History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

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The Great Ape that asked "Why?"
Nice Concept, Bad Execution
A Good Summary of Complex New Evidence
Fantastic
The Superstition of Scientism

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief
Lewis Wolpert
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393064492

Book Description

A unique, scientific look into why we are all believers.

In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the White Queen tells Alice that to believe in a wildly improbable fact she simply needs to "draw a long breath and shut [her] eyes." Alice finds this advice ridiculous. But don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking? Seventy percent of Americans believe in angels; 13 percent of British scientists "touch wood"; 40 percent of Americans believe that astrology is scientific. And that is only the beginning.

In Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Lewis Wolpert tackles one of the most important causes on the horizon of public debate: the nature of belief. Looking at belief's psychological basis and its possible evolutionary origins in physical cause and effect, Wolpert expertly investigates what science can tell us about those concepts we are so sure of, covering everything from everyday beliefs that give coherence to our experiences, to religious beliefs, to paranormal beliefs for which there is no evidence.

Customer Reviews:

The Great Ape that asked "Why?".......2007-10-07

I read this book as the last of a group of books comprising the recent works of Daniel Dennett (whew!)(Breaking the Spell), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great), and both of the works by Sam Harris (The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation). For many reasons and particularly because of Wolpert's straightforward theme, I regret I ended rather than started with Wolpert's book in the group. As you are no doubt aware, the theme/proposition of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast is that the cause-and-effect wiring that showed up in our brains to permit the competitive edge* of complex tool-making is the same wiring that causes our children to ask innumerable questions beginning with "why" too soon after learning to speak syntactically. It is this drive to model our world by causes and effects that competitively distinguishes us as a species. We are an anxious bunch when left with too many unanswered "whys" and turn to stories of causal links or assign temporally correlated events as causally linked in order to reassure ourselves all is well...things have always and will continue to happen for reasons that may be in our control or in the control of one or more benevolent supernatural entities. Just as the scientific method often tests hypotheses that are not immediately dispelled by common sense, these stories of causal links do not necessarily need a foundation in the natural world...they just need to satisfy the cause-effect craving. As you are aware, correlation may indicate but does not necessarily equate with causation and so scientific investigators are left determining, and re-determining, the causal mechanisms, if any, in nature underlying the correlation. Unlike the scientific method, once these stories of casual links take root, we are wired to hold them fast even in the face of independently corroborating facts to the contrary.

*Sorry, I just couldn't help myself from punning.

Combining Wolpert's book with the recent works of the above-cited authors, one takes away a broader theme (see Michael Shermer, Why Darwin Matters) that perhaps we humans got this far by the extra caution taken when seeing patterns where none exist, by immediately projecting intent and anticipated actions onto other beings or objects (irrespective of whether these beings were present or ever existed) and responding to those projections, and by developing both our technologies and our myths due to our insatiable quest for causal links. When contemplating an existence of our conscious self beyond the lifespan of our amazing, yet mortal, brain, we naturally feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. If this something involves or is orchestrated by one or more supernatural entities, we have no way of scientifically knowing.

Wolpert ends his book in a fashion reminiscent of the late Stephen J. Gould (Rock of Ages) where religious beliefs and scientific beliefs are each given their own due respect/space (as you may recall Gould's nonoverlapping magisteria). To the extent scientific beliefs are nearly inaccessible to those without sufficient skills in critical analysis and mathematics and to the extent religious beliefs can take hold in the mind of a child in a day, the populating advantage appears to go to religious beliefs. Unlike Dawkins, Wolpert climbs no soapbox to cry for enhanced critical analysis, mathematics and scientific reasoning in American public schools. He shows little if any distaste for purposeful "scientific" misinformation fed children in home schools or schools supported by literalist religions. Perhaps Wolpert took the matter as far as he felt comfortable in his closing that religious belief systems should not abridge the rights of others.

Nice Concept, Bad Execution.......2007-09-22

Wolpert selected a very interesting topic for this book. And that's all the nice things I have to say about it. He makes a large number of claims that he doesn't bother to support with evidence or explanation. He does not cite his references, although they are listed in the back matter (helpful, but not terribly so, since a particular statement cannot be linked to its source). His paragraphs seem to start and stop willy-nilly and do not provide clear arguments to support his claims. It is unclear which of his claims he intends to support and which he intends to lob toward any ear that will listen.
In short, this book seems like it was written in an ad-hoc, stream-of-consciousness manner. The book does not clearly present its arguments, define important terms like "understand" (this is very important when discussing this topic), or lend itself to detailed study of the subject matter. This book was not yet ripe for the printing, but it was printed nevertheless. Do us all a favor and don't support the publishing of bad books by purchasing them.

A Good Summary of Complex New Evidence.......2007-08-05

Six Impossible Things before Breakfast, by Lewis Wolpert.

This book was very interesting to me as an analysis of human understanding of causation and the importance of our understanding of causation in how we perform other intellectual functions. In particular, we formulate beliefs. One of the characteristics that separates us even from the closest animals is our ability to understand and rationalize cause and effect. Animals, even the great apes, have very limited understanding -- if any -- of causality. We know that from subjecting those animals to experiments in which they would be rewarded for exercising any intellectual capacity that they have.

Human beings have a strong motive to understand causation. Sometimes the intellectual process by which we reach conclusions about causation is described as a "belief engine." There is no doubt that our belief engine is somewhat faulty. Our belief engine "prefers quick decisions, it is bad with numbers, loves representativeness, and sees patterns where often there is only randomness. It is too often influenced by authority, and it has a liking for mysticism." p. 220. We suffer from the "Pollyanna principle," being far more likely to focus on and remember positive rather than negative reports about ourselves. The "Lake Wobegon effect," explains why 94% of college professors believe that they are better than their average colleague at their jobs. The "interviewer illusion" guarantees that we will, as a rule, feel far more confident in our ability to predict the future of others than an objective retrospective analysis would justify. We are overconfident in the correctness of our own judgments. The "Barnum effect" means that we will see merit in vague and generalized descriptions.

