Rating: 
Summary: A biased and boring statistical analysis
Review: A Review of "Not by Chance" by Lee Spetner (1996)Jack S. Cohen "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." In his book, Lee Spetner seeks to disprove Neo-Darwinian Theory (NDT) by the use of mathematical analysis, notably statistics. The author cannot be considered a dispassionate seeker after truth; he refers to "evolutionists [who] claim to know how it all began" (p. 23) and "if the neo-Darwinian agenda had worked out, there would be no place for a creator" (p. 24). Rather from the outset he has a mission, that can be stated simply as a religious Jew's attempt to destroy the opposition, namely the concept that evolution of biological species could have occurred without the need to evoke a creator. It must be acknowledged that Dr. Spetner has amassed a large amount of information, and indeed has incorporated much biological, chemical, genetic, enzymatic, etc., information into his book (about half the text). However, all of this information is secondary to the main thesis, that statistical analysis (of chance events) cannot explain NDT. Spetner's view can be summarized by his statement, "common sense says that the amazing complexity of life cannot arise out of a random process" (p.75). In this he is simply wrong. Notwithstanding all his mathematical analysis he basically relies on his biased "common sense," not on the facts. In order to confront Spetner's analysis we must distinguish between the process and the theory to explain it. It is my contention that based on the facts I can come to no other conclusion than that the evolution of species has occurred. There is so much material from paleontology (fossils), comparative anatomy, embryology, genetics (mutation analysis), etc., that to conclude otherwise is perverse, in other words, not accepting the facts because of a pre-conceived bias. However, how evolution came about is still uncertain. That is why we still talk about "Darwin's theory of evolution." We now know that a good deal of Darwin's analysis was wrong, because at the time the science of genetics that underlies evolution was hardly known. That is why in the 1940's a group of eminent scientists met and attempted to update the theory of evolution according to the then-known facts, including what was known of genetics, in the NDT. Spetner spends a great deal of time and effort trying to dispute the NDT. In fact his analysis becomes for want of a more elegant word, boring. There is only so much statistical analysis that one can struggle through before one's eyes glaze over. One response to Spetner was why did he bother; we now know that a lot of what the NDT contains is out-dated. Note that this was even before the discovery of the structure of DNA. The 1940's were, in the area of genetics, roughly equivalent to the early middle ages; so much has been learnt since then. For example, transposons, that can transfer whole segments of genetic information (mentioned only twice in this book); e.g. the Philadelphia chromosome, in which a specific chromosomal transfer is highly associated with several forms of leukemia (so chromosomal translocations can be random and non-random). There are "introns" and "exons", which divide the genome into two groups, one that is expressed (exons) in genes (and hence in the physical characteristics or phenotype) and one that is not (the intervening sequences or introns that are spliced out). One thing is clear, NDT is hardly likely to be defended by any modern biologist. Consequently Spetner has erected a massive "straw man" to beat and berate with such determination. One very important element of Spetner's approach is that evolution could not have occurred by small steps involving single point mutations in the DNA. In relation to the NDT he may be narrowly correct. However, in one respect his analysis seems to be wrong, in that he assumes a stable population, while the tendency for minor variants to overtake a diminishing population will be greatly increased the closer it comes to extinction. Also, we should acknowledge that most species have not overcome that challenge. We now know that point mutations are only one of many ways that changes occur in the genetic material to give rise to variation (see above), and these are not taken into account in Spetner's analysis. Clearly a book written in 1996 should not be focusing on an outdated theory from the 1940s! That the evolution of animal species has occurred over eons is an indisputable fact. Now, it appears that Spetner has his own theory of evolution that must include a deity. In his epilogue, he approvingly quotes Rabbi Luria (1789-1855) who interpreted the holy books and came to the conclusion that 365 beasts and an equal number of birds were created (presumably by God) and the rest evolved from these. This is a theory of evolution that does not accord with the known facts! In my understanding, God is considered by believers to be supernatural. I cannot understand why it is thought necessary to invoke a supernatural being to account for a natural process. According to Occam's "razor", you only need one theory to explain something, and not more. It is evident that the modern sciences of biology, paleontology, genetics, and so forth, provide a sufficient natural basis to explain the mechanism of evolution, even if we do not yet have all the answers. But, it is pouring in thick and fast. Recently we have seen the findings of "missing links" (a favorite point of attack of creationists) of bird-dinosaurs and human skulls. One notable fact is that the cranial capacity of the brains of early human ancestors can now be show to have increased gradually, and not have been subject to sudden changes. There is a large amount of self-deception in this work. Often a single negative quotation is used as a springboard to disprove a whole thesis (for example, p. 201, the evolution of finches in Galapagos is disputed). Spetner states in this context that the diversity of finch beaks "might be explained by a phenotypic phenomenon entirely" (p. 203). This ignores the fact that all phenotypic variations have genetic origins. Thus, the observation that he describes of the development of finch beak variation as adaptation to new environments that has been observed in real time, is a prima facie case of biological evolution. Overall "facts speak louder than statistics."
