The Scientific Alternative to Neo-Darwinian
Evolutionary Theory
By A.E. Wilder-Smith
By A.E. Wilder-Smith
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| The Scientific Alternative To Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory |
The atheist who critiques this book will likely criticize Wilder-Smith for the religious sentiments that he displays in the book. But this is like the wedding attendee complaining about the Christian vows spoken at the wedding, but refusing to acknowledge the good food that was also provided for the guests' enjoyment (of which he fully partook).
The book opens with the now-famous story of the Phlogiston Theory, which the author analogizes to proponents of evolution theory. Over the years I have witnessed those on each side of the fence claim that the other was just like Joseph Priestly (the main proponent of the now-defunct theory).
What should not be lost in the discussion is that one side is more ignorant than the other side, but that neither side should ever consider their understanding to be so entrenched in reality that they fail to consider that there is some piece of knowledge that will totally discredit their notions regarding the theory that they hold to, or at the least will cause them to drastically alter their understanding. This book shows how evolutionists are the Priestly's of today.
According to Wilder-Smith, the piece of knowledge which exemplifies this for the evolutionist is the abstract quality of information, and how it NEVER arises spontaneously. Wilder-Smith takes great pains to outline in the most clarifying terms possible the utter foolishness to believe that abstract information could ever arise from non-abstract processes.
Atheists and others who adhere to evolution theory like to complain that there are tons of examples of information arising spontaneously, but they fail miserably by conflating order with information.
Along the way toward delineating the alternative, Wilder-Smith introduces concepts that have been established in scientific circles for quite some time. For example, children have for several decades been introduced to the microscopic world of cellular biology in science classes of grade school. Many a child has brilliantly (and some not so artistically) constructed 3-D models of a single cell, complete with mitochondria, nucleus, RNA, DNA, along with all the varying organelles required for cellular life.
As the students construct this model, they quickly learn that a cell is like a mini village, with energy plants, transport vehicles, hospital (self-diagnostic and self-repair) facilities, etc. Wilder-Smith notes that when Darwin and earlier scientists investigated life, they were aware that cells existed, but had little knowledge of the organelles that lied within them. So to them, simplistic answers that seemed to indicate that "life came from non-life" actually seemed more than possible - they seemed incredibly probable.
Wilder-Smith points out the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of information within DNA, and analogizes them with von Neumann's machine. A section of the improbability of a machine ever reaching consciousness is an excellent philosophical/scientific discussion of how science has never witnessed any such machine made by man ever reaching a state of awareness. Also, Wilder-Smith discusses the improbable size of a machine if it were to achieve a status similar to that of life processes, whereby it were to become self-replicating, and self-diagnostic, and able to self-repair: the size of a machine with such capabilities would be beyond all practicality.
There is so much more contained within this book that makes it an excellent read for those scientifically minded to inquire regarding the phenomena of information packed within life -systems, and its origin. I heartily recommend this book, but it is most likely out of print.
