Other issues are of greater concern for contemporary biologists. Natural selection is the only known explanation for adaptation. In this section, Ridley tries to celebrate the effectiveness of evolutionary explanation while dismissing opposing explanations. There are several important points in this section. Natural selection can explain adaptation, given well-known facts or widely accepted assumptions about biology.
Alternative explanations are famously less successful.
That is, it is not so much an explanation as an assertion that further scientific explanation is unnecessary. Contemporary creationism not only begs the question but frequently ignores or misrepresents evidence for evolution. Lamarckianism presumes that useful characters will be acquired through experience. Certainly, some useful traits do develop in response to practice, exercise, wear, etc. But Lamarckianism leaves unexplained how useful characters should come to be acquired in the first place.