Overview

Most people know Greg Graffin as the lead singer of the punk band Bad Religion, but few know that he also received a PhD from Cornell University and teaches evolution at the University of California at Los Angeles. In Anarchy Evolution, Graffin argues that art and science have a deep connection. As an adolescent growing up when ""drugs, sex, and trouble could be had on any given night,"" Graffin discovered that the study of evolution provided a framework through which he could make sense of the world. In this provocative and personal book, he describes his own coming of age as an artist and the formation of his naturalist worldview on questions involving God, science, and human existence. While the battle between religion and science is often displayed in the starkest of terms, Anarchy Evolution provides fresh and nuanced insights into the long-standing debate about atheism and the human condition. It is a book for anyone who has ever wondered if God really exists.

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9780061828508

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Humble, challenging, and inspiring....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. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Humble, challenging, and inspiring.... 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. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 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 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] explains how evolution can be a guide to life. --Scientific American 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 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse A worldview eloquently expressed. --Chicago Tribune [Graffin] explains how evolution can be a guide to life. --Scientific American Humble, challenging, and inspiring.... 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. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 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 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 Whether you re a believer, an atheist, an agnostic, or anything in between, this is a necessary book. --PopMatters

Humble, challenging, and inspiring....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. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Humble, challenging, and inspiring.... 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. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 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 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] explains how evolution can be a guide to life. --Scientific American 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 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse Whether you're a believer, an atheist, an agnostic, or anything in between, this is a necessary book. --PopMatters

Author Information

Greg Graffin, born in Racine, Wisconsin, is most recognised as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the noted Los Angeles band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980 and has been its only continual member. Graffin is also a professor of life sciences and obtained his Ph.D. at Cornell University. He has lectured courses in life sciences and paleontology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Steve Olson is the author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, which was one of five finalists for the 2002 nonfiction National Book Award. He has been a consultant writer for the National Academy of Sciences as well as other organizations, and his writing has been featured in Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, Scientific American, and Wired, among other publications. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Yale University in 1978.

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