It seems that many scientists and researchers feel threatened by the spread of the "creation theory" or as its preachers call it in order to have a "scientific" basis
About four years ago I was waiting to meet someone in a library in London, in the short time I had I flipped through a book that was lying on a table. The name of the book: Almost Like A Whale by Prof. Steve Jones: Steve Jones In Israel I have been waiting for the appearance of the translation, which appeared for a long time in the publishing house of Meshachal (Yediot Ahronoth) translated into Hebrew by: Adi Markhoza-Hess.
I am not a literary critic, but because of the great importance I attach to the book and writing in it, I deviated from my practice, below:
Prof. Jones is a renowned geneticist and according to the titles in the book "TV Star". As a geneticist, Prof. Jones writes a heavy and long essay that aims to bring to readers Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, or in Darwin's language: "The Origin Of Species - By Means Of Natural Selection" (The Origin Of Species - By Means Of Natural Selection) .
Since Darwin wrote his book in 1859, the science of genetics has developed by leaps and bounds and today scientists are able to explain evolution with such detailed and precise means that were not available to the researcher in the 19th century. Prof. Jones does exactly that: being a geneticist, the professor explains and details Darwin's proposals And shows how modern genetics is confirmed and confirms and strengthens the theory with which Darwin explained evolution.
Apparently many scientists and researchers feel threatened by the spread of the "theory of creation" or as its preachers call it in order to have a "scientific" basis: "intelligent planning" that nonsense supported by half-truths, an abysmal lack of information and a deep and fanatical belief in the existence of a higher power (God?) who created everything that exists on our planet with intention, and future planning. This "Torah" prevents and is based on lack of knowledge, lack of understanding and ignorance of the masses.
In my opinion, it is important that scientists understand that: arguing about faith (religion) is a futile act especially when the believers do not have the appropriate tools to understand the scientists, and to the same extent the scientist (who does not believe) does not have the tools to understand a deep faith, therefore an argument between a believer and a scientist is a deaf conversation .
Unfortunately, the fear of that "Torah" motivates many respected scientists to get into heated debates with "believers" and in the process of "scientific wrangling" lose the right direction in which a scientist should think, do and research. Apparently, this fear or perhaps the need to be assertive for its own sake, influenced (not for the better) Prof. Jones in writing the book, since too large parts deal with the "creation believers".
A collection of interesting facts that have been discovered in recent years (with the help of the science of genetics) are detailed throughout the book (about 600 pages), facts with which the author returns and confirms Darwin's theory, but the repetition of the story of the facts - as interesting as they are, the number of times, the repeated emphasis of The truth of the matter, the list of topics at the beginning of each chapter, the long summaries at the end of each chapter and the repetition at the beginning of many chapters of what has already been written, make an important and interesting book heavy and cumbersome. All this prevents the great pleasure that could have come from reading the book, despite the easy, fluid and sometimes amusing language in which the things are described.
Something about the translation: to the best of my recollection (from studying the English original) the translator manages to stick to the spirit of the original and that is good, but the confused use of terms such as: sex, sex, breed, race, type, etc. is not faithful to the scientific use of these terms and therefore may cause confusion in the reader The skillful, animal names in rare cases - but important is not true, the confusion between a deer and an elk, a rabbit and a rabbit, is the property of a wide public but does not justify existence in such a book - I wonder where Dr. Danny Simon's hand was. According to the translator, Dr. Simon served as a scientific consultant? ? ?
After all, because of, despite, (at the reader's choice) everything written above, it is important to repeat and emphasize the many issues that the book will raise and the great importance of a book that explains: Darwin and his teachings in the light of contemporary scientific development.
post Scriptum.
Without any connection to the Rem (apart from the review): while writing the Rem I watched the program of "London and Kirschenbaum" on Channel 10, following the publications about global warming due to man's fault, a professor of astrophysics was invited to the program, the respected professor tried to contradict the publications claiming that: The warming is a natural process that results from cycles in the sun's radiation", they said that "actually man has only a 1% effect on the rise in temperature". This is after 2500 scientists from all over the world claim at least 90%.