We tend to make up stories to explain what we have observed, and the stories often overcome the actual memories. We jump to conclusions on inadequate evidence and then hold to those conclusions with vigor. Placebos work. We are capable of internalizing "forced beliefs," manufactured beliefs forced on us by society or authority. These "forced beliefs" are often manufactured to support other beliefs "that are poorly supported by evidence." Page 88.

We are pathetically bad at evaluating risks, fearing the airplane flight more than the automobile trip to the airport. We have no natural ability to infer what we learn from statistics. We are good at acquiring superstitious beliefs, and terrible at getting rid of them. We are vulnerable to both hypnotic and ordinary suggestion. Studies have shown just how susceptible we are to the implantation of false memories.

We are subject to a strong confirmation bias, which means that once we have formed a belief, we are far more likely to credit new evidence that conforms to those beliefs then evidence that challenges them.

It is difficult to understand the human mind because the instrument with which we must understand it is, of course, the human mind. Studies of animals, babies, children, and people with various kinds of brain damage can give us valuable clues. Carefully designed experiments, with adequate controls, can give us valuable hints. Studies of obviously false beliefs held by people with mental illnesses or under the influence of mind altering drugs can help us understand as well. Even this is difficult because "there are no sharp dividing lines between normal beliefs and delusional beliefs." Page 101. Still, susceptibility to delusions has a strong genetic component, suggesting that our susceptibility is somewhat hardwired into the brain.

We are naturally resistant to scientific evidence because scientific results are frequently counterintuitive. "Almost without exception, any common-sense view of the world is scientifically false." Page 203.

Wolpert proposes that some of the same pathways that developed because of our understanding of causality, particularly tool use, help us to understand our "belief engine." He contends that, "religion and causal beliefs in general had their evolutionary origin in toolmaking, which drove evolution." He admits that the evidence is limited but he could find little or no evidence to contradict this hypothesis. Our belief system is genetically programmed, by which Wolpert means, "that there are circuits in our brain that are set up by the genes that predispose us to have religious and mystical beliefs. It is hard to imagine that the religious and mystical beliefs found in every culture have some other origin." Page 217-18.

This is a short book. It is a good introduction to the science of how the human mind works. I had heard of a lot of the studies discussed in this book before. The author does an excellent job of summarizing the significance of the studies. I enjoy books that explain the cutting edge of science to non-scientists. Wolpert goes into my short list of successful popularizers of complex science.

Fantastic .......2007-06-23

It is quite beautiful how Wolpert sets up the book to explain how some can reject his premise of a non-existent god. The facts contained in this book, and the occasional theory (though well-backed ones), are brilliant and come from a man with an extensive background in the field he writes about, taking special care to write in a way anyone, even an unscientific mind, can understand. It is fantastic how someone can understand, through this book, why they reject certain arguments (specifically that a god is irrational) yet walk away still denying everything, holding on to their old beliefs, knowing exactly how. Though that of course is only a mere portion of the book. Brilliant.

The Superstition of Scientism.......2007-06-09

Lewis Wolpert reveals two personas in this book. One persona is reasonable and makes thoughtful statements about evolution and beliefs. The other persona is obnoxious and irrational--the proverbial village atheist. This is an example of the bad persona:

"I am committed to science and believe it is the best way to understand the world. I am an atheist reductionist materialist. I know of no good evidence for the existence of God." (p. x)

Wolpert knows the evidence of God's existence and discusses the evidence throughout the book. In an ongoing act of self-deception, Wolpert fails to recognize the evidence and admit that it is there. More than truth, reason, and integrity, Wolpert loves the methodology of science to the point of succumbing to the gratifications of scientism, whatever they are.

In the New York Times on February 19, 2006, Leon Weiseltier called scientism "one of the dominant superstitions of our day." Wolpert spends a whole chapter on the beliefs of scientists and touches on every possible false belief (e.g., confabulations), but does not even mention this aberration. However, it may be this article Wolpert is thinking of when he says:

"It is now asserted by some that science itself is the modern superstition." (p. 159)

Is Wolpert confabulating the word "science" whenever he sees the word "scientism." Science is only one mode of inquiry. Scientism is an excessive and irrational reliance on this branch of knowledge. Another method of inquiry is philosophy, which is what Wolpert is doing when he explains the difference between scientific beliefs and non-scientific beliefs and extols science as "the best way to understand the world."

The good persona uses the following quote as the epigraph for Chapter 2 and expands on the insight:

"This act of mind has never yet been explain'd by any philosopher." (David Hume 1739)

"The word belief, while freely and widely used to account, for example, for causes in the previous chapter, is nevertheless not easy to define. Neither philosophers nor scientists have been successful. David Hume, my hero philosopher, said of belief that he regarded it as a great mystery." (p. 23)

Conscious knowledge of simple facts is also a mystery. Take, for example, knowing that this page is white. It means more than that light is entering the eye and a signal is going to the brain. It means an awareness of the whiteness of the page. What is it? What are ideas and abstractions? What is the relationship between ourselves and our bodies? What is self-consciousness? The mind is indeed a mystery, and man is an indefinability that becomes conscious of its own existence. Plain common sense tells us human beings are embodied spirits and evidence of God's existence.

Continuing with quotes that show Wolpert at his best:

"There is a strong motive for explaining any phenomena that affect us in causal terms, an ingrained need to organize the world cognitively--both the external world and the internal world." (p. 3)

Thomas Aquinas couldn't have said it better. Human beings have a drive to know and understand everything. It is this drive that causes us to think that the universe is intelligible and that everything has a reason, explanation, or cause. The assumption of the intelligibility of the universe has served us well in science, and we are inclined to hope that we can understand our own existence. Science by itself cannot make our own existence intelligible because human beings transcend matter.

The method of inquiry that makes our existence intelligible is metaphysics: the study of being as being. We can partially understand the mystery, indefinability, and spirituality of our intellect and will with the metaphysical insight that we are finite beings and that we were created by an infinite being.

