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posited a theory of human nature with competing motives: We are both competitive and cooperative, altruistic and selfish. There are times of need when we can count on the humanity of strangers to help us, but daily trade in a marketplace is founded on the lesser angels of our natures. As Smith explained in The Wealth of Nations, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”10 By allowing individuals to follow their natural inclination to pursue their self-love, the country as a whole will prosper, almost as if the entire system were being directed by . . . yes . . . an invisible hand. It is here that we find the one and only use of the metaphor in The Wealth of Nations:

Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. . . . He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.11

Compare this to Darwin’s description of what happens in nature when organisms pursue their self-love with no cognizance of the unintended consequences of their behavior:

It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the long lapses of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into long past geological ages, that we only see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were.12

Inheriting the Wind

Evolution provides a scientific foundation for the core values shared by most Christians and conservatives, and by accepting—and embracing—the theory of evolution, Christians and conservatives strengthen their religion, their politics, and science itself. The conflict between science and religion is senseless. It is based on fears and misunderstandings rather than on facts and moral wisdom. Indeed, for the benefit of our society, the battle currently being played out in curriculum committees and public courtrooms over evolution and creationism must end now, or else, as the book of Proverbs (11:29) warned:

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.

THE REAL UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN EVOLUTION

There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

—Donald Rumsfeld, United States Secretary of Defense, press conference statement on February 12 (Darwin’s birthday), 2002

On September 18, 1835, H.M.S. Beagle dropped anchor in the Galápagos archipelago at the base of Frigatebird Hill on Chatham Island, now known as San Cristóbal. Blue-footed boobies circled about the bay, and at the appropriate moment tucked their wings back and sliced into the shallow sea to scoop their prey from schools of thousands of tiny fish. Earning their moniker, the frigatebirds perched high on the cliffs above, poised like pirates to pounce on the boobies and steal their catch.

Charles Darwin’s first impression of