By: Denton, Michael
Pub. Date:  03/97
Publisher: Adler and Adler
Binding: Trade Paper, 368pp.
ISBN:091756152X
Our Price: $19.95

Related Books: Science and Evolution

Synopsis
"Following a brief historical analysis of the development of evolutionary theory, Denton draws on recent work in taxonomy, paleontology, and microbiology to argue that Darwin's views are no longer tenable. It is the evidence from microbiology and biochemistry, notably the studies of protein and amino acids sequences, that ultimately leads the author to reject evolution and claim that each class of organism is isolated and unique." (Choice) Index.

Larry Shaffer - The Times Literary Supplement  
The logical structure of Denton's arguments leaves much to be desired. Repeatedly he confuses an absence of evidence with evidence for absence. . . . The flaws of the book are all the more sad because it is clear that Denton has some interesting criticisms to make, especially concerning the gaps in the fossil record and the biochemical 'distance' between species. Stray statements show that he understands the workings of evolution and natural selection even though his argument is often obscured by the attempt to make it a wholesale demolition of the gospel according to Darwin.
 
Library Journal  
Denton pursues his avowed purpose, to critique the Darwinian model of evolution, in a manner alternately fascinating and tiresome. He details legitimate questions, some as old as Darwin's theory, some as new as molecular biology, but he also distorts or misrepresents other ``problems.'' For example, he falls into the classic typological trap: organisms with the same name are all the same. He has Euparkeria as the closest possible ancestor of Archaeopteryx, thus displaying either ignorance or disregard for discoveries over the past two decades. He misunderstands or willfully misrepresents the nature of a cladogram as opposed to a phylogeny. Much of the book reads like creationist prattle, but there are also some interesting points. For informed readers. Walter P. Coombs, Jr., Biology Dept., Western New England Coll., Springfield, Mass.
 
Steven Rose - New Statesman  
{The book} is a series of random chapters lumping together almost any andevery criticism of neo-Darwinism from the 'gaps in the fossil record' . . . through to the arguments by astronomer Fred Hoyle that the odds against human life are so great that evolution alone cannot account for it. This assemblage of ill-assorted and often mutually contradictory argument is not helped by persistent inaccuracies; names are mis-spelt, positions travestied and basic biological data mis-stated. More serious is a fundamental obfuscation of purpose; Denton's interest is clearly to strengthen the hand of those who, for whatever ideological purpose, resort to the repeated argument that 'even many scientists' disagree with evolutionary theory. By never making his own position clear he does his readers a disservice.
 
Tom Bethell - National Review  
Contrary to the general belief, there is very little factual support for the theory of evolution. In 1981 Colin Patterson, a senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, remarked at a public lecture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York that there was 'not one thing' he knew about evolution. . . . {This title} is the best summary of the case against evolution since Norman Macbeth's minor classic Darwin Retired {BRD 1972}. Denton includes a good chapter on the cladists, a recent school of taxonomistswith which Patterson is associated. . . . This is a scientific work, and a highly readable one, not an essay in Biblical fundamentalism.