Creation is a form of causality, and the reasonable Wolpert rejects Hume's empirical understanding of causality:

"David Premack, a psychologist, has pointed out that there are two classes of causal beliefs. One, as Hume suggested, is based on one event being linked to another, and can be called weak or 'arbitrary', for there need not be any obvious connection between them, like switching on a light. Animals can learn connections by the pairing of events through this process of associative learning. The other, which is uniquely human, is strong or 'natural' causality, and is programmed into our brains so that we have evolved the ability to have a concept of forces acting on objects." (p. 27)

In fact, Wolpert goes beyond this limited understanding of causality as force by endorsing the ideas of Jean Piaget:

"Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist whose studies on the development of thinking in children have been very influential, held that the development of infants' understanding of their environment was the result of their active manipulation and exploration of objects, and that they constructed reality through converging lines of sensory and motor information. One source of their understanding of causes came from the infants' own actions: the actual experience of producing a movement plays a key role." (p. 35)

Wolpert is saying that our understanding of causality is rooted in our experience as infants of free will. Since many "atheist reductionist materialist" say free will is an illusion, the good Wolpert is taking a different point of view than the bad Wolpert.

Another example of his rejection of the limiting assumptions of hardcore materialism is the following quote:

"More generally, as David Hume made clear, there is no experience of 'self' as something distinct from our body." (p. 33)

If the self was distinct from the body, then there would not be one being--man--but two beings: the body and the self. The unity of man is the insight that caused medieval philosophers to abandoned Greek dualism--the idea that body and soul are two separate substances.

The following quote shows that Wolpert understands the importance of conceptual thinking in the evolution of human beings:

"It was Kenneth Oakley in 1949 who wrote 'Modern civilization owes its form to machine-tools, driven by mechanical energy; yet these perform in complicated ways and use only the same basic opertor as the simple equipment is the tool-bag of Stone Age man: percussion, cutting, scraping, piercing, shearing, and moulding.' He also made clear that the men who made tools such as the Acheulian hand axes must have been capable of forming in their minds images of what they were trying to achieve. 'Human culture in all its diversity is the outcome of this capacity for conceptual thnking...' This original idea of Oakley is at the core of this book." (p. 71)

Self-consciousness is the ability human beings have to turn in on themselves and catch themselves in the act of their own existence. The following quote brings the concept of self-consciousness into the evolutionary databank:

"It has been suggested that the opposability of the thumb, and the associated wondrous dexterity, completely transformed our ancestors' relationship with external objects. This relationship could have promoted human consciousness, as the manipulation of objects became a self-conscious activity; once the individual becomes an agent operating on external objects in numerous different ways, causal beliefs are involved." (p. 77)

Now for the bad Wolpert:

"Religion is almost always regarded by its believers as a way of obtaining help from supernatural powers, possibly from a god. Miracles can win further adherents, and the Bible has many examples, not least the dividing of the Red Sea to allow Moses and the Jews to cross. However, as David Hume argued, no miracle should be believed in unless the evidence was such that it would be miraculous not to believe in it." (p. 123)

Professor Wolpert is paraphrasing a direct quote from David Hume that he already shared with his readers on p. 85, so impressed is he with the quote's relevance and insight. Hume's argument against religion is puerile because it discusses miracles in general, rather than the particular miracles that are part of our salvation history.

Examples of historically established miracles are the exorcisms and healings of Jesus, the founder of Christianity. His miracles are reported in all four Gospels and the Q document. The Jewish historian Josephus referred to Jesus as "a doer of wonderful works" and even anti-Christian sources refer to Jesus as a magician. It is irrational to admit Jesus was a Jewish prophet and deny that he performed miracles because at the time Jesus lived miracles were generally believed to happen. The historical Jesus includes what Jesus did and how Jesus was perceived by his contemporaries.

Since Wolpert is not interested in the historical Jesus, his quoting Hume on miracles is gratuitous and ambiguous. Presumably, Wolpert was trying to say that God and Moses did not really part the Red Sea and that God and Jesus did not really cure anybody. This is consistent with his view that God doesn't really exist. Since the bad Wolpert is a "reductionist materialist," he does not think human beings really exist either. All that really exists for the confused Wolpert is whatever particle physicists say exists.

Wolpert apparently identifies with Thomas Hobbes (b. 1588), forgetting the different circumstances. Hobbes lashed out at his contemporary critics as follows:

"For if a man pretend to me that God hath spoken to him supernaturally and immediately I make doubt of it, I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to believe it. It is true that, if he be my Soveriegn he may oblige me to obedience, so as not by act or word to declare I believe him not; but not to think otherwise than my reason persuades me...For to say that God hath spoken to him...in a dream, is no more than to say he dreamed God spoke to him... "(p. 131)

What would God have to do to make Wolpert believe? Wolpert tells us:

"Of course, it is possible for God to easily reveal to scientists his current existence: God only has to perform, publicly, one or two miracles, for good evidence to be provided. This evidence could, for example, be quite simple, like turning a lake into good red wine, or providing an instant cure for cancer. Such miracles would almost certainly lead to religious beliefs among the skeptics." (p. 216)

Oliver Sacks, famous for Awakenings, told the following story about a 50-year-old patient that thought he was 20 because of a spinal cord damaged by alcohol abuse. With shame and regret, Sacks said that he handed the man a mirror and asked him if this was a 20-year-old man. His patient was horrified and cried out that he must be crazy. Fortunately, the patient soon forgot what had horrified him and he calmed down.

If a powerful angel changed a lake to red wine, it might neglect to keep the public from going crazy. God would not neglect anything. When God performs miracles and reveals things to mankind, individuals believe exactly what God wants them to believe. Faith is a gift from God. While Christians summon their fellow humans to believe, there is no obligation to believe as Hobbes thought. Nobody is criticizing Wolpert for not believing and there is no need for him to defend himself.

Miraculous historical events, such as the Easter experience, are just part of the story Christians tell in their summons to nonbelievers. That Jesus was a Jewish prophet is a large part of the story as is the idea that Jesus saved mankind for meaning. There is another reason to believe: When nonbelievers explain why they don't believe they always give bad reasons.

