Tails of Evolution: Unnatural Selections, a story collection by Stan Rice, story one. The Descent of Man

Stan Rice has published a collection of short stories, Tails of Evolution. Rice is also the author of the Encyclopedia of Evolution, Life of Earth, and popular articles about evolution. Here is Rice’s summary from Kindle: 

            What you don’t know about evolution can kill you.

In these stories, Stan Rice introduces us to people who would never have imagined that evolution had any impact on their lives. A young fundamentalist Christian woman, out of place at a university, discovers that love can evolve. A creationist discovers half-fish half-amphibians in a swamp in Oklahoma. Two young Englishmen find themselves actors on the stage of Darwinian sexual selection. A fundamentalist bases his faith on hearing a devil bird. A young preacher finds a hidden city that is based on Darwinism. A food scientist discovers a tribe of Homo ergaster pre-humans in the cliffs of Madagascar. Darwin meets Lincoln, who was born on the same day in 1809. And a young man discovers that love is the most combustible thing in the universe.

Every writer who deals with evolution should have a short story titled The Descent of Man, which is the title of Darwin’s famous book specifically about human evolution. This was the first story in the collection by the artist formerly known as T. Coraghessan Boyle.

Everyone has heard about the combat between creationists and evolutionary scientists. Many people vaguely sympathize with one or the other, but may also think, what difference does it make?

And Rice does not use this story as a way of attacking your beliefs, one way or the other. Even if he did, this story would probably not change your mind. Instead, he uses the story as an opportunity to look empathetically into the lives of a young fundamentalist woman (Naomi) and a young man (Hunter). Naomi’s extreme fundamentalist viewpoint really bothers, but also fascinates, Hunter. She even uses scripture to “prove” that women have one more rib than men, because God made Eve out of Adam’s rib. (Even if this were true, why would the missing rib have been transmitted genetically through all of human history?) This belief is surprisingly common even among educators.

But it is not just Naomi’s beliefs that puzzle him. Hunter also finds her attractive, something he tries to resist. Naomi keeps reality out of her mind by constantly muttering prayers under her breath. She refuses to make friends when she goes to the big university because she is convinced they are all out to destroy her faith. But she is amazed to discover that Hunter treats her with serious respect. When he proposes that she subject her belief to experimental confirmation—by counting ribs on male bodies—she finds herself trapped by honesty; she has to say yes. She has thereby allowed Hunter into an intimacy of friendship. Hunter also discombobulates her beliefs about non-believers when he shows totally unnecessary kindness to her.

Naomi also knows that small religious groups like hers have genetic mutations show up frequently in their bodies, not just because the professor said so, but based on the people she knows in her church.

When Naomi discovers that the male students in the sample have the same number of ribs as she, Hunter makes an astonishing discovery by working his way into her clothes. What is it? Let’s just say that this is the explanation for the title of the book.