Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution | Lee M. Spetner

Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution | Lee M. Spetner | Genetics and Statistics: Enemies of Neo-Darwinian Evolution

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Not by Chance: Sha...

	Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution Lee M. Spetner Judaica Press, 1997 - 262 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Physicist Dr. Lee M. Spetner's new book has biologists and geneticists across the country praising this book as one of the most serious challenges to the modern theory of evolution. "Dr. Spetner has an extraordinary ability to present complex mathematical, statistical, and biological issues in a comprehensible manner."--Rabbi Joseph Elias, The Jewish Observer "It is certainly the most rational attack on evolution that I have ever read"--Professor E. Simon, Department of Biology, Purdue University

Solid

This book is a solid critique of Darwinism by an expert in the field. This book "Not By Chance" along with "Genetic Entropy" by JC Sanford give a reader the tools with which to destroy any darwinists in any debate.

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Genetics and Statistics: Enemies of Neo-Darwinian Evolution

Not By Chance uses two main things to shatter the Neo-Darwinian Theory of Evolution (NDT): information theory and statistical mathematics. Dr. Lee Spetner uses information theory to show that random mutations in the genome, the process that is the backbone of the NDT, have never been shown to add new information in the DNA, and a mutation that has added information has never been witnessed. However, in order for the NDT to be true, such mutations would have to have happened billions of times throughout history. There is obviously thus a large hole in the theory.

On the statistical side of the argument, Dr. Spetner shows that even if information-gaining mutations did happen, Neo-Darwinian Evolution would still be a statistical impossibility. Using mutation rate, number of births per evolutionary step, number of steps in a species transition, and selective value of the mutations, he calculates the chance of a new species forming to be 2.7 x 10^(-2739), which is more than 2,000 orders of magnitude smaller than the chance of flipping 150 coins and having every one come up heads (which has the odds of one in 1^45). Because our minds cannot comprehend such small odds, Dr. Spetner does a good job of giving some relation to compare these odds to. For instance, the chance of all four players in a hand of bridge each being dealt 13 cards of one suit is one in about 160 billion (1.6 x 10^11), which is still trillions of times more likely to happen than a new species forming, according to his calculations. And that is the odds of just one species forming! Think about all the thousands of species there are. This is supposed to have happened thousands and thousands of times! You would have to multiply the 2.7 x 10^(-2739) by itself once for each species on earth (present and past). The odds are so mind-blowing it amazes me that people ignore this fact.

Dr. Spetner also spends a chapter of the book refuting Richard Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker. Spetner does a good job, and the book is easy for him to refute.

Spetner also gives a solid overview of cellular biology and the inner workings of the cell, how DNA is replicated, how cells make proteins, and basically how cells function in general. The appendix gives a lot of information on this, and it is not necessary for the reader to already have a background in biology because Dr. Spetner explains things pretty well. Simply reading the appendix made me marvel at the complexity of life and wonder how anyone could believe that life came from non-living chemicals randomly and naturally. Even the simplest cells are so complex it blows my mind.

Dr. Spetner references many biologists and scientists throughout the book. He also spends the last chapters of Not By Chance building up to and putting forth his own theory of evolution, which he calls the nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis (NREH). His theory is very intriguing and he offers interesting support for it, and I believe that it should be considered. Also, Dr. Spetner makes a point to say that the NREH itself does not speak on the origin of life and is agnostic, unlike the NDT, which is atheistic in nature.

I believe that anyone interested in the evolution/creation/intelligent design debate would benefit from reading Not By Chance.

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devastating challenge to the NDT

this book delivers according to it's title!! it has very strong points; at a general level:
1) it doesn't make ad hominem attacks
2)it doesn't try to erect and straw man to knock it out with spurious arguments
3) has plenty of references and citations; well documented from well respected and well known persons in the field
4)the author gets his information not from people oppose to NDT but from people within the field
5)reduces speculation as much as possible, by using logic, reason and science to explain his points
6)represents very well the position of the NDT from a scientific point of view
7)in the appendix gives basic and elementary information for people to get familiar with the topic and to get knowledge of the core elements to be discussed

At a more particular level
1)Presents a challenge for the NDT with genetics, mathematics and information theory

2)Attempts making sense of the current evidence in the fields of genetics and molecular biology, that can better explain those results

3)the author makes a devastating critique to the blind watchmaker by R. Dawkins in chapter 6 of the book

Is very disappointing that those that support the NDT make the same mistakes that they blame the people oppose to evolution of making personal attacks and not presenting points nor arguments that show the author is wrong; it's sad to see that none of the one star review with the exception of maybe two try explaining or proving the author is mistaken, when you have only few pages in this book that are not full of arguments and explanations with their citations

this book should have a broader circulation; it really shatters the NDT;
something important is to understand the central argument of this book is to prove that random mutations in the genome, plus natural selection plus time:NDT, but is not supported by the current evidence not only in genetics and biology, but in mathematics and probability, it has been demonstrated before that is very improbable not to say impossible that all of life in the way we know, evolved through the NDT mechanisms, when you make a serious and competent mathematical analysis like in the case of Fred Hoyle: 'Mathematics of Evolution'that by the way believed in evolution too.

I think honest supporters of evolution must read and analyze this book in order to get to terms with the huge challenges of the NDT, this book doesn't denies evolution in itself but the NDT as a theory because clearly fails to make sense and explain the current scientifc data in a manner that supports NDT

Chance:Random mutations in the genome, not related at all to the needs of the organism utterly fails to explain the vast amount of processes that has nothing to do with chance at all and everything with the needs of the organism to adapt to their environment to be able to survive

the questions about genetics in relation to: where does the information comes from?
how organisms may make significant changes in phenotype with few changes in the genotype
how the information in the genome does not increase, doesn't have an answer from a NDT point of view

A great book, that really makes a contribution to the current debate

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