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More on the origin of music
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The Origins of Music

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262731436

Book Description

What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical behavior and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal features of music and musical behavior across cultures? In this groundbreaking book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists, and linguists come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology--the study of which will contribute greatly to our understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself.

Contributors: Simha Arom, Derek Bickerton, Steven Brown, Ellen Dissanayake, Dean Falk, David W. Frayer, Walter Freeman, Thomas Geissmann, Marc D. Hauser, Michel Imberty, Harry Jerison, Drago Kunej, François-Bernard Mâche, Peter Marler, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller, Jean Molino, Bruno Nettl, Chris Nicolay, Katharine Payne, Bruce Richman, Peter J. B. Slater, Peter Todd, Sandra Trehub, Ivan Turk, Maria Ujhelyi, Nils L. Wallin, Carol Whaling.

Customer Reviews:

More on the origin of music.......2006-03-25

One of the authors cited several times in the Origins book (regarding the Neanderthal flute and ancient music) is Bob Fink, who has recently published several books, including a new one (2005): On the Origin of Music, published by Greenwich press, 516 Ave K South, Saskatoon, Canada S7M 2E2. See www.greenwych.ca for the full list of books that go into hard and convincing detail (archaeology finds, scales & acoustic parallels) that tend to create an outline of the actual origins of music -- no longer all speculation). -- Terry Geebe

Some good info, but hard to find it.......2004-07-24

After an 18 page introduction to biomusicology the reader is left to sift through the papers of around 25 experts in this field. Quality ranges widely as do the topics. There is some worthwhile information in this book but finding it may not be worth your time. Nonetheless, it is a positive step forward.

Fascinating and Challenging Approaches to a Difficult Topic.......2001-08-31

"The Origins of Music" derives from a 1997 international workshop of the Swedish Institute for Biomusicology. The result is a fascinating journey into a vast world of ideas, with interplay, disagreement and contradiction abounding. Few readers will have the background to move easily through all these articles. However, wading through the quagmire of scientific writing rewards the reader with some remarkable insights. Little is actually proven, and the editors could have done more to reconcile or enumerate the contradictions between some of the approaches. But for the most part, the writers are sufficiently aware of the difficulties involved in applying their specific research results to general theories about the origins of music.

An introductory chapter discusses the comparatively new field of biomusicology, with its tripartite subdivision into evolutionary musicology, neuromusicology, and comparative musicology. The issue, which will command much of the book, of whether certain features of music are biological or cultural is raised. Unfortunately, all too often the weight is given to the biological answer without overwhelming evidence.

Another significant question is the relevance of animal "song". Only those working directly in the field of animal song approach this with caution--none argue anything stronger than a "convergent evolution" between animal and human music. To apply the terms "song" and "music" to aural animal communications is to raise a whole host of related but probably irrelevant associations--those of art, aesthetics, etc. Where music is so broadly defined as to include animal sounds (which can indeed be "musical" and quite lovely for us to listen to without being classified as "music") these associations muddy the water, and all too often the contributors simply accept these problematic issues. One writer even wallows in them--in the book's final article, composer Mache absurdly claims that birdsong can ONLY be explained as an aesthetic act. We unquestionably have very limited understanding of how even the human brain processes our own music; that we have even less understanding of how animals perceive their own sounds and how their brains process them makes any statement about any complicated animal response speculative at best. Slater's chapter is noteworthy as he addresses this very issue of relevance with commendable caution: "Considering only songbirds...there are close to 4,000 species....It would thus not be surprising if almost any characteristic found in human music were discovered in one or a few of them. But such similarities are likely to be coincidental..."

Articles on human evolution of musical potential are fascinating explorations of real evidence. Although of course music does not fossilize, these scientists have taken various ingenious approaches from the thorough examination of a Paleolithic bone flute to the casting of brains inside fossil skulls to examine their gross anatomy, and the results are couched in appropriate language. Richman, in his wildly speculative theory of music origins, resorts to quite poor reasoning ("...complexity always comes from previous, but different complexity." and "...language always comes from previous language."). Similar points are articulated more thoughtfully in the subsequent chapter by Merker. Equally intriguing is Miller's, in which he argues convincingly that a Darwinian approach to the issue of musical evolution allows only the single explanation of sexual selection. His colleague Todd supports this hypothesis in his article on computer modeling of musical behavior. In perhaps the most interesting contradiction in the book, Dissanayake takes a totally different approach, arguing equally convincingly (although smothered in jargon) that musical evolution most likely occurred as an outgrowth of mother-infant interaction. Finally, Freeman suggests that music evolved to fulfil a sociological role of group bonding. These four articles, by Freeman, Dissanayake, Todd, and Merker are superbly argued and maintain the highest standards of intellectual rigor; curiously they come to wildly different but equally reasonable conclusions on the origins of music, thereby highlighting the difficulties of the issues.

In the final section, the musicians get their turn, and as a composer myself I'm sorry to say that my colleagues' results are relatively disappointing. Trehub attempts to find musical universals by studying the behavior of infants. This leads her to the conclusion that "small-integer frequency ratios" are "preferable" (such as 2:1 and 3:2--the perfect octave and fifth) to large-integer ratios (the ONLY example she gives is 45:32--the tritone). She concludes that "dissonances" are not naturally a part of an inherent universal musicality, but her argument shows no apparent understanding of the issues. Imberty's contribution is largely a defense of Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music, and although he makes some excellent points, especially about atonal music, the reader unfamiliar with Lerdahl and Jackendoff's work will find little of value here. The eminent ethnomusicologist Nettl suggests a number of likely musical universals, some of which I must contend against: among them are the presence of an undefined cadential element (as music exists in time and must end, this seems to me inevitable and inconsequential unless further defined), and, that music exists only as particular songs, compositions, etc--that "one does not ever just sing or play, as for example, one may simply dance, without performing a particular dance composition." (wildly incorrect, as any jazzer, mother or Deadhead will attest!) However, Nettl raises valid concerns about the concept of musical universals--I regretted that his contribution wasn't much earlier in the book as it seemed so appropriate to so many of the claims made within. Finally, composer Mache provides what is surely the least intellectually rigorous, most romantically speculative chapter. Mache based much of his workshop contribution on recorded comparisons between various human and animal musics to which the reader has no exposure. It is a real pity that for this article and several others no CD was included. Regardless, Mache's concept of a truly universal biological music including an aesthetic sense ignores historical fact and convergent evolution in favor of an interspecies brotherhood of musicians. However attractive the idea, the International Federation of Musicians is unlikely to start issuing cards to avian and simian members any time soon

