A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History

Book Description

Following in the wake of his groundbreaking War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel De Landa presents a radical synthesis of historical development over the last one thousand years. More than a simple expository history, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History sketches the outlines of a renewed materialist philosophy of history in the tradition of Fernand Braudel, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, while also engaging the critical new understanding of material processes derived from the sciences of dynamics. Working against prevailing attitudes that see history as an arena of texts, discourses, ideologies, and metaphors, De Landa traces the concrete movements and interplays of matter and energy through human populations in the last millennium.

De Landa attacks three domains that have given shape to human societies: economics, biology, and linguistics. In every case, what one sees is the self-directed processes of matter and energy interacting with the whim and will of human history itself to form a panoramic vision of the West free of rigid teleology and naive notions of progress, and even more important, free of any deterministic source of its urban, institutional, and technological forms. Rather, the source of all concrete forms in the West's history are shown to derive from internal morphogenetic capabilities that lie within the flow of matter-energy itself.

Customer Reviews:

Very deep.......2007-01-09

it is a very interesting way of looking at european history and it presents very well researched and explained arguments. a MUST for anyone interested in philosophy, anthropology and to some extent urbanism

Inhuman History (In Spanish).......2006-03-24

En Thousand Years of Non-Linear History, podemos diferenciar tres aspectos para tratar la historia:

1. El campo de la reflexión histórica se amplía de la humanidad a los materiales brutos, no-humanos, el papel que juegan las rocas, las bacterias, las palabras en los procesos históricos, como materia que espontáneamente producen formas.
2. Al considerar estas nuevas variables "inhumanas", la historia humana se aprecia como la realidad frente a la virtualidad que representa lo inhumano y
3.La vieja diferencia humanista entre naturaleza e historia desaparece.

DeLanda describe tres campos que han jugado un importante papel en la historia humana y que amplía su enfoque en el sentido de considerar como algunos procesos históricos que anteriormente explicábamos mediante causas históricas son realmente expresiones de procesos no-humanos auto-organizados que han influido en el crecimiento de las ciudades de los últimos mil años. Estos campos son la geología, la biología y la lingüística (esta última considerada como humana pero que en realidad posee todas las características de los sistemas auto-organizados que encontramos en la naturaleza). La interacción de estos tres elementos como virtuales es lo que producen los eventos en la historia humana. DeLanda considera el urbanismo como el campo privilegiado de reflexión puesto que las ciudades en rápido crecimiento se asemejan mejor a los sistemas termodinámicos lejos del equilibrio que cualquier otra cosa en la historia humana. El isomorfismo entre los sistemas geológicos, biológicos y lingüísticos con la historia humana, se centra en tres perspectivas concernientes a las ciudades: primero, la perspectiva geológica se centra en el crecimiento de la economía urbana desde la interacción espontánea entre individuos e instituciones, así como el magma y la metereología determinan el crecimiento geológico de la Tierra. En segundo lugar, el punto de vista biológico que considera las ciudades como complejos super-organismos que viven de sus recursos ambientales y originan complejas interacciones entre humanos, animales y bacterias, así como los ecosistemas funcionan de igual manera autorregulándose. En último lugar, la historia lingüística de cómo los diferentes dialectos compiten y circulan de manera espontánea para dar lugar a las distintas lenguas nacionales y grupos étnicos. Estas interacciones no son explicadas desde un sistema clásico lineal sino desde dos claves importantísimas: la auto-organización espontánea y el evento impredecible, nuevo pero contenido en la forma histórica y no en sus propiedades materiales. En los tres casos, podemos ver que se trata de la interacción de diferentes intensidades dinámicas (individuos-instituciones, ciudad-ambiente, dialectos-lenguas nacionales) que producen diferencias espaciales y territoriales mediante eventos específicos claves. En biología, al igual que en historia, podríamos decir que se trata de antievolucionismo que reconoce al igual que Darwin o Spencer la competencia, pero que no es de ninguna manera homogénea y lineal. En vez de ver como la humanidad ha usado su ambiente para manipularlo según su voluntad, DeLanda revierte el enfoque en como lo humano ha sido determinado por lo inhumano en el acontecer de la historia:

