The "Alabama Insert"

In this volume, excerpted from Charles Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy (NewSouth Books, 2013), public educator, author, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, with characteristic clarity and wit, discusses the basic principles of evolution and responds to creationists' standard arguments against evolutionary theory. Dawkins's essay is a transcript of a lecture he delivered at Auburn University in 1996. While en route to Auburn, Professor Dawkins heard about the "Alabama Insert," a disclaimer of evolution by the Alabama State Board of Education pasted inside the cover of biology textbooks. Dawkins set aside his prepared lecture and extemporaneously critiqued the "Insert." Later he gave permission for a transcript of his talk to be used to further the public understanding of evolution.