Hodgepodge.......2000-11-21

It is a measure of the pioneering nature of this book that its contributions lack any synergy. What we have here are specialists from a wide variety of fields attempting to apply their expertise to a new and undeveloped field. The results are all over the map. Some of the papers strain to be relevant; a few are major steps forward. Some of the papers are badly written; I had to re-read every sentence in one of them. I do not recommend this book to any reader seeking cogent answers to the problem of the origin of music; the truth is, we don't have those answers yet. This is a book for readers willing to accept the uncertainties at the edge of our knowledge, willing to plow through indirect approaches and early clumsy efforts. It is a purely academic book, with all the strengths and weaknesses implicit to that style of writing. In any case, it remains the best effort we have in this direction, by virtue of being the only effort we have in this direction.

Landmark.......2000-04-04

The number of books devoted to language evolution could now fill many bookshelves. So it is very exciting to see the first book ever devoted to the question of music evolution. This book is unquestionably a landmark and will be discussed for many years to come. Evolutionary musicologists will certainly have a lot to learn from their cousins in the language field but they will also get the chance to explore important new ground not covered by them. The book deals with animal song, general issues in human evolution, different proposals for the evolution of music and a final section about universals in music. I was pleased to see renowned thinkers like Derek Bickerton, Peter Marler and Dean Falk writing about music for the first time, and doing it so cogently. That, in itself, is worth the cover price. The book fulfills its promise of opening up an interdisciplinary dialog on the subject of music origins. The editors can be congratulated for bringing together an international group of contributors; no fewer than 8 countries are represented in the contributors list-a rare occurrence in such edited volumes. Despite this, the writing style is consistently high and with the exception of a few typos, the book was quite easy to navigate. Some of the chapters, like Miller's chapter on sexual selection reflect current "hot" topic in evolutionary psychology, and will no doubt lead to lots of discussions. Other chapters, such as those on universals, touch on topics that have been dormant or forgotten in musicology. It is exciting for me to see musical universals being discussed again after so many years of silence. The section called Theories of Music Origins will, no doubt, spur future thinking on the topic. This book is a strong beginning and I highly recommend this book to people who really want to delve into something completely fresh and new. They will not be disappointed.

Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations into Brain Function

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A wonderful introduction to history of neuroscience
Origins of Neuroscience

Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations into Brain Function
Stanley Finger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195146948

Book Description

With over 350 illustrations, this impressive volume traces the rich history of ideas about the functioning of the brain from its roots in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the centuries into relatively modern times. In contrast to biographically oriented accounts, this book is unique in its emphasis on the functions of the brain and how they came to be associated with specific brain regions and systems. Among the topics explored are vision, hearing, pain, motor control, sleep, memory, speech, and various other facets of intellect. The emphasis throughout is on presenting material in a very readable way, while describing with scholarly acumen the historical evolution of the field in all its amazing wealth and detail. From the opening introductory chapters to the concluding look at treatments and therapies, this monumental work will captivate readers from cover to cover. It will be valued as both an historical reference and as an exciting tale of scientific discovery. It is bound to attract a wide readership among students and professionals in the neural sciences as well as general readers interested in the history of science and medicine.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful introduction to history of neuroscience.......2007-07-21

Stanley Finger's Origins of Neuroscience is an extremely useful and entertaining introduction to history of neuroscience. It entails multicultural contributions to philosophy of mind, and neural science from antiquity to contemporary times. In my opinion, this book is a 'must' for people interested in evolution of neural science and theories of mind from a neuroscientist point of view.

Origins of Neuroscience.......2000-03-30

This book is a wonderful introduction into the history of neurosciences and our understanding of the brain. It is an excellent read for the physician, scientist, or brain enthusiast. It is easy to follow and well organized. Finger captures the excitement of the important discoveries about the brain and diseases of the brain. I highly recommend this book for anyones shelf who collects history of medicine books.

The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything: What We Know and How We Know It

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Highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader.
Useful volume

The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything: What We Know and How We Know It
Richard Morris
Manufacturer: Four Walls Eight Windows
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1568581408
Release Date: 1999-09-17

Amazon.com

Some books have a hard time living up to their titles, but The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything does just fine. Physicist and writer Richard Morris seeks to explain the current state of knowledge in cosmology and subatomic physics; as if that weren't enough, he goes on to give us his take on how scientists do their work. What would have been three short works in the hands of a lesser writer becomes a challenging, enlightening book that pushes readers forward from the first page. Morris's gift for explanation is a wonder--few can get across the intricate ephemera of superstring theory without losing the audience at some point, but before we know it, we've already covered the scary stuff and are on to something new.

Perhaps the most important section of the book is its last, "The Scientific Imagination." Here the author lays out his thoughts on scientific work--saying, for example, "there is no scientific method"--and shows us that research and theorizing are just as creative and playful as painting and singing. Examples from such greats as Einstein and Galileo cement his arguments and inspire the reader to see the white-coated lab technician as just another stereotypical fantasy. It may not answer the Great Questions (we're not close yet), but The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything is a satisfying survey of what we know and how we learned it. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

From the formation of the universe to a theory of matter to life on earth, Richard Morris delivers a clear and concise picture of what we know, how we know it, and what the limits to future knowledge might be.

