The controversy came from the last chapter, on humankind. Dr. Wilson proposed that human behavior is genetically based, that humans inherit a propensity to acquire behavior and social structures, including a division of labor between the sexes, parent-child bonding, heightened altruism toward closest kin, incest avoidance, suspicion of strangers, tribalism, male dominance and territorial aggression over limited resources.
While a philosophy major in the 60s it struck me with force that philosophy without a foundation of evolution was bull sh*t. Likewise at theological school I was equally convinced that the starting point of understanding life, meaning, ethics and morality, as well as theology without Darwin was no better. Meaning, morality and tribalism are so intricately intertwined that trying to understand without evolution is meaningless. The early and great American founders, most of them deists of some sort intuited as much.