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What do you know about evolutionary theory? Or, maybe there are two questions here: (1) what do you think you know? (2) what do you actually know?

In reality, if people are honest about the matter -- and quite irrespective of whether they believe in evolution or they are opposed to it -- most individuals probably would have to acknowledge that they know almost nothing at all about the actual nuts and bolts of the issues at the heart of evolutionary theory. Their belief concerning this matter -- whatever the character of that belief may be -- is, for the most part, rooted in two sources: (1) a largely unexamined acceptance of the opinion of others; (2) the extent to which evolutionary theory renders carrying on with the rest of their philosophical or religious perspective easier or more difficult.

In addition, the controversy surrounding evolutionary theory with respect to origin of life issues has been plagued by the fact that many of the advocates for various sides of this issue have been conducting the discussion on the wrong level. More specifically, people have been arguing mostly in terms of the evidence of paleobiology, or the anatomic/fossilized data that has been drawn from zoological and botanical studies, and, unfortunately, the issue of the origin of life cannot be settled, one way or the other, with any degree of certitude when approached in this manner.

On the aforementioned level of discussion, one, at best, can obtain data which is either consistent with, or raises problems for, evolutionary theory as an explanation for the origin of life. However, there is no smoking gun (either for or against) to be found in such material -- just self-serving and heated rhetoric that tends to be cast in the garments of apparent rigor.

Furthermore, contrary to what many people believe, with the exception of a brief allusion to the possibilities that might exist in a ‘warm little pond’ somewhere ... a pond with just the right set of magical conditions ... Darwin has almost nothing at all to say about the issue of origin of life. The entire argument in his universally known, but largely unread, book is not about the origins of life but about the plausibility of a form of argument which alludes to, and presupposes, such a possibility without ever spelling out the mechanism.

The first part of the title of Darwin’s historic work is: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. There is a potential problem inherent in this title because the title tends to suggest that a species comes into being by a mechanism known as “natural selection”. However, natural selection gives expression to a set of forces that operates after-the-fact of something having originated, and, therefore, natural selection does not so much generate a species as much as natural selection operates on such a species once the latter has originated.

Natural selection acts on what is. It presupposes what is.

Natural selection does not cause what is, but, rather, is an expression of those aspects of what is that may help determine which features of what is might continue to be. Natural selection introduces nothing new into the evolutionary picture, but, rather, only says something about the facets of that picture that might be most consonant with the dynamic of interacting natural forces that exist at a given time and in a given location.

Therefore, the cause of that (whether a prebiotic collection of organic molecules or some primitive form of protocell) which natural selection comes to act upon still stands in need of an explanation. You cannot use natural selection as an explanation for that which natural explanation clearly presupposes without becoming entangled in completely circular thinking, and this sort of jaunt around the conceptual barn does not constitute an explanation of any kind.

Another problem with the previously noted title of Darwin’s book is that it gives the impression that something is being selected ... as a person might make a selection among an array of choices. In truth, nothing is being selected since what exists in the way of a set of organic chemicals, or a set of protocells, or a set of species is either compatible (across a range of being more, or less, compatible) with the existing conditions of nature, or such chemicals, protocells, or species are not compatible.

What is compatible, more or less, survives. What is not, more or less compatible, does not survive. Nothing has been selected. Another key concept in Darwinian theory is the notion of ‘the accumulation of small variations’. The idea of the accumulation of small variations does not really account for either the origin of life, in general, or for the origins of different, particular biological blueprints, so to speak, on which the notion of species difference is based.

Variation presupposes that which is capable of such variation Consequently, what needs to be explained is the origin of the capacity for variation.

Genetics is not the science which provides an account of the story of the origin of this capacity. Rather, genetics is merely the science that delineates how such a capacity operates once it has arisen.

Only with the advent of modern molecular and cellular biology have we finally come into contact with the sort of information that allows one to make insightful judgements about the plausibility of evolutionary theory as an adequate account for the origin of life on Earth. When one integrates the disciplines of molecular and cellular biology with data derived from geology, hydrology, meteorology, and cosmology -- along with what has been learned about organic and inorganic chemistry -- then, one is in a position to work toward an informed understanding concerning the questions which surround and permeate the possibility of whether the modern neo-Darwinian theory of evolution offers an acceptable paradigm with which to approach origin of life issues.

In Evolution On Trial one will find a complete overview of all of the basic data, evidence and arguments which converge on the issues at the heart of evolutionary theory as a potential candidate of explanation for the origin of life. This overview is complementary to a second work that is currently in preparation, but the present treatment does permit a first glimpse of what must be grasped in order to be in a conceptual position to be able to arrive at informed judgements -- whether pro or con -- about evolutionary theory.

In contradistinction to the original Scopes "Monkey" trial when John Scopes, a highschool science teacher, was put on trial for teaching material at odds with the Biblical account of the origins of man, in Evolution on Trial, Robert Corrigan, a fictional character, has been put on trial for teaching material that is considered by the prosecution to be inconsistent with modern evolutionary theory. However, the defendant in this case is not a Creationist, nor is his argument an expression of what has come to be known as "Creationist Science".

The current overview is not about trying to prove the truth of this or that religious account about the origins of either human beings, in particular, or life, in general. Evolution on Trial is about the process of interpreting empirical evidence and subjecting that data to various methods of critical reflection.

Unlike works such as Inherit the Wind which is largely the account of a clever lawyer's legalistic and philosophical dismantling of the simplistic arguments of a rather flawed personality who desired to be regarded as a defender of the faith, Evolution On Trial addresses issues of science and whether or not science, as presently understood, can be said to demonstrate the validity of evolutionary theory as an account of the origin of life. As such, this overview focuses on the issue of evolutionary theory itself and does not get sidetracked with irrelevant considerations, however interesting these later twists and turns may be in purely human terms.

I will tell you three things about Evolution on Trial which are true. First, it contains a lot of technical material. Secondly, everything that is necessary for understanding this material has been included within the context of the direct and cross examinations which take place during the trial and, as such, it is a largely self-contained work.

However, it is not the sort of discussion that one can rush through. As with anything else that is worth the effort -- and I believe this work is worth the effort -- Evolution on Trial takes time to digest and appreciate.

If you are ready to make the commitment to attempt to come to grips with the essential issues of evolutionary theory, then, Evolution on Trial is waiting to be accessed. Be the first kid on your block to actually know what one is talking about when the conversation turns to evolutionary theory in relation to the origins of life problem - and this, actually, brings us to the third true thing, alluded to previously, about Evolution On Trial that can be said.

More specifically, if an individual cannot grasp the point-counterpoint of the discussion in this book, then, one is not in a conceptual position to argue intelligibly or honestly either for, or against, evolutionary theory. Whatever one might have to say on such issues will be entirely derived from the opinions of others -- opinions that may, or may not, be true and concerning which one will have no direct, personal understanding, knowledge or insight.

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