Morris begins by discussing the various ideas about the ultimate destiny of the universe: whether it will continue expanding or eventually collapse. Next he addresses the search for a unified theory of matter that will encompass the four known forces in nature: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Finally, Morris looks at the origin of life. Once conditions were hospitable, life evolved on Earth almost immediately. But how? This is the subject of a number of theories the book outlines.

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader........2000-04-04

What is the fate of the universe, and what are the implications of a unified theory of matter? The Universe, The Eleventh Dimension, And Everything provides an introduction to the scientific revolutions which have revealed new concepts and fostered new discoveries. Chapters are geared to the lay reader yet include plenty of scientific background.

Useful volume.......2000-02-11

Morris specializes in making physics understandable to those of us who are terrified by mathematical formulas.

The Universe necessarily repeats some of the material he has covered in earlier works, since it is written for those who may have only a smattering of knowledge about the vast and complex world of physics. But the repeated material can also be of help to the physics buff who hasn't completely caught up with the latest in the field.

Unfortunately, however, the book is plagued by errors. While little harm is done when "pseudoscience" comes out as "psuedoscience" or when the title of Copernicus' famous treatise on the solar system is misspelled, other mistakes are serious. For someone who is trying to learn more about the mysterious world of physics, a photon mistakenly labeled as an electron or the substitution of 1033 for 1033 will leave the less knowledgeable reader utterly confused.

That being said, Morris provides a considerable service with this small volume. His is a lucid explanation of just how science in general, and physics in particular, works. And a step-by-step explanation of what we know today in physics and what is still speculative is a truly important contribution to the interested public's understanding of that science. The section on The Scientific Imagination alone is worth the price of the book.

Dr. John A. Broussard, PhD for The Charlotte Austin Review

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Phenomenally Interesting, Engaging, Stimulating and, Readable

Big Bang! Good Book!

Reasonably good cosmology

The history of Big Bang theory explained

An extremely enjoyable read

Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe
Simon Singh
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0007162200
Release Date: 2005-01-04

Amazon.com

A baffling array of science books claim to reveal how the mysteries of the universe have been discovered, but Simon Singh's Big Bang actually delivers on that promise. General readers will find it to be among the very best books dealing with cosmology, because Singh follows the same plan he used in his brilliant Code Book: he puts people--not equations--first in the story. By linking the progression of the Big Bang theory with the scientists who built it up bit by bit, Singh also uncovers an important truth about how such ideas grow.

Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one.

As harsh as this statement seems, even Einstein defended an outmoded idea about the universe when an unknown interloper published equations challenging the great man. Einstein didn't have to die for cosmology to move forward (he reluctantly apologized for being wrong), but stories like this one show how difficult it can sometimes be for new theories to take root. Fred Hoyle, who coined the term "big bang" as a way to ridicule the idea of a universe expanding from some tiny origin point, strongly believed that the cosmos was in a steady state. But Singh shows how Hoyle's research, meant to prove the contrary, added evidence to the expansion model. Big Bang is also a history of astronomical observation, describing the development of new telescopes that were crucial to the development of cosmology. Handwritten summary notes at the end of each long chapter add a charming, classroom feel to this revealing and very readable book. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

We've all heard of the Big Bang, and yet few of us truly know what it is.

Renowned for making difficult ideas much less difficult than they might first appear, Simon Singh is our perfect guide to explaining why cosmologists believe that the Big Bang is an accurate description of the origin and evolution of the universe.

This highly readable and entertaining book tells the story of the many brilliant, often eccentric scientists who fought against the establishment idea of an eternal and unchanging cosmos. From such early Greek cosmologists as Anaximander to recent satellite measurements taken deep in space, Big Bang is a narrative full of anecdotes and personal histories. With characteristic clarity, Simon Singh tells the centuries-long story of mankind's attempt to understand how the universe came to be, a story which itself begins some 14 billion years ago (give or take a billion years). Simon Singh shows us that it is within the capability of all of us -- in his expert hands -- to understand the Big Bang: the fundamental theory in all of science, and a high point -- perhaps the high point -- of human achievement.

Customer Reviews:

Phenomenally Interesting, Engaging, Stimulating and, Readable.......2007-10-01

For this reader with a lot formal education, but very little of it in the physical sciences, Simon Singh's `Big Bang' was phenomenally interesting, engaging, intellectually stimulating, readable, and educational. Others with more background in cosmology may find it too basic. Singh takes the reader through the history of cosmology as he builds toward an explanation of the Big Bang theory. The opening chapter explains the ancient's earth-centered (and common sensical) view of the universe and its downfall at the hands of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and Galileo. Later chapters follow the disproof of ether, Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, and the `great debate' between the supporters of a static universe and Lemaitre and others who supported the idea of an expanding (Big Bang) universe.

A large portion of the book follows the scientific efforts to gather evidence to support one view or the other. The renowned Edwin Hubble and the less so Henrietta Leavitt played key roles in finally providing enough evidence supporting the Big Bang theory to at least make it a credible argument. The remainder of the book follows the debate between the solid state theorists led by Fred Hoyle and the Big Bang backers led first by Gamow and Alpher, but later by others who resolved some of the nagging doubts about the theory, for example, the crucial 1992 proof of tiny variations in cosmic microwave background radiation.

Each chapter (at least in the P.S. version) has handy summary notes. Singh provides a useful glossary as well as recommended further readings for each chapter.

I generally read 50-75 books a year and rate The Big Bang as one of my top five books of the year. Five measly stars don't do it justice. I will resist the temptation to rate as a supernova, but this book greatly enhanced my understanding of the world around us and was a joy to read.

Absolutely the highest recommendation.

Big Bang! Good Book!.......2007-09-28

While I am fascinated by the process of science and how science arrives at theories based on observation, I am also leery about reading books written by scientists. Their knowledge of the area is usually so great that they are unable to reduce the complexity of the subject to that suitable for mere mortals. But Simon Singh with a PhD in particle physics is not one of them. I noted that he had been a producer for the BBC so I felt that there was a chance that he could tell an understandable story. And I was right. This was one of the best science non-fiction books I've read in a long time. Singh walks us through the chronology of the development of the theory, starting with the earliest physicist/astronomers. He gives examples of objections to the Big Bang theory and then shows how the data supports the theory. One of the objections to the theory was that if the theory were true, then there should be background microwave radiation. And he proceeds to tell the story of how this radiation was finally found. Singh also discusses some of the personalities involved in the development from or fight against the theory. All-in-all this was a very worthwhile read, far superior in interest and anecdotes than books like The Elegant Universe or the Physics of the Buffyverse.

