Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God

by Greg Graffin, Steve Olson

Overview

“Take one man who rejects authority and religion, and leads a punk band. Take another man who wonders whether vertebrates arose in rivers or in the ocean, is fascinated by evolution, creativity, and Ice Age animals. Put them together, what do you get? Greg Graffin, and this uniquely fascinating book.” —Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

Anarchy Evolution is a provocative look at the collision between religion and science, by an author with unique authority: UCLA lecturer in Paleontology, and founding member of Bad Religion, Greg Graffin. Alongside science writer Steve Olson (whose Mapping Human History was a National Book Award finalist), Graffin delivers a powerful discussion sure to strike a chord with readers of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion or Christopher Hitchens God Is Not Great. 

In this passionate polemic, Graffin argues that art and science have a deep connection. He describes his own coming-of-age as an artist and the formation of his naturalist worldview over the past three decades. Anarchy Evolution sheds new light on the long-standing debate on religion and the human condition. It is a book for anyone who has ever wondered if God really exists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061828515
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/18/2011
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	153,299
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Greg Graffin is the lead vocalist and songwriter of Bad Religion. He obtained his PhD in zoology at Cornell University, and has served as a lecturer in life sciences and paleontology at UCLA. He splits his time between Ithaca, New York, and Los Angeles.

Steve Olson is an award-winning science writer, a consultant for the National Academy of Sciences, and the author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, a National Book Award finalist.

What People are Saying About This

Jared Diamond

“Take one man who rejects authority and religion, and leads a punk band. Take another man who wonders whether vertebrates arose in rivers or in the ocean, is fascinated by evolution, creativity, and Ice Age animals. Put them together, what do you get? Greg Graffin, and this uniquely fascinating book.”

Editorial Reviews

Graffin is one of those rare people who seem to have combined two lives into one. He’s one of a small but growing number of atheists in the United States willing to talk about the damage they believe religion can do.

Paste

Bucking authority and the religious views of his family, Graffin explains how he has developed a personal philosophy that celebrates the power of nature.

Nature

A worldview eloquently expressed.

Chicago Tribune

[Graffin] explains how evolution can be a guide to life.

Scientific American

Whether you’re a believer, an atheist, an agnostic, or anything in between, this is a necessary book.

PopMatters

Take one man who rejects authority and religion, and leads a punk band. Take another man who wonders whether vertebrates arose in rivers or in the ocean, is fascinated by evolution, creativity, and Ice Age animals. Put them together, what do you get? Greg Graffin, and this uniquely fascinating book.

Jared Diamond

Anarchy Evolution sets out to draw connections between evolution, naturalist thought and punk, an undertaking that might sound rife with the potential to be reachy—or preachy. But Graffin and Olson manage to weave the seemingly disparate concepts together into a satisfying narrative.

LA Weekly

A worldview eloquently expressed.

Chicago Tribune

Graffin is one of those rare people who seem to have combined two lives into one. He’s one of a small but growing number of atheists in the United States willing to talk about the damage they believe religion can do.

Paste

With the assistance of science journalist Olson (Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes, 2002, etc.), Bad Religion leader Graffin presents a memoir of a life lived "at the intersection of evolutionary biology and punk rock."

In 1980, at age 15, Graffin co-founded the seminal punk band and also became fascinated with the writings and ideas of evolution. Bad Religion still plays and records, and the author is an evolutionary biologist with a doctorate in zoology from Cornell University. For Graffin, the appeal of both worlds was that, at their best, they challenged authority, dogma and given truths and opened up space for the anarchic process of creativity. As a naturalist, the author states that "the physical universeisthe universe"—there is nothing more. But that is more than enough for him, as having a role in the unfolding adventure of life on earth—which includes both tragedy and death—sustains him. Life, he writes, is not simply an inexorable process of natural selection, in which the fittest survive and procreate, but an anarchic creative collision of biology and environment, chance and circumstance. Graffin and Olson explain this view of evolution in clear, accessible language. While avoiding easy analogies with evolution, a large part of the book is devoted to the evolution ofBad Religion, as its art and career careened in unpredictable directions. Along the way, Graffin provides a wonderful depiction of the early L.A. punk scene, a detailed account of his adventures doing field work in the remote Amazon region of Bolivia and an honest appraisal of his failure to successfully balance science, music and family. In the end, writes the author, it is the human trait of empathy—not religion or any other authority—that allows us to recognize our common humanity and to accept the uniqueness of each individual.

Humble, challenging and inspiring.

Kirkus Reviews

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