Volume 51, Number 3 · February 26, 2004
A Passion for Evolution
By H. Allen Orr
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
by Richard Dawkins
Houghton Mifflin, 263 pp., $24.00
Most science popularizers are not controversialists. Most see their task as a simple explanation of science that already sits, tedious and unread, in textbooks. The job of making science appealing to the layman often encour-ages breathless tales of high-tech adventure (a genome project, say) and almost always entails a good deal of dumbing down. Richard Dawkins's work has never fit this mold. His books on evolution have featured ideas that were only then making their way into textbooks and he has never hesitated to offer his own (sometimes radical) extensions of these ideas. But most important, his books have emphasized ideas, and they have been offered in their fullness, without dumbing down. In the course of his work, Dawkins has also not shied from controversy. He has publicly battled both fellow scientists and religious leaders, and he has made enemies.
Review, 4375 words
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