"Desde el punto de vista de la dinámica no-lineal de nuestro planeta, la delgada capa rocosa en la cual vivimos y que llamamos nuestra tierra y hogar es tal vez el componente menos importante. En realidad, si esperamos lo suficiente, si podemos observar la dinámica planetaria en escalas geológicas de tiempo, las rocas y las montañas que definen las características más estables y duraderas de nuestra realidad, se disolverían en la gran lava subterránea de la cual aquellas son nada más que endurecimientos temporales. De verdad, dado que es solo una cuestión de tiempo para que una roca o montaña sea re-absorbida en los flujos auto-organizados de lava que controlan la dinámica de la litosfera, estas estructuras geológicas representan una desaceleración temporal de esta fluida realidad. Es casi como que cualquier parte del mundo mineral, pueda ser definido al especificar su composición química y su rapidez de flujo: muy lento para las rocas, más rápido para la lava... Similarmente, nuestros cuerpos y mentes individuales son meras coagulaciones o desaceleraciones en los flujos de biomasa, genes, memes y normas. Aquí también estaríamos definidos tanto por los materiales que temporalmente enlazamos y encadenamos en nuestros cuerpos orgánicos y mentes culturales, como por la escala temporal de dicha operación. Si se da la escala de tiempo suficiente, es el flujo de la biomasa a través de redes de alimentación lo que importa, así como el flujo de genes a través de las generaciones, y no los cuerpos o especies que emergen de estos flujos. Dada una escala de tiempo suficiente, nuestros lenguajes son también momentáneamente desaceleraciones o endurecimientos de un flujo de normas que dan origen a una multitud de estructuras diferentes. La visión de mundo totalizante que dicha "geo-filosofía" genera se pondría en una camisa de fuerza si se introduce una terminología especial".

La historia humana son mineralizaciones de flujos, simbiosis y competencia de la biomasa misma. Desde un punto de vista geológico -que es el más extenso- los fósiles humanos así como las ciudades extintas pertenecen a este flujo geológico, así como las extinciones por epidemias o las desapariciones de grupos lingüísticos como parte de una historia infinitamente superior a la humana. Todas estas cuestiones son irreversibles, como vimos, puesto que lo que se repite es el cambio, y la historia es el más perfecto sistema -además de la termodinámica- de un sistema lejos del equilibrio y autoorganizado. Precisamente, la ausencia de tiempo en las ciencias físicas y sociales se debe a la presencia de esa escala temporal infinitamente superior a la nuestra que es confundida por nosotros como repetición inerte. Lo que pasa es que el flujo infinitamente lento (geología) o infinitamente rápido (virus y bacterias) no son medibles por nuestra humanidad. Por ejemplo, como dice DeLanda: "Los centros urbanos, los organismos vivientes (y la historia geológica no son homeostáticas) no existen en un sistema de equilibrio interno sino que lejos del equilibrio, son atravesados por diferentes flujos de energía-materia que da origen a sus metamorfosis únicas" En este nuevo concepto de historia, la no-linealidad (bifurcaciones complejas), el evento único producido por un flujo de masa energía virtual pero real da campo a una nueva concepción de tiempo y de humanidad, donde no es la identidad sino la intuición de la diferencia de cada momento como "repetición" de algo nuevo. La implicación epistemológica de la diferencia y la virtualidad da cuenta de un nuevo tipo de conocimiento que, además de explicar el mundo independiente de las esencias abstractas, no es representativo o espacial sino también producto de la actualización de las intensidades.

A Thousand Re-Readings.......2005-03-20

Just re-read this for the third time straight through (I've dipped in and out many other times). This is indispensable work. The sections on the growth of cities, creoles and the history of language, and the Body Without Organs still dazzle me.

Gibberish.......2003-12-20

The author is trying to communicate with us, but
by using Klingon Battle Language he'd be more intelligible.
The terms and concepts in the book appear not to have
ordinary meaning, but follow a lexicon inspired by someone who had too much graduate level deconstructionism. I gave it an honest try, on recommendation of Terence McKenna and Mark
Pesce. It would seem that the author is writing for
an audience with IQs above 200, or I'm hopelessly out
of touch.

Understand the BwO!.......2003-05-13

The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow covered book is De Landa's explanation of Deleuze and Guattari's Body without Organs. Worth it for that alone.

The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
Average customer rating:

Powerful, and well done

Difficult Reading based on Meticulous Research!

An exciting and informative voyage through history

History that puts you there

ambitiously planned and executed

The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
Robert W. Harms , and Robert Harms
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465028721
Release Date: 2003-01-07

Amazon.com

From the 16th to the 19th century, more than 40,000 slave ships plied the waters of the Atlantic, bringing human cargo to the Americas. Drawing on a memoir by a lieutenant, historian Robert Harms tells the story of one such ship, a story that, although shocking to modern readers, "was distressingly ordinary in its own time and place."

