- ISBN13: 9781594200793
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Based on a groundbreaking synthesis of recent scientific findings, an acclaimed New York Times science reporter tells a bold and provocative new story of the history of our ancient ancestors and the evolution of human nature
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings-driven by revelations discovered in the human genome-has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors-the people who f… More >>
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
You covered everthing except punctuated equilibrium and hopeful monsters – Oh, and then there is the fossil record – where is the first intermediate form out of the billions unearthed ??? Also, where are the prior scams of Peking man, Piltdown man, and Lucy. Do the world a favor and GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD! Note: Less than 1 in 20 will find this review helpful BECAUSE only a remnant shall be saved by grace! Romans 9:27
Rating: 1 / 5
It is concerning that the publishers of Nicholas Wade’s book (The Penguin Press) could allow this to go to print. Its lack of academic rigor, sloppy research and highly questionable generalisations make this a no go for any serious student. As a lay reader even my limited knowledge forces me to question the value of reading this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
this tone of the book regarding race is in my opinion, biased. for example he seems to have cherry picked a few genes such as microcephalin that occur in europeans and asians and not africans. This trying to suggest the genetic intellectual inferiority of africans and the superiority of westerners. What a pity that James Watson signed his name on it. If you read between the lines the rest of the book follows the same pattern, trying to find genetic reasons as to why the development of western civilizations. My advice is, be cautious not to take everything at face value with this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
The author of this book believes in gods, he calls them: “chance” and “choice”; and both are, by him, worshipped at the altar of science, and invoked in the language of genetics.
What Mr. Wade claims to be the scientific, and most accurate, way to explain who or what we are may be true -nobody seems to know for certain-, I can’t deny it. But what i refuse to let go is the claim that only “chance” and “choice” where the agents that got us here. There is not one single quotation from biblical texts that is denied here, however, the author dismisses the Bible -for that matter all religions- in its integrity as a myth without argumenting why.
I am sure Mr. Wade does not see the implications of his erroneous interpretation of the human genome (by the way, Francis Collins, the leader of the Human Genome project does believe in the truth of the Bible), for he has made of it his own religion, so much so that he fanatically denies other interpretations from the same studies. Believers of the Real God don’t have a place in the sun, according to mr. Wade.
Again: science does not deny God. It confirms Him. I feel sorry for Mr. Wade, for he certainly may have the facts right, but his conclusions and myriad of inferrences totally show that he misses the most important point, he doesn’t see the hand of God behind it all. I do. And I still see more clearly when i go back to God’s story, the way He told it.
If anybody has ever truly loved, selflessly, he or she should realize that that love must be first addressed to the One who is Author of it (see Matthew 22:37).
Do you know what love is, mr. Wade? No, that’s not love; that’s either idolatry or narcisism.
Rating: 4 / 5
Reading this book, I honestly felt as if I was going into a deep sleep. I really had better hopes, seeing mostly positive reviews on here, but I stopped at chapter 6 and I don’t think I can read any more of it.
One, it could be that I find genetics very confusing. But even upon going back, the way he writes, it just does not click with me whatsoever. It seems that he jumps around a lot. For example, around p. 81 he starts discussing Australian Aborigines. p. 84 starts detailing warfare, and on 86 all of a sudden he concludes with the physical appearance of these people. No transition at all. Things also seem to be repeated, but the author does not acknowledge that he has said the same thing a few pages earlier. Some examples- when he mentions Svante Paabo, a lot of things about Y chromosomes are often repeated in the exact same way each time with acknowledgement of past references.
He also starts to go into an explanation of something, saying something like “There is some evidence that the Neanderthals were less socially cohesive” (p. 91). Yes, but what is that evidence? I realize there is a reference in the back in the notes, but that’s all it is-a reference. No summary in the text, nor any notes in the back detailing this “evidence”.
Some of the things in this book I cannot take at face value because they do not seem to be thoroughly explained, such as the Neanderthal sections, “moderns” so called “exodus” out of Africa, and the conclusions about Homo floresiensis. I would say to do some more research on your own, because many science writers and archaeologists are totally biased, and to get a clearer picture you need to get more sides of the story, and I don’t think Wade does this in his book at all. I think some better books to read would be The Third Chimpanzee and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. They are much more worth your time than this crap, if you are really interested in human evolution and the geographic differences between peoples.
Rating: 2 / 5