Encyclopedia Of Evolution ( A must Read book )

The theory and facts of evolution have been part of modern science for almost 150 years, since the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and yet, the public at large—especially, but not only, in the United States—still has little understanding of evolution, with almost 50 percent of Americans rejecting the Darwinian view of the history of life outright. It is for this reason that Stanley Rice’s Encyclopedia of Evolution is a particularly welcome addition to the popular literature on evolution. Until recently, most professional scientists have simply not deemed it worth their time and effort to talk to the public about the nature and importance of what they do. Even some of the notable exceptions have been somewhat mixed blessings, from Stephen Jay Gould’s
tiresome politically motivated crusades against biological “interpretations” of the
human condition to Richard Dawkins’s equally misconceived all-out attacks on

The Art of Genes - How Organisms Make Themselves

 Over the past twenty years there has been a revolution in biology: for the first time we have begun to understand how organisms make themselves. The mechanisms by which a fertilised egg develops into an adult can now be grasped in a way that was unimaginable a few decades ago. Yet this revolution has been a curiously silent one. Our new picture of how organisms develop has been inaccessible to all but a small community of biologists. This is largely because the jargon and technical complexities have prevented many of the new and exciting findings from being communicated to a wider audience. Moreover, as scientists have concentrated on unravelling the
details of the story, many of the broader implications of our new found knowledge have remained unvoiced. In my view this is particularly unfortunate because the study of development provides one of the most fertile meeting grounds for science, art and philosophy.

Origins of Life

How did life on Earth originate? Did replication or metabolism come
first in the history of life? In this extensively rewritten second edition,
Freeman Dyson examines these questions and discusses the
two main theories that try to explain how naturally occurring chemicals
could organize themselves into living creatures.
The majority view is that life began with replicating molecules,
the precursors of modern genes. The minority belief is that random
populations of molecules evolved metabolic activities before exact
replication existed and that natural selection drove the evolution of
cells toward greater complexity for a long time without the benefit
of genes. Dyson analyzes both of these theories with reference to
recent important discoveries by geologists and biologists, aiming to
stimulate new experiments that could help decide which theory is
correct.

The Non-Existence of God

Is it possible to prove or disprove God’s existence?
Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over
the centuries: the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments;
arguments which invoke miracles, religious experience and morality; and
prudential arguments such as Pascal’s Wager. On the other hand are the
arguments against theistic belief: the traditional problem of evil; the logical
tensions between divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience and
eternity; and arguments from the scale of the universe.
In The Non-existence of God, Nicholas Everitt introduces and critically
assesses these arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge
play in the debate over God’s existence. He draws on recent scientific
disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implications of ‘big bang’ cosmology, and

Biblical Nonsense: A Review of the Bible for Doubting Christians

Biblical Nonsense is a broad look at the tremendous problem of associating divinity with the world’s most popular book. This part-philosophical, part-scientific overview explores the Bible’s divine treachery, scientific mistakes, historical errors, false prophecies, and comical absurdities.Biblical Nonsense also expands beyond these standard reasons for skepticism by tackling the rationale behind the emergence and perpetuation of Christianity, psychological and sociocultural reasons that drive Christians to cling to their beliefs, and illogical methods of argumentation invoked in the defense of the Bible.