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Title: Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives
ISBN: 0385340923
Author:
David Sloan Wilson
Publicate Date: 2007-12-26
Publish: 2007-12-26
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.87
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Evolution for No One
David Sloan Wilson seems to think Evolution is for Everyone, but he should speak for himself. He does not speak for me, or for the eternal and unchanging God who amended the Jewish scriptures and made his Son a new and more perfect messiah. Since I pray to this God, I think I know a bit more about God's plan for humanity than Wilson does.
Let's see what's wrong with this book, and also what's wrong with Wilson:
1) Wilson claims evolution has wide applicability, yet he never proves it is true. Does Wilson know something that I don't know? That seems highly unlikely, since I know God's word and it seems he doesn't. Wilson thinks he knows something he can't know, the fact that he doesn't know he doesn't know proves he doesn't know it.
Thank you, Jesus.
2) If evolution is true, it must mean that animals change over time. But as an experiment, try looking at your dog. Is it growing any fins to swim, or maybe a giant horn on the middle of its head? No, therefore there is no evidence for evolution. Is your cat slowly turning into a rhino? No, and thank you, Jesus.
3) Is there evidence for the Bible? Well, read Isaiah, which tells us who the Redeemer would be like. Turns out it was predicted to look like Jesus. Since Jesus looks like the Redeemer and the Redeemer was predicted to look like Jesus, by the principle of identity the Redeemer must be Jesus, the Bible must be true, and Wilson, Darwin and others are wrong. Excellent, Jesus - just excellent.
4) Wilson near the end of the book describes swimming naked with a bunch of male and female garduate students. This is what supporters of evolution are really after, an excuse to act like animals. If we are created in the image of God, then modesty becomes us. If however we are really beasts, then people like Wilson want to see us get nasty like beasts. It is very likely that Wilson saw the uncovered vaginas of women who are not his wife, which is a sin. It's also very transparent that he only supports evolution because it lets him see lots of female pudenda, he should be ashamed and reject the false teaching of evolution.
5) The problem is that Wilson and evolutionists are intoxicated with the deep things of Satan. I had a vision in which a being with the face of Darwin and the body of a nude woman was carrying around the Origin of Species in one hand, and in the other held a cup of the juice of her fornications. Many of the nations followed this being until a lamb appeared with a tongue like a sword. The lamb chewed up the evil book of Darwin and from out of its rectum came a creature with the body of a fish and rudminetary legs like a salamander, sort of like an early amphibian if there had been any (there weren't). The lamb suddenly attacked the creature and said "Change is NOT, and God's plan is eternal," which caused the Darwin woman to run away in shame. This proves that evolution is not true.
6) If evolution were true, it would be devastating to people of faith. God would never allow his faithful to be subjected to things they don't want to believe, which is also why evolution cannot be true.
7) My butt is the perfect size for my pants. Any bigger and it rip then down the middle, exposing my butt, which people of faith do not wish to see. Since this has not happened yet, God exists and Darwin was wrong.
In sum, reject the foul teachings of Wilson and his henchman, and join the ranks of the faithful, who humbly accept that they know the unchanging word of God and that the hard work of science is for naught. Jesus is really doing great work - check it out.
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2: We can thank God for it!
I have to give this book low marks. As a casual observer for many years now on this planet I have found a few things that lend themselves to its existence being the result of a Creator.
1. Fruits and Vegetables growing on trees. I have noticed that the size of Fruits and Vegetables growing on trees and out of the ground etc. are basically the perfect size for human consumption. Like we are made for one another. Outside of some clever hybrid manipulation by humans, you won't find an apple the size of a car or a pineapple the size of a house. They are perfectly sized for us to eat.
2. There's water all over the place. It falls out of the sky, it can be found in vast resevoirs under the ground. We all need water to survive, it was kindly placed here for us to find for our consumption.
3. Electricity. I don't have a clue where that comes from (I think it comes out of the sky during storms and also when my pant legs rub together on a dry day etc.) but I know we can thank God for it. Otherwise none of my electrical gadgets would work, thanks God! (I say that while pointing my index fingers toward the sky!).
4. Space Food Sticks, I thank God for Space Food Sticks (see my review on Space Food Sticks if you don't know what they are).
5. Trees! Yes, without trees we wouldn't be able to have a whole bunch of paper to print the Word of God on. Build houses, boats etc. We can thank God for trees.
