Natural Selections: Selfish Altruists, Honest Liars, and Other Realities of Evolution

Is consciousness simply the product of neurons firing in the brain or does it imply a human soul? If we are largely a product of our genes, can free will exist? Why do so many people turn their backs on rationality? As the secrets of the human genome are revealed, science, philosophy, and religion struggle for supremacy on the battlefield of ideas.

Never wittier than when confronted with the most serious among the “great questions,” David Barash here decodes the contentious debates on intelligent design, gender differences, the conflict between cultural and biological evolution, and the meaning of life. No mere debunker, he offers an optimistic view of human potential: as a self-identified “evolutionary existentialist” he opposes the “tyranny of the natural” — just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean it’s good for you (think typhoid and tsunamis). We may be the products of hundreds of millions of years of evolution, but as conscious beings we can — and should — make ethical choices.

If the 20th century was the Atomic Age, the 21st century will be known as the “Age of the Genome.” Incisive and engaging, Natural Selections is an indispensable tour of evolutionary biology for our times.

• Author
• David Barash

• Format
• hardcover

• Pages
• 192

• Publisher
• Bellevue Literary Press

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9781934137055