Rating: 
Summary: Information generation and misinformation removal
Review: After the works of men of different persuasions such as H. Morris, J. Morris, D, Gish, K. Ham, J. Sarfati, R. Humphreys, J. Baumgardner, M. Behe, W. Gitt, W. Dembski, J. Wells, G. Gonzalez, P. Johnson, M. Denton, R. Milton, and L. Spetner, the least we can say is that neo-Darwinism is in real trouble. 1) Most of the icons of evolution have been debunked 2) Mutations and natural selection can't generate complex specified information 3) The metaphysical naturalism behind neo-darwinism has been exposed 4) The links are still missing, both in the fossil record and in molecular biology 5) Evidence for design and fine tuning is overwelming, as even some evolutionists seem recognize (v.g. "designoids"; "appearence of design", "machines", "systems", "codes") 6) Probability and information theory say that information presuposes an intelligent sender and a meaningful code. 7) The big bang and the cosmological principle are under sustained attack 8) Many evolutionary arguments cancel each other, leading neo-darwinism to a dead end. 9) Biblical creationism can generate good and testable scientific models and predictions 10) Mayr, Lewontin, Gould and Dawkins are bright people but they cannot get their theories right, because assumptions are wrong and facts don't fit. (you may be an excellent runner but that won't help you win the race if you are running in the wrong direction!) Lee Spetner just demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that mutations never generate brand new DNA information. On the other hand, natural selection by definition removes information. Altough the mecanism of mutations and natural selection can explain speciation, it has nothing to do with particles-to-people evolution. Speciation (Top-botton) is not evolution in the neo-darwinistic (botton-top) sense. Speciation requires the pre-existence of information. Evolution is meant to generate information out of nothing. Biblical creationism has no problem with natural selection and speciation. On the contrary, it predicts it and explains it. By studying the problem of mutations and information generation, Lee Spetner goes a long way in removing evolutionary misinformation.
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and meant for those who use brains, not emotions
Review: I am not one who argues from a religious point of view. Please, just the facts and the tests will convince me of something. So, I have no emotional interest in whether the Theory of Evolution is true or false. I personally have no problem with either God, one or many, aliens, or even evolution. I just want the facts and tests presented to me. Ever since I was in graduate school in Physics, I have learned to ask questions and not believe without facts and tests. No one in the biology departments were able to answer my questions concerning genetics and evolution concisely and accurately. Perhaps it was the times; but after reading this book, I know now they did not know the answers themselves, but, only expected me to believe them. Acutally, I have the same problem with people who expect me to believe their religion, Christian or other. I found first in this book a clear presentation of genetics and mutations. Wonderful ! First set of questions answered. Second, I found the books arguments well documented and mostly tractable. This book is not in the "easy reading" category, nor, is it in the "Particle Physics" level. You must exercise your brain. I always expected from evolutionists and explanation for speciation. If evolution were a real theory I thought, they should be able to show me the steps of mutations to change one species to another. We could test this and go on. This book clarified for me why my second set of quesions to biologists, ie, tests, were never answered. There are none and again, I was suppose to just believe them. This book clarifies not just genetics in the most coherent fashion than any I have read before, but, goes on to show how using the suppositions of evolution and the evolutionist's data, you reach contradictions. Ergo, it cannot be true. The evolutionists must come from another logic universe, or are just professing their religion. If there are some problems with the logic or mathematics the author quotes, I am convinced, they would be minor and not contradict the conclusions of this book. Anyone who searches for the truth of evolution, must read this book. Richard Lombardi
M.S. Physics
Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and meant for those who use brains, not emotions
