Book Review: Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life by Niles Eldredge

“Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life” (2005) does a good job of presenting an account of Charles Darwin’s life that is grounded in the primary sources left by Darwin himself. I think at times Eldredge doesn’t question the record Darwin has left us enough, but still the narrative is consistent and thorough. Let it be clear that I do love Darwin and find his life very interesting, but though this portion of the book was well done, since it stayed so faithful to Darwin’s primary texts, I don’t think anything he presented there was revolutionary or unique to his book.

Thus, for me, the most interesting and valuable portion of the book was the final chapter, which was dedicated to disproving Intelligent Design as an alternative scientific theory for evolution. The precision with which Eldredge goes through this very controversial subject is impeccable. Eldredge summarized all of my disagreements around Intelligent Design into a succinct message that anyone with an open-mind can understand. If like me, you were searching for someone to help you sort through your thoughts on Intelligent Design, this book is a must read.

My Review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Discovering-Tree-Niles-Eldredge/product-reviews/0393059669/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Darwin Rocks. Eldredge is worth a read as well.

Sam