Designed to transport grain over short distances, the Diligent was perhaps not the most seaworthy of vessels. Still, by ship's officer Robert Durand's account, it transported nearly 300 victims at a time from the African coast to the French colony of Martinique, often at a terrible cost in life because of disease, malnutrition, and harsh shipboard discipline. Harms carefully reconstructs episodes in the ship's life, including the curious trial that ended its 1731 ocean crossing. More than that, he untangles the complex business of the slave trade, which was far from monolithic, depending instead on ever-shifting alliances and private agendas in the race for profit.

As Harms notes, though more than 17,000 ships' logs from the slaving voyages of the 18th century have been recovered, only a few shed light on daily life aboard those vessels. His troubling narrative does just that, and it gives new evidence of the ordinariness of evil. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

In The Diligent, historian Robert Harms uses an entirely new approach to uncover the complex workings of the slave trade. Drawing upon the recently discovered private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand, Harms re-creates the macabre journey of a French slave ship and interweaves it with the remarkable dramas of its route. The result is an astonishingly detailed look at the voyage of a single slave ship that sheds new light on the slave trade and how it shaped morality, politics, and economics on three continents.

The Diligent began her journey in Brittany in 1731, and Harms follows her along the African coast where her goods were traded for slaves, to Martinique where her captives were sold to work on sugar plantations. Harms brings to life a world in which slavery was a commerce carried out without qualms. He shows the gruesome details of daily life aboard a slave ship, as well as French merchants wrangling with their government for the right to traffic in slaves, African kings waging epic wars for control of European slave trading posts, and representatives of European governments negotiating the complicated politics of the Guinea coast to ensure a stead supply of labor for their countries' colonies. The Diligent is filled with rich stories that explain how the slave trade worked on all levels, from geopolitics to the rigging of ships.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful, and well done.......2006-03-03

The academic voice and style of the book only makes the content more chilling.

By focusing so fully on just one voyage, the everyday nature of the genocide occuring becomes almost unbearable.

I haven't looked at sugar the same way since.

Difficult Reading based on Meticulous Research!.......2004-08-04

Finally, I completed this almost 500 pg. nonfiction book written by a Yale professor and historian about the journey of a French slave ship to Africa to Martinique and back to France. I found the first 200 pages excrutiating due to the details of the history of France and Europe as well as the geneology of individuals involved in outfitting the slave ship for its voyage to Africa for its human cargo. (I think it would have made this book far easier for readers if some of the background history had been paraphrased. Sometimes Mr. Harms was telling exactly who was doing what at a certain time complete with a weather report!) I found it fascinating, at last, when around page 200+, we arrived in Africa and learned the details of what the French, Portuguese, English, and Dutch did to barter for slaves from the African Kings who were given European goods (guns, gunpowder, beads, alcohol, etc.) as well as ten percent of the human cargo. Sometimes the Europeans induced the African to declare war on each other with tens of thousands fighting--because in the end prisoners of war were sold by the tribes to the Europeans. It usually took months of manipulations and squabbles and wars before deals were settled. Most captains of slave ships did not keep detailed logs other than the number of slaves purchased and how many died during the Middle Passage (the leg of the journey from Africa to the Americas). Each country involved in the slave trade had laws to obey, and each ship was run differently according to the captains and crews. First Lieutenant Robert Durand of the Diligent, however, took more detailed notes, so we know what it was like on a 1731 French slave ship. I recommend this book for everyone studying history of the 1700's, especially the slave trade, though the author included a lot of very dry superfluous details! I suggest you skip over the stuff that doesn't interest you, and read the stuff that does. After the Diligent arrives in Martinique, the author gives detailed information about sugar processing of the 1700's that would be difficult to find elsewhere. For good photos and more information about the slave trade to the Americas, go to the Middlepassagemuseum.org. I also recommend novels by K.J. McWilliams: The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones as well as slave narratives written by slaves such as Frederick Douglass, Ellen & William Craft, etc.

An exciting and informative voyage through history.......2003-07-27

The Individual who has read AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800 by John Thornton & THE SLAVE TRADE: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 by Hugh Thomas will likely find THE DILIGENT: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade to be a welcome addition to their reading material while the individual for whom this is a introduction to the subject will likely find the work both stimulating and informative.