Without getting confused, the professor said that "the length of the cycle of changes in solar radiation is about 140 million years", he said and did not explain how such a cycle affects within a decade? Perhaps because of his excitement from the appearance on television, perhaps because of the pressure of time, (hopefully not out of ignorance), the respected professor forgot to mention the important natural cycle that really affects the temperature of the atmosphere and it is: cycle of changing the orbit of the earth around the sun and changing the angle of the ball on its axis causes warming or cooling, a process named after the Serbian engineer Milankovic. who was the first to define this cycle. The Milankiewicz cycle is 11 – 44 – 120 (and so on) years, respectively. And in the big cycles, the cyclical activity caused phenomena like the "Little Ice Age" in the Middle Ages, but it is accepted that its effect is not as great as the (human) emission of greenhouse gases. It's a shame that the presenters of the program did not bring someone to explain things as they are.
Asaf
4 תגובות
Regarding the translation of "Almost Like a Whale", Dr. Assaf Rosenthal testifies that he read the translation while comparing it to the original, but it turns out that he was not careful with the comparison, or perhaps he is not familiar with all the terms in Hebrew. Well, there is no confusion between gender and sex, etc. as he claims. The scientific term species has been consistently translated to "biological species". An innovation proposed at the time by the Open University and firmly rooted in theoretical biological texts in Hebrew. "Sex" is sex in its accepted meaning in everyday speech, and was not translated on purpose. It appears wherever the source talks about sex, that is, sexual relations in their forms. Zen is the accepted translation for variety or breed. "Sex" just doesn't appear, unless in the same sentence or the same paragraph the same biological species is mentioned several times, in which case, we used a required abbreviation. Regarding rabbit, rabbit and hare, they are all scientific names of different biological species, and were written correctly and following consultation with Danny Simon. And if there is one mistake left between a ram and a deer, or between a tiger and a tiger - as a percentage of the size of the book, it doesn't seem so terrible. Regarding the content, I disagree with the reviewer (and I'm not the author): I find it fascinating. Dr. Rosenthal completely ignores the wealth of contexts and examples that the author brings and the huge cultural world that he relies on in his various explanations. Apparently this wealth fell on deaf ears (or eyes). The book is indeed multi-page, but with the exception of the chapter dealing with genetics, almost anyone can find in it great and unexpected explanations of change processes in incredibly diverse areas, such as, changing the course of a river, the fate of dead bodies, the rise and fall of mountains, and the effects of all of these on The greatest poets.
One more time and I'm passing your details on to the police!!!!!
Mysteries of life:
The unique life on our small planet exists on about one percent of the Earth's mass, and in the division between the continents and the oceans, the continents make up less than a third (29.2%); And in order to understand and preserve them, among other things, processes of endless struggle and conflict take place, which at the elite level - man, is supposed to carve out their fate.
From the dawn of history, when man tried to understand the meaning of life, he was helped by beliefs, which were formed mainly in the three fundamental religions, when the Jewish religion, mainly led in the value components of the ways of life, which can be summarized starting from the individual: sur mere, and doing good; Ask for peace and pursue it (Psalms XNUMX/XNUMX).
But the individual is also part of the society/state in which he lives, and his fate is decided by social structures, that as they grow, his influence on them becomes smaller and smaller, and usually to the point of helplessness.
And when the fate of a person as an individual also depends on the social structure in which he lives; If this structure stinks, the individual will hurt and adopt positive values; But there is hope for him: many, bad, righteous and from all of them, Jehovah will save us (Psalms XNUMX:XNUMX), and as for negative elements in the social structure: Jehovah's face, evildoers; To know the land of remembrance (Psalms XNUMX/XNUMX).
The values, which appear as part of a message from a higher power, being considered holy for believers; Can be interpreted quite flexibly even for people from other sectors.
Also, throughout history, it has been proven: that anyone who tried to establish and perpetuate his power on the basis of human foundations, the ways of his thoughts and the fate of his life were determined.
And as for the issues of religion and science, in reference to the great contribution to science of: Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein, who were not detached from belief in a supreme God, and were not fanatical; It seems that this is the reasonable way to lead a lifestyle.
In the explanation of the Milinkevich cycle, the word 11 was omitted after the description of the number of years, it should be: 44-120-XNUMX thousand years,