basic biology while criticising faith in a "Dawkins-light" way.
Which sounds like an awesome mix of topics comes short as Graffin doesn't succeed in weaving all those topics together. The jumps between biography/science/beliefs are abrupt and often don't seem to make much sense.
About each topic on it's own:
I enjoyed the bits about his biography & Bad Religion, they are good to read, give some interesting insights into Graffins live and his career in Science & Music (the parts about visiting the Amazonian rainforest is great).
His science descriptions are pretty basic and his usage of vocabulary is often quite sloppy. If you've read any other book about evolution you probably won't learn something new. One point that really bugged me: Graffin depicts most evol. biologists, especially those working with molecular data, as firm adaptionists in a way probably not even Dawkins is.
Maybe it's because he grew up during a time where the neutralist-selectionist-debate (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_theory_of_molecular_evolution#The_.22neutralist.E2.80.93selectionist.22_debate) was up and running, but nowadays his description feels like an uncanny remix of a true straw scotsman of "All real Mol. biologists believe in adaption".
I don't have too much to say about his criticism of belief as it's pretty much the gospel which you'll find in any book of modern-day skeptics/atheists/naturalists.
As said: Each topic could give an interesting book but this one comes short of delivering an interesting mix. If you're interested in Bad Religion & Greg Graffin you should give it a read, otherwise you can easily turn to other (i.e. better) books about evolution and atheism.
