Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution anthropology, and those who consider a creator to be unnecessary, such as Richard Dawkins who published "The Selfish Gene" just three years later. Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" is a 1973 essay by the evolutionary biologist and Eastern Orthodox Christian Theodosius Dobzhansky, criticising anti-evolution creationism and espousing theistic evolution. The essay was first published in "American Biology Teacher" in 1973. Dobzhansky first used the title statement, in a slight variation, in a 1964 presidential address to the American Society of Zoologists, "Biology, Molecular
The Selfish Gene to make some critical distinctions, in particular, the difference between group selection for group advantage and group selection conveying individual advantage. A good deal of objection to "The Selfish Gene" stemmed from its failure to be always clear about "selection" and "replication". Dawkins says the gene is the fundamental unit of selection, and then points out that selection doesn't act directly upon the gene, but upon 'vehicles' or 'extended phenotypes'. Stephen Jay Gould took exception to calling the gene a 'unit of selection' because selection acted only upon phenotypes. Summarizing the Dawkins-Gould difference of view, Sterelny says: The word 'cause'