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Title: The Origin of Species
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Manufacturer: Gramercy
List Price: $7.99
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Origin of Species by Gramercy This edition is poorly formatted. | Darwin's _Origin of Species_ is a phenomenal work and was truly brilliant and insightful at the time. It's a classic of science and it's one of those books that everyone should read.
That said, this particular Kindle edition of the book is disappointing. Primarily, the text is fully-justified rather than normal left-aligned (right-ragged). (This means that spacing between words varies so that the last characters of each line end up being aligned along the righthand margin, and the first characters are still aligned along the left margin.) It's a well-known principle of typography that justified text is harder to read than ragged text -- the spacing between words is variable, so your eyes have to work harder to move over the text. I don't see why this edition would have made that choice.
If you want to read this excellent book, you might consider a different edition. | | The Origin of Species by Gramercy Natural Selection to be accepted by Christianity by 2136AD? | | It took 277 years for the Church to accept that the universe did not revolve around the Earth, from the publication of Copernicus' 'On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' in 1543 to the Vatican's total repeal of the condemnation of the Copernican doctrine in the period 1820 to 1835. If that's anything to go by as far as the speed with which the Church accepts new truths about the universe, none of us will be around to see the day Darwin is vindicated as one of humanity's guiding lights, as opposed to the Son of Satan. Seldom in history has such a noble person been subjected to such vilification. It reminds one of the ridicule once heaped on supporters of the Copernican theory, and their disbelieving mockery - how could the Earth possibly revolve without the people flying off? Today we all can only laugh at their ignorance, but only some of us can laugh at the ignorance of those 'Flat-Earthers' who still disregard Darwin's theory. Like many have already pointed out, much of the material that fuels the evolution debate is not to be found in this book. There are no claims or even insinuations in the book of descent from apes. Rather, it was disciples like Huxley who really helped focus the debate on man's primate anscestry, and Darwin was far more direct in his beliefs in his later books such as 'The Descent of Man' and 'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals', both of which are worth reading as they bolster his theory in countless ways, always combining a penetrating natural observation with intelligent analysis. In fact, I must admit to enjoying them even more than this book, although of course as Darwin's classic, it's a must read for anyone interested in man's evolution, and no open-minded person could possibly remain unconvinced after going through Darwin's evidence and arguments against spontaneous creation. (Creationists still believe that God came down to Earth in 19th century industrial revolution England to create the darker moths which started appearing as the trees gradually darkened from pollution, kindly making sure they did not stick out like sore thumbs on the blackened trees anymore...) | | The Origin of Species by Gramercy Well worth the read... | "If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly service) that individuals having many advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favorable variations and the rejection of injurious variations I call Natural Selection" p. 130, The Origin of Species.
"Many Christians perceive evolutionary science itself as essentially an enemy of the faith, and so expend considerable energy attempting to deny its explanatory power..." states F. LeRon Shults in his brilliant book Reforming Theological Anthropology (p. 207). I've owned The Origin of Species for nearly 10 years now but never actually read it: or hardly cracked it open. I did spend a lot of time trying to DISprove what I had not read though - which really got me nowhere. I'll be preaching on ideas of creation and evolution at our church in Brooklyn, and decided that instead of just giving second-hand quotes from the book without reading it, why not read it? I'm glad that I did.
Darwin's most well-known book was really virtually nothing like I had expected that it would be, and I found that I really enjoyed it: and for the most part thought that he made excellent points. At no point did I ever see him trying to disprove God in any way - he simply spoke against "the common idea of creation" (pp. 66-67, 113, 171, 223, 379, 382, 384, 392, 415-417, 458, et. al) which he seemed to take as meaning `all things were created as they are today with no room for mutability' or something along those lines. In fact at several points he even seemed concerned that we not mock God/the Creator. On page 201 Darwin states, "To admit this view is, as it seems to me, to reject a real for an unreal, or at least for an unknown, cause. It makes the works of God a mere mockery and deception; I would almost as soon believe with the old an ignorant cosmogonists, that fossil shells had never lived, but had been created in stone so as to mock the shells now living on the sea-shore."
