Icons of Evolution

Icons of Evolution is a pseudoscientific book by the intelligent design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, and a 2002 video about the book. In the book, Wells criticized the paradigm of evolution by attacking how it is taught. In 2000, Wells summarized the book's contents in an article in the American Spectator. Several of the scientists whose work is sourced in the book have written rebuttals to Wells, stating that t... more

Icons of Evolution is a pseudoscientific book by the intelligent design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, and a 2002 video about the book. In the book, Wells criticized the paradigm of evolution by attacking how it is taught. In 2000, Wells summarized the book's contents in an article in the American Spectator. Several of the scientists whose work is sourced in the book have written rebuttals to Wells, stating that they were quoted out of context, that their work has been misrepresented, or that it does not imply Wells' conclusions. Many in the scientific community have strongly criticised the book, its claims that schoolchildren are deliberately misled, and its conclusions as to the evidential status of the theory of evolution, which is considered by biologists to be the central unifying paradigm of biology. Kevin Padian and Alan D. Gishlick wrote a review in Quarterly Review of Biology of Wells' Icons comparing Wells to Tom Ripley, noting "In our view,... less