Why Darwin Matters (34 page)

hypothetico-deductive method,
21
–22

intermediate fossil stages,
16

vestigial structures,
17
–19

textbooks, biology,
26
,
91
–93,
127
–28

Theistic Evolutionists,
167

theories, scientific,
xix
–xx,
1
–2,
97

evolution,
see
evolution (theory of evolution)

relative roles of data and,
2
,
3

thioredoxin,
76

Thomas More Law Center (TMLC),
100
,
102

Thompson, Richard,
100

Time
,
126

Tipler, Frank,
55

Touchstone
,
108

transitional species,
9

fossils of,
9
–11,
14
,
15
,
51
,
69
,
146
–47

Transmutation of Species
(Darwin),
xvi

Truth Cannot Contradict Truth
(John Paul II),
116
,
124
,
128

truth telling,
133
–34,
135
–36

Twain, Mark,
34

Unification Church,
110

Universal Probability Bound (UPB),
71
–72

universe, dating of the,
16

University of California, Irvine,
45
–46

uterus, male,
18

Velikovsky, Immanuel,
88

vestigial structures,
17
–19

Virgin Mary apparitions,
61

Voltaire,
61
–62

Vyse, Stuart,
38
–39

Wallace, Alfred Russel,
xvi
,
7

“Was the World Made for Man?”,
34

“watchmaker” argument,
4
–5

Wealth of Nations, The
(Smith),
137

Webb, John,
56
–57

“Wedge, The,”
106
,
109

Wedge of Truth, The
(Johnson),
109

Wells, Jonathan,
83
,
110

whales, vestigial organs of,
18

What Is Creation Science?
(Morris and Parker),
102

Whewell, William,
12

White, Timothy,
147
–48

Wilberforce, Archbishop Samuel (“Soapy Sam”),
99

Wisdom of God Manifested in Works of the Creation
(Ray),
4

wisdom teeth,
18

wolves, evolution of dogs and,
14

Wonderful Life
(Gould),
144

World Summit on Evolution, 2005,
140
–53

World War I, social Darwinism and,
26
,
27

Young Earth creationism,
102
,
120
,
148
,
166

M
ICHAEL
S
HERMER
, P
H
.D., is the founding publisher of
Skeptic
magazine (
www.skeptic.com
), the executive director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for
Scientific American
, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the co-host and producer of the thirteen-hour Family Channel television series
Exploring the Unknown
. About Dr. Shermer, the late Stephen Jay Gould wrote: “As head of one of America’s leading skeptic organizations, and as a powerful activist and essayist in the service of this operational form of reason, [he] is an important figure in American public life.”

Shermer is the author of numerous books. He has written a trilogy on belief: the bestselling
Why People Believe Weird Things
, on pseudoscience, superstitions, and other confusions of our time;
How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God
, on the origins of religion and belief in God; and
The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Share, Care, and Follow the
Golden Rule
, on the evolutionary origins of morality. He has also published two collections of essays,
Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown
, about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong, and
The Borderlands of Science
, which maps the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience. He is also the author of a biography,
In Darwin’s Shadow
, about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace, and
Denying History
, on Holocaust denial and other forms of pseudohistory.

Shermer earned his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, his M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University at Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University. He was a college professor for twenty years, teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science at Occidental College; California State University, Los Angeles; and Glendale College. He lives in Southern California.