Reflection On Guns Germs And Steel

Megann Schmidt
Final Paper At the beginning of the semester, I was greatly looking forward to this class because I found the topics presented very interesting, and now, at the end of the semester, I can say this class has even exceeded my expectations. The readings and discussion have taught me a number of things and have changed some of my perceptions of the biological world. As I look back, a few things I learned that stand out are critical reading skills, legitimateness of evolution, the impact of evolution, and the flaws of science education.
For starters, the readings were normally filled with interesting information, unlike typical textbooks, making them much easier to read. Honestly, I think this is the only class I’ve ever actually done the assigned readings, so that might explain why it took me until now to learn how to critically read. Nonetheless, this class …show more content…
From the very beginning, we have been encouraged to think further into the author and possible bias by reading Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit and listening to all the bias and contradictions pointed out by Dr. Segar in many of the discussions. It took me awhile to become decent at critically examining the readings, so the first book, Guns Germs and Steel, was difficult for me because I struggled to separate Diamond’s bias towards New Guineans. I also discovered there are many different aspects of the articles that must be examined before an article can be fully relied on. For example, in Why Evolution is True, Coyne fails to include much evidence about the evolution of fish and amphibians. This does not mean his book is not reliable, but it