Review: I am not one who argues from a religious point of view. Please, just the facts and the tests will convince me of something. So, I have no emotional interest in whether the Theory of Evolution is true or false. I personally have no problem with either God, one or many, aliens, or even evolution. I just want the facts and tests presented to me. Ever since I was in graduate school in Physics, I have learned to ask questions and not believe without facts and tests. No one in the biology departments were able to answer my questions concerning genetics and evolution concisely and accurately. Perhaps it was the times; but after reading this book, I know now they did not know the answers themselves, but, only expected me to believe them. Acutally, I have the same problem with people who expect me to believe their religion, Christian or other. I found first in this book a clear presentation of genetics and mutations. Wonderful ! First set of questions answered. Second, I found the books arguments well documented and mostly tractable. This book is not in the "easy reading" category, nor, is it in the "Particle Physics" level. You must exercise your brain. I always expected from evolutionists and explanation for speciation. If evolution were a real theory I thought, they should be able to show me the steps of mutations to change one species to another. We could test this and go on. This book clarified for me why my second set of quesions to biologists, ie, tests, were never answered. There are none and again, I was suppose to just believe them. This book clarifies not just genetics in the most coherent fashion than any I have read before, but, goes on to show how using the suppositions of evolution and the evolutionist's data, you reach contradictions. Ergo, it cannot be true. The evolutionists must come from another logic universe, or are just professing their religion. If there are some problems with the logic or mathematics the author quotes, I am convinced, they would be minor and not contradict the conclusions of this book. Anyone who searches for the truth of evolution, must read this book. Richard Lombardi
M.S. Physics
Rating:
Summary: It is sad when people lie about reading a book
Review: I just read Erica Peters sad attempt at claiming she read this book and all she could do was whine about Michael Behe and contort his book which totally destroys the theory of evolutionism from a totally different angle. Since you obviously did not read THIS book, you should not give a review on it.
This book of Spetner's dismantles the straw-man arguments of Dawkins in "the Blind Watchmaker." And it's about time. Dawkins convolutions and imaginative explanations for the origin of complex information are thoroughly rebutted and shown as "losses of information," not gains in complexity. This may seem intuitively obvious to some, but Spetner does an excellent job of illustrating and explaining the quandry of the beginnings of life and its inherent impossibility of originating by chance.
With a PhD in physics from MIT and years of teaching information and communications theory at Johns Hopkins University, Spetner is eminently qualified to prove his case, and he does so in an eloquent manner.
Some lame defenders of evolutionism claim that one needs a degree in biology to refute the origins of life by chance. All evolutionists need to do is demonstrate how life can naturally come from non-life. But only experimental observations please. Leave your imaginations and dreams at the door.
And please don't review books you have not read, nor plan to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A deathblow to the heart of bacteria-to-man evolution!
Review: In his book, "Not by Chance," Dr. Lee Spetner does a fantastik job of hitting the Theory of Evolution where it hurts. In my opinion, the concept of information is the biggest problem for evolutionists to overcome and Dr Spetner demonstrates this beautifully. It is no wonder that reviewers are posing Ad Hominem attacks, spending many paragraphs criticizing Dr. Spetners degrees rather than criticising the science. When evolutionists result to personal attacks, I automatically assume that they have given up the debate and admitted defeat.
In the first chapter, Dr. Spetner discusses the history of evolution. If you have devoted any study to the creation/evolution controversy, this chapter may just be a repetition of things you already know. However, Dr. Spetner does an excellent job of discussing a very important aspect of the controversy, the history.
The second chapter reads basically like a college biology textbook. I found it very interesting that Dr. Spetner felt compelled to discuss and define many aspects of biology. I suppose he did this so that the uneducated will have some idea as to what the key concepts in biology are. Something Dr. Spetner did that I really appreciated was to offer an appendix that discusses topics in more detail like the structure of DNA, how enzymes work, Transcription, etc. Because Dr. Spetner is a physicist, I was skeptical as to whether or not he would be correct on concepts such as these(although any freshmen biology major would be qualified to write about DNA, enzymes, and Transcription). It turned out that Dr. Spetner was right on target on every topic he touched. In fact, I felt he discussed these topics with much more clarity than do most college biology textbooks(which I own and cross checked them with Spetners work).
In the next few chapters, Spetner deals with defining the Neo-Darwinian theory and discussing probability. I honestly found chapters 3 and 4 to be boring. I have never been a fan of probability arguments, mainly because it is so easy to make mistakes and unintentional straw-man arguments. Nonetheless, Dr. Spetner demonstrated the best probability arguments that I have ever seen. Sadly, evolutionists will probably spend all their time criticising Spetners calculations while ignoring his ideas on information.