Nominally, THE DILIGENT is a history of the 1731 -32 journey of the slave ship THE DILIGENT from the Ile aux Moines near the port of Vannes, in Brittany, France to the Guinea Coast, then to Martinique and back to Vannes. It is, however, much more than that. The reader is treated to a rather informative economic and social history (especially as it relates to the slave trade) of France at the beginning of the 18th century, including the "reforms" of John Law. It is also a brief history of the involvement of the European powers with the native peoples of the Gold Coast, a much more detailed history of Whydah and Dahomey (for the slightly gory origin of the name see Harold Courlander's A TREASURY OF AFRICAN FOLKLORE) and the effects of the slave traders on those States, a brief history of the status and struggles of free blacks under mulatto control in Principe and Sao Tome (focusing on the life of the black Archdeacon Pinto during this period), a study of daily life for both crew and human cargo on a slave ship - especially during the arduous Middle Passage, and a brief look at the struggles and dangers facing slaves and, to a lesser degree, coca and coffee growers in Martinique. The work finishes off by examining the questionable benefits of the various parties (including the financiers, suppliers and the officers of the ship) from the slaving voyage.

This is an excellent work (aside from a couple editing errors which aren't worth mentioning but, going by reviews written elsewhere, may be greatly exaggerated by some future detractor of the work) and should be read by any serious student of slave trade.

History that puts you there.......2002-09-08

I think the author did an excellent job of blending together the experiences of one slave-trading ship, the environmeent it fit within, and the way slaves were treated, with somewhat less emphasis on the latter. The author did a great job of detailing the motives of those involved in the trade, which helped a lot to put me there, rather than feeling like I was just observing events from a distance.

ambitiously planned and executed.......2002-08-17

Robert Harms took on a wide-ranging, difficult task in writing "The Diligent, A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade". He writes in great detail of the journey of the French ship on its only slave trading voyage from the coast of Brittany to Martinique in the New World. Relying of the shipboard journals of Robert Durand, a young First Lieutenant, Harms gives us an account of the political, economic, and social worlds of the European empires, of the African societies, and the new plantations of the Americas. We read brutal accounts of pirate ships, of crew mutinies, of slave uprisings aboard ships.

Profit was the motive, of course, and when the Diligent returned home to Vannes, a smallish French city with a rising merchant class, the ship owners, the Billy brothers, sued the captain, Pierre Mary, for cheating them on the profits of the voyage. Bad luck, weather, illness, and mismanagement no doubt all played a role in the low profits of the first voyage. The Diligent never made another slave-run into the West Indies.

Written in fairly dry, fairly academic prose, this book will not be a best-seller, but you will find it profitable reading of those harsh times and places not so distantly removed from our own.

Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
Average customer rating:
Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
Robert Harms
Manufacturer: PERSEUS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OJJO2W

Book Description

For over a century, the scientific establishment has ignored challenges to the theory of evolution. But in the last decade such complacency about its scientific and philosophical foundations has been shaken. As cracks in the Darwinian edifice have begun to appear, many are asking whether a defensible alternative exists.In response to this growing crisis, a movement has emerged among scholars exploring the possibility of intelligent design as an explanatory theory in scientific descriptions of the universe. As Michael Behe has proposed in his landmark Darwin's Black Box, at the cellular level there appears to be a high level of irreducible complexity that suggests design.In this book Behe is joined by eighteen other expert academics trained in mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, physical anthropology, physics, astrophysics, biology, ecology and evolutionary biology to investigate the prospects for this emerging school of thought. Challenging the reigning ideology of materialistic naturalism on both scientific and philosophical grounds, these scholars press the case for a radical rethinknig of established evolutionary assumptions.

Customer Reviews:

