Evolution: Still A Theory In Crisis

Evolution Still a Theory In Crisis Evolution Still a Theory in Crisis MICHAEL DENTON Seattle Discovery Institute Press 2016 Description More than thirty years after his landmark book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985), biologist Michael Denton revisits his earlier thesis about the inability of Darwinian evolution to explain the history of life. He argues that there remains “an irresistible consilience of evidence for rejecting Darwinian cumulative selection as the major driving force of evolution.” From the origin of life to the origin of human language, the great divisions in the natural order are still as profound as ever, and they are still unsupported by the series of adaptive transitional forms predicted by Darwin. In addition, Denton makes a provocative new argument about the pervasiveness of nonadaptive order throughout biology, order that cannot be explained by the Darwinian mechanism. Copyright Notice Copyright © 2016 by Discovery Institute. All Rights Reserved. Publisher’s Note This book is part of a series published by the Center for Science & Culture at Discovery Institute in Seattle. Previous books include Signature of Controversy: Responses to Critics of Signature in the Cell and Debating Darwin’s Doubt, edited by David Klinghoffer; The Myth of Junk DNA by Jonathan Wells; and Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life by Michael Flannery. Library Cataloging Data Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton 354 pages, 6 x 9 x 0.74 in. & 1 lb, 229 x 152 x 19 mm & 475 kg Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960652 BISAC: SCI027000 SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution BISAC: SCI008000 SCIENCE / Life Sciences/ Biology BISAC: SCI034000 SCIENCE / History ISBN-13: 978-1-936599-32-5 (paperback), 978-1-936599-33-2 (Kindle), 978-1936599-34-9 (EPUB) Publisher Information Discovery Institute Press, 208 Columbia Street, Seattle, WA 98101 Internet: http://www.discoveryinstitutepress.org/ Published in the United States of America on acid-free paper. First Edition: January 2016. Praise for Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis “Of all the books that have been critical of Darwinian evolution in recent years, Michael Denton’s Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis stands out for doing more than simply compiling the full range of evidence—from cosmology through all of biology to the origins of human language—that goes against a blind, incrementalist view of the development of life. To be sure, Denton does that very well. But the book’s real triumph is to frame this criticism in terms of an alternative paradigm, one indebted to Darwin’s great rival Richard Owen. This proposed new paradigm is founded on the idea of discrete biological forms, or ‘types,’ which have the standing of natural laws. Denton is consistently clear and scrupulous about how the evidence bears on neo-Darwinism vis-à-vis what might be called his ‘neo-Owenism.’ All told, Evolution is the one book that I would recommend to any student or lay person who wants to think in positive, scientific terms out of Darwin’s black box.” Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology, University of Warwick, UK, and author of Science vs. Religion? and Dissent over Descent “Darwinists often deflect trenchant criticisms by kicking the can down the road. In ten or twenty years science will surely show their theory is correct, they say. Now thirty years after his groundbreaking book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Michael Denton calls their bluff. Not only hasn’t Darwinism overcome its challenges, severe new problems have made the crisis much worse.” Michael Behe, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University, and author of Darwin’s Black Box and The Edge of Evolution “Based on a great variety of indisputable facts from biology and paleontology, Michael Denton presents in his new book a highly competent and