If you, the reader, are planning on reading anything in this book, let it be chapters 5-7. These deal with the heart of the matter. In the earlier chapters, Spetner was being generous when dealing with probability because he assumed that increases in new genetic information is possible(which he doesn't believe, of course). Now he shows that increases in new genetic information is not only unlikely, but impossible.
Lee Spetners book was published in 1997. Before this time I have never read any anti-evolution literature that deals with the concept of information in relation to the Theory of Evolution. This is suprising, since information theory has been around for a long time. Before Dr. Spetners work, anti-evolutionists used the micro-macro arguments(unfortunately many still do). Although Dr. Spetner used the micro-macro argument, he defined the terms in such a way so that it ties into the concept of information. What Dr. Spetner does is demonstrate that no increase in new information has ever been found in nature. He says that if large scale evolution were possible, then increases in new information should be found all thoughout nature, happening every day. So its not about how large of a change can happen, but rather the TYPE of change. No doubt, large changes can and do happen, but they can happen as a result of a LOSS of information. Anti-evolutionists need to stop using the micro-macro arguments and start using the information concept, which Dr. Spetner beautifully demonstrates.
I think that anyone interested in the creation/evolution controversy can benefit from this book. If you are an evolutionist, you will become more aware of the new attacks that are being posed at your theory so that you can defend it better. If you are an anti-evolutionists, you will encounter one of the best apologetic defense of special creation ever encountered, next to the Bible. I must warn, that if you haven't had atleast an introductory course in biology, this book might be a boring read. If you are a beginner to the creation/evolution subject, I would recommend purchasing a college biology textbook so that the unfamiliar terms and concepts can be explained.
Rating:
Summary: Evolutionists Are Scared
Review: Nice try. It's time to face up, take your medicine. This book as well as some others cannot be refuted because you can't argue with logic. Evolutionists are conmen.
Rating:
Summary: Mathematical, Logical, Precise
Review: So many people take neo-Darwinism by default, without thinking things through or challenging old assumptions. Spetner blows away the old Darwin myths with solid mathematical precision. He also opens up an entire gateway of thinking, allowing the reader to go beyond the complexities he deals with in this book, to imagine others, and think them through. Spetner shows that no mutation has ever added positive information. He also shows the shear mathematical impossibility of neo-Darwinism in a detailed explanation, which is fairly put in laymens terms. Scientists and non-scientists alike should read this book. We simply need to re-think evolution, and so many of its warn out and old ideas, and Spetner gives us cause and tools to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Mathematical, Logical, Precise
Review: So many people take neo-Darwinism by default, without thinking things through or challenging old assumptions. Spetner blows away the old Darwin myths with solid mathematical precision. He also opens up an entire gateway of thinking, allowing the reader to go beyond the complexities he deals with in this book, to imagine others, and think them through. Spetner shows that no mutation has ever added positive information. He also shows the shear mathematical impossibility of neo-Darwinism in a detailed explanation, which is fairly put in laymens terms. Scientists and non-scientists alike should read this book. We simply need to re-think evolution, and so many of its warn out and old ideas, and Spetner gives us cause and tools to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Darwinism: mathematically impossible
Review: This book is a must have if your interested in the origins debate. Spetner does a great job of revealing the flaws of darwinism, namely that mutations coupled with natures selection pressures could not have produced the genetic complexity of information organisms contain today. The only way mutations could produce such complexity is if the mutations were "planned" in the right spot, or designed in the right spot. Mutations, however, are random according to darwinism and as such darwinism's fate is forever sealed. Mathematically, darwinism could not have happended. Anyone that wants to claim that darwinism is correct, fine. More power to them. But to ignore statistical facts, mathematic probabilities, all in the name of saving a doomed theory is wrong. It is high time darwinists step up and admit that their theory, along with creation, is not a scientific theory. This book can bring the failures of darwinism to light to those who have been told science fully supports darwinism. Buy the book, show it to a friend, or give it as a gift. The book is somewhat complex, so it is not for everyone. Spetner though does take the time to explain his statistics in laymans terms. On a side note, Spetner does not discredit evolution, only darwinism. He seems to be keen to an idea similar to Lamarckism. So even those readers who fear this is another creationist book, it is not. Read it for yourself and find out.
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