Am I a Monkey?

August 16, 2010
Ayala, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and winner of the 2010 Templeton Prize, is well positioned to write another book (after Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion) about the relationship between religion and science and the importance of evolution. He's done just that, but in surprisingly abbreviated form. The title's six questions are: am I a monkey?; why is evolution a theory?; what is DNA?; do all scientists accept evolution?; how did life begin?; and can one believe in evolution and God? Another question is, who is this book written for? Presumably for religious believers who reject evolution and are perplexed by Ayala's six questions. But beginning an answer to the title question by saying humans are more closely related to apes than to monkeys won't gain that reader's trust. Ayala also assumes a basic familiarity with biological terms and processes. The large point Ayala makes, repeatedly and clearly, is that science and religion are not contradictory, but rather complementary, as different ways of knowing the world. Ayala's passion is obvious, but it's not clear that evolution heretics will become believers after reading this book. 3 halftones, 5 line drawings.