Shows How "Intelligent Design" Is Truly Re-packaged Creationism.......2007-05-25

Quite possibly the most important reason to read this book is to see how strong the philosophical links are between "Intelligent Design" - which some of their staunchest advocates claim isn't "creationism" - and religiously-oriented, so-called "scientific creationism". Regardless of where the authors earned their academic degrees (Incidentally, one of the most deceitful tactics of "scientific" creationists is to emphasize where they obtained their academic training, as though the mere possession of their degrees has earned them the unquestionable right to criticize evolutionary biology when they have no academic training in nor credible understanding of it.), these papers demonstrate sadly their lack of understanding - or maybe their profound disregard - for the scientific method and the necessity of offering rational, truly rigorous, scientific explanations to demonstrate why their brand of "creationism" is truly scientifically "better" than evolution in accounting for Earth's biological diversity and its amazing history as told from paleontological and molecular biological data. The best they can do is some rather skillfull arm-waving in pointing out what they perceive are problems with evolutionary biology (For the record I should note that I am probably more symphathetic with the likes of the late Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge among others, who have argued for years that our current understanding of the Modern Synthesis Theory of Evolution is incomplete, without taking into account both the hierarchial nature of biological diversity, and how that hierarchy was derived, and recognizing the important of evolutionary stasis in geological time as a trait that's probably common for most multicellular organisms throughout Planet Earth's history of life, than with those like Richard Dawkins who've argued vehemently for a more reductionist approach to our understanding of biological evolution.In plain English, just because I recognize some problems with current evolutionary theory, doesn't mean that I am prepared to disregard it, since it is substantially much better in explaining Earth's biological diversity than any version of "scientific creationism" I can think of, including "Intelligent Design".). Instead of purchasing this book, any of those I've cited in my Amazon.com Listimania! list (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-Is-Science-amp-Creationism-Isn-t/lm/R1288DTMHQJI13/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full/002-7569706-2488047) would be far more rewarding, intellectually speaking, than this anthology of papers which demonstrate convincingly - and I might add in stark contrast to the vehement denials of its supporters - the religious origins of every variety of creationism, not the least of which is so-called "Intelligent Design". Indeed, I suppose that this book is among the earliest, best instances, why sensible, rational people recognize that "Intelligent Design" is merely re-packaged creationism. If you are truly interested in buying this book, then you ought to consider instead a textbook on Klingon Cosmology, since Klingon Cosmology, like creationism, depends upon faith, not reason, in articulating and defending its principles.

What junk!.......2006-12-16

Although I have a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from conventional schools, I do not consider myself a stereotypical hard-boiled scientist. I do not immediately discount unconventional theories, I am open to spiritual ideas, and I am not an atheist. I did purchase and begin to read this book with a completely open mind; I was genuinely curious about what this "Intelligent Design" stuff was all about.

I was utterly disappointed to find that this book is a bunch of ignorant tripe, full of poorly-supported opinions argued with possibly the WORST logic skills I have been astonished to encounter.

If you are interested in how life has come into being and how it came to be the way it is today, by all means, I suggest conventional science as the first step. If you are interested in religion, philosophy, and the spiritual side of nature, I suggest conventional religion as the first step. I must conclude that "Intelligent Design" is a trashy attempt to disguise the latter as the former, which ends up being horrible at presenting either.

This is such irritating trash. I was completely incapable of finishing even the first chapter, and I am a compulsive reader who will read almost anything (like the cereal box, over and over, or even trashy supermarket tabloids when I am waiting in line!). I could not even bear to donate it to the library, as I usually do with books I've finished, because I could not bear the thought of passing it on. I had to dump it into the recycle bin.

A Comprehensive Volume Applying Intelligent Design to Many Fields of Science.......2006-06-22

This volume contains essays by numerous Discovery Fellows who presented at an early intelligent design conference at Biola University in 1996. As Henry F. Shaefer III explains in the forward, the conference was not a typical "creationist" event, as "virtually none of the conference participants were creationists of the sort one frequently reads about in the popular press" and "a very large majority of the participants had no stake in treating Genesis as a scientific text" (pg. 9). The conference even included non-Christian participants, for Phillip Johnson stated in his concluding address that he "would welcome to this group earnest atheists who are convinced there must be a better scientific explanation of life than the dominant mutation/selection scenario." (pg. 9)

The essays cover a wide range of topics. Philosopher and mathematician William Dembski (Introduction) explains that science need not fear invoking design now that rigorous criteria can distinguish between designed and non-designed objects in nature. Biologist Jonathan Wells (Chapter 1) recounts that only the principles of design engineering applied to biology can account why widely different species are "convergently" found to have the same genes. This conclusion is reiterated by philosopher of biology Paul Nelson (Chapter 6) who recounts the re-usage of embryonic regulatory genes in widely different organisms. Michael Behe (Chapter 7) explains that the many irreducibly complex systems in the cell "not only are tall problems for Darwinism but also are the hallmarks of intelligent design." (pg. 179) Siegfried Scherer (Chapter 8) develops a design-based "basic type biology" view of systematics and taxonomy, which is then applied by paleoanthropologist Siegried Hartwig-Scherer (Chapter 9) to the hominid fossil record, concluding that our genus Homo belongs to a distinctly designed "basic type" from the ape-like genus Australopithecus.

