The neo-Darwinian theory of evolution makes a claim: It claims that the diversity of life forms filling the history of the earth are sufficiently explained by unguided material forces--specifically, random genetic mutations filtered by natural selection. There are many details to be filled in, but I take it for granted the average reader will agree that the mutation-selection mechanism is close to the core, if not the core itself, of the neo-Darwinian thesis.
Like all claims, the neo-Darwinian claim is potentially true and potentially false. As such, it is subject to scrutiny. And, insofar as one wishes to be as circumspect as he can be when choosing which claims he will ultimately embrace, the more critical that scrutiny, the better--for it does not serve to accede a proposition in haste. It is those circumspect readers for whom Stephen Meyer's Darwin's Doubt was written. Indeed, it may be just those readers who can even get to the last page of the work without finding the nearest Internet outlet to decry the book's existence who even understand what Meyer is doing and why. This review is intended for an audience who does not take neo-Darwinism as sacrosanct, nor severe scrutiny of same as blasphemous.
