Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe

This book has over 400 pages with hundreds of references from refereed scientific journals, and EACH PAGE contains one or more (usually several) facts disputing Darwinism. I recently heard an interview by a scientist who said (to paraphrase) "Dawkins is a good writer but he is somewhat stupid and totally ignorant of the complexities of living organisms". I would challenge Dawkins to debate Denton (a molecular biologist with MD and PhD degrees) and to dispute a single fact on ANY page in this book. Denton carefully avoids referring to God but constatly refers to 'intelligent design'. He also implies that we have barely scratched the surface of biocomplexity (but already the case for intelligent design is overwhelming).

In this sequel to the seminal Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, molecular biologist Michael Denton provides various arguments that the laws of the universe appear to be designed to permit the existence of carbon-based life. Denton initially explains how the four fundamental forces of physics and other parameters such as the expansion rate of the universe or the nuclear energy level in atoms must be precisely tuned to permit the existence of advanced life. While Denton acknowledges that many other authors have covered these themes, this lays the groundwork for some novel arguments Denton then makes. Denton finds that the earth's atmosphere absorbs harmful radiation and is transparent to a narrow band of light radiation. This narrow band is optimized for the photochemistry of biological vision and the camera-type eyes in vertebrates. Moreover, the stable elements produced by supernova explosions, radiometric decay, and other processes are remarkably fit for the needs of carbon-based life. None of this would matter if many forms of life were possible in our universe. But Denton's assessment of the periodic table finds that only Carbon fits the needs of life: it is capable of forming covalent bonds, and it forms appropriate organic compounds over the narrow range of temperatures where water, a solvent far superior to its closest rival, is liquid. Only silicon comes close to carbon in its utility for life, but it cannot form the same diversity of compounds as carbon. Finally, Denton finds that complex organs such as the lobster's eye pose an insurmountable challenge to Neo-Darwinian evolution. The lobster's eye utilizes a precise array of reflectors which focus light on the retina. Evolution requires that all intermediate stages must be functional. Yet the alleged precursor to the lobster must have used a totally different system wherein it is "difficult to see how those halfway, intermediate eyes would have been selectively advantageous in an evolutionary sense." (pg. 356) Denton concludes that there exists a "long chain of coincidence" where the laws of nature are specifically adapted for the only type of life which can exist in the universe. He concludes that the "anthropocentric presumption has not only stood the test of four centuries of scientific advance, but it increasingly makes more sense of the cosmos as a whole than does any competitor theory." (pg. 367)

I can't really state anything that hasn't been said already, but I did feel compelled to write this after seeing a few rather poor reviews. I find it rather silly to claim that Denton "demonstrates a poor understanding of chemistry" when he holds a Ph.D. in developmental biology. I would venture to guess that the majority of the negative reviews had made up their mind what he was arguing before reading the book, and thus based their opinion off of that and not what was contained within. I went to hear him speak shortly after this book was released (which is why I bought it) at a college and the auditorium was packed with students and faculty alike and not one raised any claims to the chemistry or biology presented. Albeit there were quite a number of questions more along the theology line, which he had to state numerous times he was not arguing for or against "God".

Completely fascinating book about everything interesting in science. Denton promotes a Theleological view of nature. A third infinity within DNA. Built-in "evolutionary" information results in the periodic deversification of species. Clearly illustrates that Darwinism is a complete flop (Darwin suspected as much) and that Creationism, although unscientific, does have some similarity with reality. This is a new way to look at nature. No new-age bull or cosmic-consciousness garbage. Just geniune inquiry into the nature of it all. And "it all" is completely and utterly Perfect. Things could be NO OTHER WAY - not because Denton says so, but because of all the miraculous properties of every level of life. Read the book!

The author of Evolution: A Theory In Crisis returns with a new perspective on evolution in terms of anthropic principles. Like an upgrade of Henderson's Fitness of the Environment, it provides a brilliant foundation for challenging the claims for randomness of Darwinists. It echoes the sense in a number of physicists in the current generation, such as P. Davies in The Accidental Universe, or Barrow and Tippler in The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, that the constants of nature are finely tuned for life, and that this cannot be taken as accidental. The rise of modern science reacts against the teleology of Aristotle and bids to take biology with it, yet this is not a foregone conclusion and cannot preempt the dialectical return to teleological issues in biology, a point seen as early as the philosopher Kant. There can be no doubt this is a difficult question, yet the assumptions about evolutionary directionality in a work such as Wonderful Life, by S. J. Gould are not sufficiently established to be taken with the certainty Darwinists wish for. This work is a challenge to the Darwinian legacy claiming heroically the final challenge to the natural theology of Paley, and yet gives a naturalistic foundation to the ambiguities of the new arguments by design, an argument that never dies, and may have no final answer. To have claimed that natural selection was the final answer to such metaphysical issues always made biological theory itself a metaphysics in disguise, and the value of Denton's work will, apart from a dozen other merits,will be a reminder to secular evolutionists that simplistic theories of evolution cannot easily be pressed into dogmatic decision procedures about transcendental questions. Filled with a host of details, the work is a dramatic and daring step that many scientists have long feared to take, and the result is the potential of a new research program to explore the nature of directional evolutionism.