(Hat tip to Sean and Will for their conversation on Facebook that inspired this article.) The evangelists for evolution make a lot of strange and contradictory statements. I am routinely ridiculed and characterized as some sort of anti-Darwinian nutcase who doesn't understand the basic concepts of evolution theory because I tend to paraphrase what the "experts" have written and said with dripping sarcasm. One of my more vocal critics was asked his opinion about this six-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyTcINLKq4c Prosanta Chakrabarty Sean replied, That's the kind of explanation I would have given. I only have a couple of provisos:(1) I would disagree that there are lots of <<theories>> of evolution. I would say there was one overarching theory with lots of associated hypotheses.(2) I'd disagree that birds are reptiles. I think reptiles are a paraphyletic group, which excludes aves. Other than that, I think it was a good overall summary. Hmmm. Was that video really a good summary? Professor Chakrabarty began his speech with a joke formed as a loaded question frequently attributed to creationists: "If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" And the punchline? "Well, because we're not monkeys. We're fish." The really funny thing was Chakrabarty wasn't joking. According to the theory of evolution, humans are directly related to fish primarily by descent with modification via sexual reproduction, by isolation of a breeding population, over long periods of time. It seemed to me that Professor Chakrabarty was making a number of … [Read more...]
Dishonest book reviews
Unless these are the first words I've written that you've ever read, you're probably aware of the fact I've been a rather unabashed critic of Darwinian theory as extrapolated to explain the origin of new species. The results of Gregor Mendel's genetic experiments, muddled together with atheist philosophy, offers a superficial and completely inadequate alternative to a supernatural Creator, yet the high priests of Darwin eagerly wait for the first opportunity to make a blood sacrifice of those deemed heretics. Writing a book and getting it published is actually rather easy in the modern world of ebooks and self-publishing. However, writing a book worth reading is another matter entirely. I know this, because after letting them go "cold" in my memory I re-read my first two Mercer novels and promptly pulled them off the market in order to improve them. I'm a tough, but fair critic. The plots won't be changed significantly, but I know I can do a better job of telling the story than I did when I first started writing eight years ago. My wife and I have become much better editors over time. Recently I stumbled across this internet post by Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson, who made a worrisome claim about a fellow academic named Herman Mays. Dr. Jeanson recently wrote a book called Replacing Darwin, which I have not had the opportunity to read. In this article where Dr. Mays was mentioned, Dr. Jeanson wrote, Dr. Mays asserted that I’m scientifically incompetent to make the claims that I do in Replacing Darwin. He also claimed that my book is full of errors and omissions. … [Read more...]