Darwin very systematically looks at a number of objections and problems to his theories - for example:
"To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree." p.217
"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not have possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case..." p.219
"If it could be proved and any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection." p.228-229
"Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record." p.292
"If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have really started into life all at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of descent with slow modification through natural selection." p.309
It is important to note, however, that after each of these possible explanations Darwin gives credible thoughts as to how these (and other objections) could be overcome. He often "freely admits" that not all will believe his theory based off of his arguments, and I find that the general tenor of the book is humble: at times a little too apologetic (in the "I'm sorry for this" sense) as he often states that [putting all the details here would be impossible]. I'm actually thankful for that as at times the book became frightfully boring as he listed fact after fact about different species/varieties of creatures. Don't get me wrong though: there were many shining moments of interest as I read. For example the section on ants (p.243ff), the bit about the seeds in the mud that he studied (p.374ff) and the section on the metamorphosis of the cirripedes which I found to be stunningly interesting (p.420ff).
Darwin's tremendous volume of study is clear throughout the book: the ease that he demonstrates in switching his focus from animal to animal and issue to issue was extraordinary - it would be fantastic to actually meet him and watch his mind work.
I think that Darwin's most significant contribution in the book overall is showing just how dependant the entire world is on each other - I think that we could all learn a lot from this very true concept. On page 125 he states, "Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district" just to name one such instance of interdependence.
Another sort of `theme' that emerges in the book is Darwin's need for an actual explanation of why things are the way they are (pp.67, 399, 415-417, et. al.). He's not happy to just say "such and such was created thus" - he want to know WHY they are the way that they are. The Bible (both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament) are really never interested in the "why" or "how" of creation - only that ultimately God was responsible. With this pointed out, I can confidently say that nothing in "The Origin of Species" contradicts anything that's in the bible to any sort of severe degree, outside of staunch strict literalism, which the Biblical texts by no means demand.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the core of the ideas that have become so prevalent in today's world. I'll end my review with one last quote, which is what Darwin states at the very end of the book (pp.459-460):
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixes law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
| | The Origin of Species by Gramercy A quiet book for all the broohaha | Required reading for any serious biologist. This is the theory from the man himself. Also valuable for understanding evolution in a historical sense. Darwin got some things wrong, but, in my reading of this (which I have done many times over), I am struck by the brilliance of a man who figured all this out in the absence of understanding the genetic mechanism of inheritance. I think Darwin is one of the great minds of western civilization, on a par with Newton, and he deserves FAR more respect than he is given today.
For all the stir this book caused, for all the stir Darwin's legacy continues to stir today, I am always struck by his modesty and dedication to the principles of scientific endeavor. He seems such a quiet man to have revolutionized everything we know and understand about life. | | The Origin of Species by Gramercy Elegantly brilliant | I had read The Voyage of the Beagle first. It is easy to see how Darwin's theory of evolution was growing as he traveled and saw how plants and animals adapted to different environments. Then he invented a theory to explain what he had observed.
This book is a 300 page definition of the theory of natural selection. Darwin goes through a detailed explanation of how evolution must have occured. He is very methodically, very detailed. When he doesn't understand something, he says he doesn't. He is humble in his presentation, giving credit to other scientists. I was amazed at how many experiments he performed himself, growing generations of plants and insects, watching how they developed and changed.
There is a quote in the book from Darwin's gardener who said, "He's really a sad little man. Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours. I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."
We are so lucky that Darwin inherited money and could spend his early years traveling and his later years in contemplation and writing. | | The Origin of Species by Gramercy Product Description | The Origin of Species sold out on the first day of its publication in 1859. It is the major book of the nineteenth century, and one of the most readable and accessible of the great revolutionary works of the scientific imagination.
The Origin of Species was the first mature and persuasive work to explain how species change through the process of natural selection. Upon its publication, the book began to transform attitudes about society and religion, and was soon used to justify the philosophies of communists, socialists, capitalists, and even Germany's National Socialists. But the most quoted response came from Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin's friend and also a renowned naturalist, who exclaimed, "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!" | | The Origin of Species by Gramercy Amazon.com | | It's hard to talk about The Origin of Species without making statements that seem overwrought and fulsome. But it's true: this is indeed one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable. To a certain extent it suffers from the Hamlet problem--it's full of clichés! Or what are now clichés, but which Darwin was the first to pen. Natural selection, variation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest: it's all in here. Darwin's friend and "bulldog" T.H. Huxley said upon reading the Origin, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that." Alfred Russel Wallace had thought of the same theory of evolution Darwin did, but it was Darwin who gathered the mass of supporting evidence--on domestic animals and plants, on variability, on sexual selection, on dispersal--that swept most scientists before it. It's hardly necessary to mention that the book is still controversial: Darwin's remark in his conclusion that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" is surely the pinnacle of British understatement. --Mary Ellen Curtin |
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