A C Grayling

A Theory to Believe In

A Reason for Everything: Natural Selection and the English Imagination

By

Faber & Faber 392pp £20 order from our bookshop

UNQUESTIONABLY, THE BIOLOGICAL theory of evolution by adaptive natural selection is one of the most significant ideas in human history. The fact that it remains contested by creationists to this day is proof enough of the impact it has had on humanity’s perception of itself and the world, not least through its effects on religious thought, whose inclusive ambitions to explain the origins, duties and destiny of humankind it has impugned.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • From the Archive: Martyn Bedford on Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' ,
    • In 'Silenced Voices' reports the ongoing story of the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been… ,
    • The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity has long been agonised over. But what do we know about his victims?… ,
    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    Follow Us