My father, as ardent an evolutionist (if I may be so bold as to use that word - I know there are ismophobes out there) as I am, has an acquaintance who is trying to figure out how everything works. Yes, you heard right, EVERYTHING. This includes life and how life got here.

Unfortunately, he seems to have fallen for some version of the argument against evolution stating that it’s just so unlikely that it can’t be true. I don’t know the specifics of his objections, but he seems to be thinking that random mutations cannot cause the evolution of complexity. Dad’s attempts at explaining that natural selection is by no means random have so far been futile.

Now, this man is about to embark on a journey across the atlantic in a small sailing boat with one companion. (This is by no means an extraordinary event in his life, as sailing the oceans in tiny boats is pretty much all he does, when he’s not building new boats.) He will likely have a fair amount of time to read and think about things, so my dad asked me if I know of a book that could explain evolution to him. Unfortunately, I can’t, so I’m asking you, dear reader, for help.

It needs to bring up the probability problem, and I think it would be good if it had an explanation of basic genetics and developmental biology, as I suspect he has a very vague grasp of what mutations actually do to an organism. It should be written for the layman, but not be dumbed down. This man is absolutely not stupid, he’s very thoughtful and thorough.

Please leave suggestions in a comment; the boat leaves on friday next week so we’re short on time!

evolution, probability, natural selection