6. Eyesight and Hindsight. We can thank God for Hindsight and we can REALLY thank God for Eyesight. I thank God for it.
7. Language. Think about it for a moment. It is truly fascinating. We are made with a voice, a way to make sounds come out of our mouths. By moving our jaws, tongue and lips a certain way we can form words which mean something. Entire civilizations have been built because of this ability. I thank God for language. (My nephew is gifted in a way that enables him to make some very unusual sounds come out of his mouth, we can thank God for that as well).
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3: If you really want to understand the world
There are a lot of good books, too many for anyone to read any but the best. This is one of the best, with new insights on almost every page. Whether you love science already, or are doubtful about evolution and want to know the truth, this is the one book to read.
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4: Very Boring. Devoid of content
There are some books written by college professors that seem to have absolutely no regard for the time of the reader. I couldn't finish the book, but I forced myself to read 120 pages before giving up. The first 120 pages would have made a nice 4-5 page article. He just prattles on about his wife, and how many different species were running about somewhere they visited. However, there was almost nothing about evolution and how Darwin's theory could actually be used in our lives.
I do use Evolution in my life as a way to understand everyday things. This was what I thought the book would be about, rather than studies having little to do with regular life intermingled with ramblings about his personal life and prejudices.
I have enjoyed a number of economics books which look at everyday life. I see a close conceptual relationship between Economics and evolution (see Rothschilds' bionomics) and between Behaviorism and evolution (See Skinner's Phylogeny and Ontology of behavior). Wilson seemed unaware of these or evolutionary epistemology.
He seemed like an old professor making a timid step to beginning to think of something outside the classroom, but from the viewpoint of someone outside academia he just seemed to be sticking his little toe in the water and then deciding it was too cold.
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5: From Darwin to Wilson: an Epic Journey
Darwin himself would be proud of David Sloan Wilson and his understanding of the biological principles of evolution and their ever expanding application to all things human.
Darwin was, and Wilson is, able to fully appreciate with awe the miracles of what we see around us everyday that have arisen from natural selection and chance and not creationism or intelligent design.
By his tone, I surmised that Wilson admired Darwin's quiet demeanor, fully understanding the world around him, and using the principles of evolution to integrate a great diversity of academic subjects. He wants to pattern his goals after those of Darwin, to gently share his inspiration with the rest of the world, being cautious not to upset too much any one political or religious group.
Wilson studied religions for three years and sampled 24 of them to create viable hypotheses regarding their purpose and nature from an evolutionary perspective. In the process, he became of a scientist and a religious scholar at the same time.
Now, in "Evolution for Everyone" he is suggesting with confidence that what he discovered about the evolutionary workings of religion can be applied to economics and politics as well, in addition to any thing else that has to do with life.
Wilson shows how Calvinism in Geneva was instrumental in solving the problem of factionalism, and helping the city survive as a social entity, and had evolved a sophisticated internalized system of government that prevented corruption and adapted to current needs.
He also points out that religious belief systems are more user friendly.
"They reduce the complexity of the real world to motivate a suite of behaviors that are adaptive in the real world. Ironically, the reason that trade-offs are absent from religious beliefs systems is because of a trade-off between maximizing factual and practical realism at the same time."
"Religions that build strong communities survive while other versions fall apart. The elements of a religion required for survival depend upon the surrounding social environment, so religions necessarily diversify as they evolve."
"Religions are good at providing practical benefits so that their members become wealthy, whereupon they lose the incentive to cooperate and try to loosen the very structure that lifted them out of poverty."
Wilson make a strong case to show that "religions not only adapt to their social environments but also change their social environments, leading to an endless cycle of corruption and renewal that has been documented by scholars for all religious traditions, around the world, and throughout history."
"Finally, there is the question of whether a belief system can combine the best of religion and science, enabling people to flourish in sustainable communities while remaining fully committed to factual realism. It is important to realize that this would be a new cultural adaptation, never before seen on the face of the earth."
E.O. Wilson's book hit me over the head back in the 1970's with the power of biology to explain behavior, and I have been hooked ever since.
David Sloan Wilson excellent book is yet another fix, another burst of realization of the powers of evolutionary theory.
Scott Richard Campbell
Author of RUSH: Fighting the Poker Al-Qaeda
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