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What Darwin Didn't Know: A Doctor Dissects the Theory of Evolution
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Average Rating:  out of 21 Reviews
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Price: $13.99
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Sale: $5.74
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Manufacturer: Harvest House Publishers
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780736913133
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Geoffrey Simmons::William Dembski
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Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
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Dewey Decimal Number: 231.7652
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Publication Date: 2004-01-01
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Reading Level: 320
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Description: Endorsed by William Dembski, Ph.D., the scientist at the forefront of the intelligent–design movement. Darwin might have thought twice about publishing his theories if he had had access to today’s medical and microbiological discoveries. Drawing on years of research, Dr. Simmons demonstrates that the almost infinite complexity of the human anatomy simply could not have developed by chance. For example: - the body runs on “battery power”...from the hundreds of mitochondria in each cell
- the two sexes—evolutionary theory cannot explain why they exist
- every cell is its own pharmacist, chemist, and metallurgist
Accessible, clearly presented, and utterly fascinating, What Darwin Didn’t Know shows the human body to be a marvelous system constructed by an infinitely wise Designer.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: What Simmons Didn't Know |
Date: 2008-12-21 |
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Details: Simmons tells us in his book that he is a doctor who came to know Christianity through his wife. He also tells us that he studied the human body for 40 years. He then tells us that he was inspired by Michael Behe and believes that the marvel of the human body points to the existence of a designer. As a medical doctor he must have seen innumerable cases of the designer product breaking down, and every body eventually gets recalled. If those are signs of a designer, they indicate a very poor designer; and any manufacturer with such abysmal record ought to shut down his factory.
Simmons' naivety is also evident from his quoting Einstein as saying "Now I believe there's a God in Heaven". Einstein said that after he was enthralled by the performance of the 14-year old Yehudi Menuhin. It was a jocular throwaway line (Einstein was never a Christian and did not believe in heaven) meant to flatter the young prodigy.
This book does not have any profound or substantive argument worth reading, and hence, nothing much to criticize. It is a short piece of work generally expressing the gratitude and amazement the author had for the universe and his god. |
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Review Summary: It will make you wince |
Date: 2008-09-27 |
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Details: I'm really stunned that this book got published, it's so full of errors and misunderstandings. He seems to be unaware of the transitional fossils of the whale and and giraffe lineages dug up in the past 20 years. He also wants to take Darwin down, a man who lived in the 19th century. Though his foundation was correct, we now know he made some missteps. Imagine an attack on Christianity called "what Adam didn't know."
His lazy "things must be as they appear" approach is flawed (resurrected from the Bronze Age, perhaps). For example, to most of us, the sun *appears* to go around the earth, space *appears* to not be curved near massive objects, matter *appears* to not be made of mostly empty space. Yet these are incorrect. Likewise, to some people, human life *appears* to be designed. There's strong evidence that this is also wrong.
The author should join the 21st century. It's quite nice here. |
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Review Summary: A physician's-eye view of the human body |
Date: 2008-07-25 |
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Details: The book basically gives a very simplistic overview of each body system (college-level anatomy and physiology textbooks are much deeper in scope) and ends with several main points from each chapter that would seem to point to design. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Christian and I believe in God. However, I have read better and more informative books about the design inherent in the universe as well as in humanity. |
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Review Summary: Don't trust the Doc. |
Date: 2008-02-14 |
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Details: I felt embarrassed for the author. Moreover, I felt embarrassed to have bought the book new and thereby contributed to his royalties.
He maintains he is a doctor bringing fascinating medical gems to a wide audience - but his explanations and analogies are humdrum and often misleading to the point that he verges on saying: 'Wow, this is a really intricate mechanism whose development I can't begin to understand - magic must be involved.'
Unforgivable is the distorted 'flat-earth' logic he applies to his arguments. As an example, he suggests our balance apparatus amazingly filters out distracting stimuli, including all the rotations of our spinning planet. It is indeed an impressive filter - but more miraculous would be if we could detect such minuscule relative accelerations as caused by our rotating and revolving solar system.
He glibly dismisses the fossil-record; insists that all our organ systems must have sprung up fully-formed as their individual components could serve no possible purpose without all the others; he fails to address 'Darwinian propaganda-mill' theories except as straw men; points out a few differences between us and monkeys; and rounds off with a chapter on how 'gifts' such as painting or singing serve no evolutionary cause so must, presumably, be divinely bestowed. These may be standard enough moves in ID literature - but can only be overlooked if he is preaching to the converted. Anyone with a modicum of scepticism will struggle to trust the author's deliberate and blatant distortions of others' arguments.
His salient point is that science itself continually adapts and no theory claims to be the final word. Hence, Darwinist theory too must be expected to undergo modifications or be superseded by new models and paradigms. As indeed does happen. What sits uncomfortably is his failure to acknowledge the usefulness of theories despite their incompleteness. How does science's lack of omniscience justify a return to his superstitious fire-and-cave notions of life? Such an alternative theory as he proposes is of the sort known as 'Not even wrong'.
If you want fascinating insights into the human body, buy a college-level Physiology textbook such as Sherwood's 'Human Physiology'. If you want to explore Omphalos theories, the best versions are still to be found in the holy books. If you want to wallow in shameless polemic, try 'Of Pandas and People'. And if you want to know what weaknesses and limitations Darwinism really has, head to the popular science shelves and explore the likes of Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' first-hand.
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Review Summary: A Misguided Read |
Date: 2007-07-18 |
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Details: First of all, this book received two stars from me as opposed to one because it was very interesting to read about some of the intricacies of the human body. However, I could have just as easily gone to an anatomy text for such a purpose. For that reason, I say that it is misguided.
Dr. Simmons, while writing passionately and eloquently, does absolutely nothing to discredit or bring to doubt evolution. In a nutshell, the book largely consists of a pattern that first describes an intricacy of the human body, and then fallaciously states in one manner or another that 'it can't be imagined' how something of such complexity could possibly arrived through evolution; i.e. the argument from personal incredulity, which is extremely popular among creationists and apologetics.
Additionally, I found it quite interesting that though the concept of evolution clearly applies to all living beings - macro and micro alike - Dr. Simmons curiously decides to ignore the rest of life by focusing only on humans to myopically imply that humans are the divine exception to biology.
I feel that this book was 'designed' for those who are already staunch supporters of Intelligent Design and have no wish to learn the actual science behind evolution. This book will no doubt be very successful in reinforcing creationist belief, but for those who have an actual grasp on the specifics of evolution as a whole, this book in actuality fails to dispute any of the key cornerstones such as random mutation coupled with non-random natural selection over a geological timespan to produce complexity.
If someone is interested in learning about evolution as opposed to human body complexity, they are urged to search elsewhere, because any actual discussion of it within this book is sorely lacking.
Those wishing for a true expose on the shortcomings of Dr. Simmons' book need only to read a general evolution text such as Richard Dawkins' "The Blind Watchmaker".
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