Reasonably good cosmology.......2007-08-07

Not much here I haven't seen before, but nicely put together. Certainly a good introduction to the subject, written at a reasonably adult level and very understandable.

The history of Big Bang theory explained.......2007-08-05

Simon Singh is one of my favourite authors when it comes to popular science. I've enjoyed his books a lot, his style is both entertaining and educational at the same time. Big Bang is no different. By focusing his story on the colourful characters instead of equations, Singh makes the book easy to approach.

There's one thing to notice: the book is less about the Big Bang itself and more about the theory of Big Bang. Singh starts from the ancient Greek, describing how the whole concept of science was born and developed. Much of the book is devoted to the argument between Big Bang and steady-state universe theories. After reading this book, the reader will be familiar with the scientific process and the evolution of scientific paradigms.

Another success for Singh, and I'm definitely looking forward to whatever he's doing next. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

An extremely enjoyable read.......2007-07-21

"Big Bang" is a very informative book which not only elucidates the history of the Big Bang theory, but begins by documenting the history of cosmology in general from many different civilizations, from Pythagoras to Hubble.
Every aspect of the Big Bang theory is discussed from redshift to elemental synthesis, and it is all explained is simple English (well as simple as nuclear physics can get anyway!). The history of modern cosmology is also well documented, discussing Hubble, Hoyle and Lemaitre, to mention just a few. An immense amount of research has been done by Singh for this book, and for this reason I regard it as a vital source for anyone who has a love for science and/or the history of science and cosmology.

An extremely enjoyable read! Highly recommended!

Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species

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Not all it could be
A complement, not a critique of Darwinism
One-size-fits-all speciation
They almost had me fooled ...
Skip the first 8 chapters!

Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species
Lynn Margulis , and Dorion Sagan
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465043925
Release Date: 2003-06-17

Book Description

From one of the great iconoclasts of modern biology, Lynn Margulis, a groundbreaking new theory of the origins of species.

How do new species evolve? Although Darwin identified inherited variation as the creative force in evolution, he never formally speculated where it comes from. His successors thought that new species arise from the gradual accumulation of random mutations of DNA. But despite its acceptance in every major textbook, there is no documented instance of it.

Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan take a radically new approach to this question. They show that speciation events are not, in fact, rare or hard to observe. Genomes are acquired by infection, by feeding, and by other ecological associations, and then inherited. Acquiring Genomes is the first work to integrate and analyze the overwhelming mass of evidence for the role of bacterial and other symbioses in the creation of plant and animal diversity. It provides the most powerful explanation of speciation yet given.

Customer Reviews:

Not all it could be.......2007-09-24

As someone deeply suspicious of Richard Dawkin's 'Selfish Gene' theory of evolution, which is often put forward as THE theory of evolution which one must believe if one is not a creationist idiot, I was really looking forward to this book. Furthermore, I greatly enjoyed Margulis' earlier work Microcosmos. Nevertheless, I was somewhat disappointed by Acquiring Genomes. A number of the theoretical assertions--that evolution happens through symbiosis and the acquisition of genomes, rather than random mutation, that evolution is in line with the second law of thermodynamics because it reduces gradients, I found extremely provocative. But the book shifts gears too quickly between provocative theoretical postures and daunting technical language. As a reader of popular scientific journalism with no higher education training in biology, I found considerable chunks of the book incomprehensible. I think it would have been more effective if the authors had more slowly walked through several of the examples that support their theory. Perhaps I am not the ideal reader, but I would note that the publisher is named 'Basic Books', presumably to invite general readers.

A complement, not a critique of Darwinism.......2007-09-09

My review will take the form of a critique of an earlier review and then I will provide a couple comments thereafter.

An earlier reviewer erroneously states, "Lynn Margulis has joined the pack, attempting a direct refutation of Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection. In her view, natural selection plays only a minimal role in the story of life."

She neither dismisses Darwinism nor Natural Selection. She actually questions Neo-Darwinism and her view strongly supports natural selection.
The authors question the Neo-Darwinist's over-reliance and exaggeration of gradual accumulation by random mutations (which they don't altogether dismiss). She raises the fact that most mutations are deleterious and neutral and do not provide evidential support for MOST/ALL speciation. She does provide abundant evidence that supports her idea of symbiogenesis as the driver of evolutionary novelty.

An earlier reviewer also points out,"Instead, like Gould, she demolishes not only "Origin," but all those scientists adhering to its tenets, as well."

Again she intends to complement Darwin and demonstrate the shortcomings of the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. Your critique clearly conflates the two.

I do agree with another reviewer that the book at times feel strangely disjointed at times (and why I gave it a 4). Even so the work provides some revolutionary concepts that are worth further investigation.

I also agree that the book at times feel polemical, but I think given the over dominant, current point of view that a few extremities might be useful in calling attention to the current view's shortcomings and the sublimity of their theory of symbiogenesis. I really don't care how polemical a work is as long as it supports itself with evidence and I think the authors do a fantastic job of doing so. Even if they turn out to be wrong about the tertiary role of mutations in speciation, their theory adds another layer of provable facts, namely speciation through symbiosis, to the overall Theory of Evolution.

Lastly, no Creationist can successfully hijack this book for their own agenda. To do so is an intellectual act of dishonesty and ignorance.

One-size-fits-all speciation.......2007-01-05

If you primarily present your theory by insultingly tearing down simplified misrepresentations of others' theories, as Margulis & Sagan constantly do in 'Acquiring Genomes', your theory is almost certainly suspect.