Ecologist and trained evolutionary biologist Jeffrey P. Schloss (Chapter 10) explains that Darwinian accounts of altruism through "kin-selection" fail to account for the wide range of human behaviors, which often are antithetical to familial reproduction. He concludes that a design paradigm could have radical implications for explaining basic human needs for relational intimacy and wide-ranging cultural proscriptions for the "golden rule." Hugh Ross (Chapter 15) recounts the dozens of cosmic "coincidences" which permit advanced life to inhabit our universe, concluding that design is the best explanation. Finally, mathematician David Berlinski (Chapter 17) explains that Gödel's theorem implies the specified complexity inherent in nature cannot be accounted for by mechanistic Darwinian causes.

The book also contains advice both for established scientists and younger scholars interested in pursuing design as a science. Social commentator Nancy Pearcey (Chapter 3) warns that design theorists must be wary that they will likely face many of the same red herring political, theological, and philosophical objections which Darwin's supporters used to fight design in the 19th century. Finally, Phillip E. Johnson (Afterward) explains that Johnson explains that design critics will try to resurrect the "Inherit the Wind" stereotype by labeling design theorists as close-minded religious fundamentalists, when in reality it is evolutionary science that is based upon naturalistic dogma rather than hard experimental data. Bruce Chapman (Postscript) explains that the driving force of opposition in this battle is the cultural entrenchment of materialism.

Critics who read this book will be impressed by the wide range of disciplines which can interact with the design hypothesis. After a brief peruse at a volume like this, objections that intelligent design is a "science-stopper" are exposed as hot air which dissipate into a puff of smoke. The undeniable conclusion is that design is a serious intellectual project.

A few comments.......2005-02-04

I find it odd that Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents think that humans are so special and "highly evolved," when they're really not. I mean, they are, in the sense that we're at the top of the animal kingdom, but that's not saying much. Humans are still very imperfect and poorly designed in many ways, exactly would one would expect from evolution, not a supreme deity. In some ways a cockroach, which can live without food and water for almost a year and is almost impossible to kill compared to a human, is far more impressive.

For example, consider one of Behe's prime examples. Behe started much of the current debate with his book, Darwin's Black Box, so I'll use one of his major examples, and in fact it was the main lynchpin of his entire argument in the book about the case for intelligent design.

Behe specifically claimed that the flagellar motor couldn't work if even one protein was missing, and that therefore it couldn't have evolved by chance, since dozens of seemingly specific and complex proteins comprise the motor. Unfortunately, he had no basis on which to make that claim. When it was looked at, it was found that up to 1/3 of the proteins could be missing--not exactly the kind of precise and closely engineered mechanism that implies intelligent design.

It's the same with the blood clotting mechanism too. Behe claimed the very complex clotting process similarly couldn't have evolved because of it's complexity. Actually, the blood clotting mechanism has many poorly designed features and is really overly complex for what it actually does, which could be done much more simply had it actually been created by design. This is because it evolved piecemeal over time by means of evolution.

For example, the blood clotting mechanism has a serious defect in that it varies between males and females in exactly the opposite of what one would expect. In men, the coronary arteries are susceptible to atherosclerotic plaque build-up as a result of increased platelet instability and adhesion, which doesn't happen in females. Hence, men seem specfically designed to have heart attacks as a result of a flawed mechanism in the blood-clotting process involving the platelets, which when ruptured, release the nerve-transmitter serotonin which causes spasming and contraction of the blood vessels to limit hemorrhaging. Certainly males, who are more likely to be involved in physical pursuits and such things as warfare need efficient blood-clotting--but they don't need heart attacks, either.

The human brain is an area I know something about, that being my speciality, and the brain is another good example of poor design. The human brain is certainly very impressive in many ways, but it's far from perfect, and suffers from some serious design flaws. For example, tiny malfunctions such as strokes can cause huge or even fatal deficits in brain functioning. A good example is Broca's area on the lateral sulcus of the brain, which controls the motor movements of the face required for speech. It is a unilateral center and not even bilateral, and hence one stroke can knock it out completely and cause total aphasia and loss of speech. Small strokes in the occipital cortex can cause dyslexia, and very small strokes in the hippocampus, an area of the limbic system involved in memories, can cause devastating memory deficits. Again, not a very impressive picture for something that was supposedly "created by design" by a supreme deity.

