. Helena Cronin. Cambridge. 490 pp. $39.95
Despite its imposing simplicity and awesome explanatory power, the theory of natural selection has never achieved the status of a universally ac- cepted scientific law. As recent surveys reveal, an astonishingly large proportion of people in the oth- erwise rational West do not believe in evolution. Belief, however, is not the only issue: The idea of design-without-a-designer has had to struggle for survival against not only those who dislike its im-plications...