It's not clear why the authors find it necessary or even desirable to claim that speciation ALWAYS stems from symbiogenesis, especially when they've gone to great lengths to demonstrate the promiscuous opportunistic nature of Life. Why shoot down one less-than-fully-satisfactory engine of speciation -- random mutations naturally selected -- merely to erect another one-size-fits-all speciation engine?

A sampling of free insults: Neo-darwinists & evolutionary biologists are "entirely wrongheaded", "self-proclaimed", "confused and baffled", "ignorant of bacteria, fungi and...protists", understanding only "people, pets, and our zoo and food animals". Theirs is "an idiosyncratic belief system" [this from the people who helped bring you 'GAIA'!!!]. I could go on & on, but you get the point.

Far from being a brave & lonely Cassandra whose Voice of Truth is ignored by the persecuting multitudes of evolutionist sheeple as she depicts herself, Lynn Margulis is in fact a distinguished scientist highly honored by her peers, if not highly admired or liked for reasons of her own idiosyncracies, as made completely understandable by 'AG'. Many if not most of the ideas Margulis promotes are widely -- & in the case of mitochondria and chloroplasts, universally -- accepted by those she so freely castigates.

Are there evolutionists who believe that mutations are the sole driving force of evolution?--possibly a few. But hardly the 99.9% that Margulis & Sagan pretend. But accepting the evidence marshalled by Margulis' (& hundreds of other scientists) of symbiogenesis does not, & should not, perforce lead to believing that symbiogenesis is the sole mechanism of speciation, no matter how critical it may be as a means of forming eukaryotic cells where none existed before, or starting whole new kingdoms & phyla of plants, fungi & animals.

Is it sensible to invoke symbiogenesis, because it has given Life these vital giant leaps forward, as the only possible tool for differentiating, for example, the various species of finches on the various Galapagos islands? Do we really wish to claim that Darwin's finches hooked up with different bacteria on different islands in order to alter their beak sizes?

Margulis & Sagan would have us gloss over this question entirely by claiming that: 1) we can't observe Galapagos finches quite managing to speciate right now (though they come remarkably close some very wet or very dry years); 2) empty niches like the Galapagos aren't common or important on the global scale, & 3) we fixate too much on birds & mammals anyway, when we should all be focussing on bacteria.

But over geologic time, rarities become inevitabilities. Few niches may be empty now, but wait a few million years: things will change. When sealevel rises or falls, when temperature & rainfall patterns alter, the biosphere will be put into dynamic motion, with old niches closing & new niches opening up. And as this happens, it makes a good deal more sense to invoke geographic isolation as a mechanism of generating new species based on the beak size of finches or the number of pairs of compound eyes of trilobites, rather than calling for a new set of bacterial symbionts.

The essential insight of the theory of punctuated equilibria is that ecosystems -- & the species that compose them -- mirror the sedimentary systems that many of their fossils are encased in, with longterm stabilities (formations) separated by short-term drastic fluctuations. Which is something that geologists (of whom I am one) should have realized & argued for considerably before Stephen Jay Gould & Niles Eldridge did. And the typical macrofaunal speciation events -- which are of greater interest to us, bacteria or no -- in the rock record fit best into models of geographic isolation, as Eldridge has recently been arguing (without finding it necessary to insult his peers).

None of which should be construed as meaning that Margulis' ideas are not highly stimulating or worth reading, merely that it's unnecessary & unwise to stretch her big idea into a Complete Explanation of All Life, a la GAIA.

They almost had me fooled ..........2004-11-29

I was almost ready to seriously consider Margulis' and Sagan's revolutionary theory until I read Sagan's update, in which he writes "Because chromosome arrangements differ slightly in closely related mammal species (e.g., dogs and wolves) that no longer breed with each other ..."

Everybody knows that wolves and domestic dogs CAN breed. You can buy wolf/dog hybrids from breeders such as http://www.dogpage.us/wolfdogs.htm.

If one of the authors is this removed from common sense, I wonder about the rest of the theory. And I wonder if his mother knows what he's up to.

Skip the first 8 chapters!.......2004-11-10

In an earlier work Margulis, who is a distinguished scientist, recounted her struggles in getting a theory accepted which is now part of the orthodoxy: that the mitochondria and chloroplast organelles originated as separate organisms. Chapters 9-13 of Acquiring Genomes discuss more recent findings by her and others which point to the importance of saltatory (sudden) changes as contrasted to gradual evolution. In particular, there is evidence that radically different marine species, from different phyla, can very occasionally successfully mate, and that this may be the basis for the larval stages in so many animals. There is even more evidence that in one event, all the chromosomes in an animal can break in half without destroying the viability of the animal or its ability to mate with "normal" members of the species - although it is not discussed how exactly this leads to change. There is additional insight into how the nucleated cell was first formed. Unfortunately, Margulis did not have a collaborator who had the patience to expand on these chapters, providing more background, and making them more accessible to the layman. Chapters 1-8 of Acquiring Genomes should be SKIPPED, which means that if the reader does not have some comfort with Margulis' original ideas, the whole book should be skipped. These first chapters are bombastic, argumentative, repetitive, inaccurate, and have relatively little information of value. One idea I did get from these chapters (which I skimmed, not being a masochist) is that, in a sense, all bacteria are members of one species, since they all can interchange genes. Also, some bacterial symbionts are actually inherited, in that they are present in the egg or sperm, while not yet in the nucleus.

Discoveries: Birth of the Universe (Discoveries (Abrams))

Average customer rating:

Outstanding Primer Book

Discoveries: Birth of the Universe (Discoveries (Abrams))
Trinh Xuan Thuan
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0810928159

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Primer Book.......2000-10-03

This book is a simple (yet not simplistic), well-rounded and very well illustrated primer to Cosmorgaphy / Cosmology. It is definitely recommended to anyone who wants to acquire a basic understanding of the subject.

The best parts of the book in my opinion are a few schematics explaining the different types of galaxies, the processes of star creation and death, the creation of the various chemical elements, etc. and the associated text. Overall this is a well balanced book with a "Documents" section appropriately short and author's opinions kept to a minimum.