The human skeletal system also has many serious design flaws. For example, many knee problems would be eliminated if human and mammalian knees bent the other way (as in birds). The reason this is the case is that a bird's knee is actually it's ankle joint, but the same thing could have been done for mammals. The joints of mammals are also too small for the stresses placed upon them, and increasing their size by only 20 percent would provide enormous relief from many syndromes such as arthritis and normal age-related wear and tear.

The heart is another organ that has a tremendously flawed design. Unlike the human brain, which at least has a few parallel backup circuits built-in, the heart has only two major conduction systems, the sino-atrial node and atrio-ventricular node, and a malfunction in the later can cause instant death and in the former can cause serious heart problems, although it's not fatal.

All of these imperfections and flaws in design are exactly what one would expect of biological systems, which aren't very efficient or well-designed, but are actually rather messy with either too many redundant features, as in the flagellar motor, or insufficient with poor redundancy and backup features, as in the human brain and the heart, or under-designed and under-engineered and so inadequate for their task, such as the joints.

Another way to think about this is, even if it were true that the molecular complexity of cellular mechanisms is so precise and specific that it couldn't have evolved by chance, that also implies that one very small flaw can bring down the entire system--which is often the case, too. So, is that an argument for intelligent design--or for evolution? It depends on whether you're concentrating on the things that were gotten right vs. the things that were gotten wrong. So at the very least, there is in fact no way to decide the issue in that sense. However, considering the designer was supposed to be God, who is supposed to be omniscient, the many flaws and single points of failure argue against that. (Even beginning engineering students understand not to design critical systems with single points of failure).

So, to sum up, why the intelligent design types think such a poorly designed organism is grounds for positing an intelligent agent behind the design is beyond me. If there is, then perhaps God is just a beginning grad student in a God university somewhere in hyperspace and we're his first major research project, because he really doesn't know quite what he's doing yet. :-)

But despite all these problems, I give the book 3 stars for trying.

once again, a failed arguement.......2003-03-14

This book takes a much more objective approach to presenting a theory of Intelligent Design yet fails to deliver and ends up failing in the same way every other pro ID book fails: bad science, logic, and premise. The major benefit of this book is a somewhat rigorous attempt to examine current and past problems with Evolution. In fact, the book is really better viewed as yet another examination of Evolution and its problems with no alternate hypothosis provided. The idea of Intelligent Design is constantly presented but never backed up with evidence, only assertions and hand waving.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Church and State, published by J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State on March 22, 1999. The length of the article is 694 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design.(Review)(Brief Article)
Author: Richard Tison
Publication: Journal of Church and State (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1999
Publisher: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
Volume: 41 Issue: 2 Page: 397

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Greatest book on Earth!!!.......2006-09-04

I loved this great book on caring about the environment. It gave me facts and how I could help save the planet by not using my car, recycling and reusing. You Must read this book!

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL POLITICS.......2005-10-24

I like this little book because it's realistic and doesn't try to use scare tactics. It's not put out by radicals and it isn't trying to get us to take on too much, too fast. Those who politicize the ecology bug me to death. As if taking care of this planet that we fleetingly occupy is about whether you're on the right or the left, where you stand on gun control, taxes, what defines marriage, or whether the school board should remove Huck Finn from the high school shelves. Making the earth's environment better is selfish, because we stand to benefit from it. It's a planet we share, folks, and we're not doing all we could to leave it in good shape for those who are here now or will live on it when our time is done.

Let's get this straight once and for all: being environmentally conscious does not mean you're a tree-hugging liberal! What it means is, you like a planet that doesn't make you, your children, your grandma and your pet golden retriever sick. The Soviets were a leftist nation and they destroyed their ecology past the point of no return. On the flip side, the right-wing American President Theodore Roosevelt, as Republican as can be, has as one of his legacies the establishment of the National Parks System. "Saving" the planet is not the exclusive domain of leftists, nor-saying it again here--does it equate you with "tree huggers" if you try to do something that benefits the environment. I personally like clean air, clean water, a place to take a walk in nature without stepping in a nice glowing barrel of toxic sludge, don't you? I don't care if you're farther right than Sister Attila the Fourth-Grade Nun you can't honestly say you don't want there to be forests for you to go hunting in, or unpolluted rivers left for you to take your grandkids trout fishing in, am I right? And, yes, we ALL can recoil at the well-intended but self-defeating environmental fanatics who alienate the mainstream society of America by being too extreme and dogmatic. This book is not written for those who chain themselves to an endangered species of mollusk and go on hunger strikes to protest a TV show on global warming. This excellent little book is not like that at all. It presents what I think are really worthy ideas for cleaning up around the neighborhood where you live. It sets some nice projects out for kids (and grown ups) to get done and that is surely better than not educating our young people in environmental responsibility.

