Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes different ontological assumptions of various players in the political dramas. Especially, creationists argue from different ontological assumptions than scientists do. The conflict between almost all the members of the profession of evolutionary biology, in alliance with educators, and many members of the concerned public, versus creationists and their allies, has very widespread implications for society as a whole and for the activity of science in particular. Most of the substance was about arguments between specialists, much of it over technical issues. The technical issues all had interesting political implications. Modern evolutionary theory identifies other mechanisms for change in gene frequency within populations, including gene flow and genetic drift. So, to scientists, natural selection is only one cause of evolution.