Okay, let me put it this way: would you rather have a child dear to you outside some weekend picking up litter, planting a tree in the side yard and sorting recyclable materials, or would you rather have that child sitting in front of the TV with a PS2, becoming another statistic in the epidemic of pre-teen obesity? This book is a small step in the right direction, and if it does nothing more than makes someone, whatever the age, think about the connection between personal behavior and the state of the earth's environment, then it's a nice investment of time and money.

Practical, realistic, easy........2002-09-05

I first read this book years ago as a child. Perhaps the few reviewers on here who do not like the book (and use this review as an outlet for their own personal politics) on here do not realize that parents, teachers, community leaders and religious leaders hardly shelter kids from the outside world as it is, and this book will not upset children, ruin their happiness or waste their childhood at all. As a kid, my friends and I readily accepted this book and were happy to carry out many of the suggestions. Adults seem to look down on kids a lot and think that they just want to play all day and have little care for anything but themselves. The things kids love, such as animals and the outdoors, are in danger, and this book lets kids contribute to help saving them. There are plenty of little tips in this book that do not advocate huge, drastic lifestyle changes. This book also does not come across as preachy or arrogant. Overall it is practical and enjoyable to read.

WOW!.......2002-09-03

This book is totally awesome. I am interested in the environment and since this book includes quotes by kids my age, I feel I am really connected. It makes me feel really cool, like I can really make a difference in the world. And it helps. It tells you ways to help the earth- simple ways. And I learned a lot from it. It has a lot of good, interesting facts in it too.

Wonderful: informative and fun to read !.......2001-06-22

I checked this book out from the library and we enjoyed it so much we had to buy one. This book contains simple eco-friendly ideas anyone can try, such as making a bird house out of a milk carton, planting a garden to attract butterflies and other creatures, how to avoid overuse of styrofoam and other non-recyclable materials. It does not suggest major lifestyle changes, just small changes that can add up over time. And it is fun to read! It contains mini-quizes for kids on each topic, such as: which of the following will a worm not eat- vegetables, dirt, or steak?(answer= worms don't eat meat). Each idea includes a question & answer, a description of the concept (such as recycling), a few projects to try at home (such giving old toys to charity or having a yard sale instead of throwing them out), and addresses to write to for more information (such as the National Wildlife Federation, which can help you plan a custom made wildlife-friendly yard). Great, simple projects for kids - a grown-ups too. I am going to buy the sequel as well and look forward to reading it cover-to-cover.

50 SIMPLE THINGS KIDS CAN DO TO SAVE THE EARTH

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50 SIMPLE THINGS KIDS CAN DO TO SAVE THE EARTH
John Javna
Manufacturer: Andrews and McMeel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KBZALS

I Can Save the Earth: A Kids' Handbook for Rescuing Life on Earth

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I Can Save the Earth: A Kids' Handbook for Rescuing Life on Earth
Anita Holmes , and David Neuhaus
Manufacturer: Julian Messner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 067174545X

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50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth
The Earth Works Group
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NY1ONA

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50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth
Earthworks Group; Earth Works Group (U.S.)
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NY665Q

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50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth
The Earthworks Group
Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JVJYN4

Can Kids Save the Earth? (Ranger Rick Science Spectacular Series)

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Can Kids Save the Earth? (Ranger Rick Science Spectacular Series)
Melvin Berger
Manufacturer: Newbridge Educational Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1567842097

Can Kids Save the Earth?: Student Book (Ranger Rick Science Spectacular)

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Can Kids Save the Earth?: Student Book (Ranger Rick Science Spectacular)
Melvin Berger
Manufacturer: Newbridge Educational Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1567842348

Kids Really Can Save the Earth.(education about the environment)(Brief Article): An article from: Childhood Education

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Kids Really Can Save the Earth.(education about the environment)(Brief Article): An article from: Childhood Education
Aline Stomfay-Stitz
Manufacturer: Association for Childhood Education International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Childhood Education, published by Association for Childhood Education International on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 666 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kids Really Can Save the Earth.(education about the environment)(Brief Article)
Author: Aline Stomfay-Stitz
Publication: Childhood Education (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: Association for Childhood Education International
Volume: 77 Issue: 3 Page: 158-E

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth

Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HUN0Y6

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