Heretic: One Scientist's Journey from Darwin to Design

Dr. Leisola demonstrates that Neo-Darwinism is insufficient to explain the complexity of life both on the macro and micro level.

It is obvious that the end of Darwinism is very near, once its old guard leave this world, new generation of scientist are unable to accept the theory of evolution

Review of Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design By John H. Calvert, Esq. The title of this book seems odd because Matti Leisola, DSc., is a genuine scientist specializing in bio-engineering who has published over 140 peer reviewed papers. He bases his conclusions on years of observation and experiment, not on a religious text. He logically finds that when the evidence that supports the idea that the cause of life can be explained with only material causes is put on one side of the scale and the evidence that supports the teleological alternative on the other, the side that winds up in the air is not the teleological side. So how can he be a heretic, as he is just a weigh-master. The definition of Hereitc is “one that dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine of any kind.” But how can Leisola be a heretic as science is supposed to be the opposite of doctrinaire. Paul Kurtz, a renowned philosopher of science and co-author of the Humanist Manifesto II explains: "There is a profound difference between science and religion in its conception of truth. Science requires an open mind, free inquiry, critical thinking, the willingness to question assumptions, and peer review. The test of a theory or hypothesis is independent (at least one would hope) of bias, prejudice, faith, or tradition; and it is justified by the evidence, logical consistency, and mathematical coherence." (emphasis added, Overview of the Issues, in SCIENCE AND RELIGION: ARE THEY COMPATIBLE? 13 (Paul Kurtz ed., 2003) So, if scientists are supposed to be objective weigh-masters, how is it possible for Dr Leisola to be a heretic? One way is if modern historical origins science is not truly scientific. Is it truly scientific if those who control the scientific enterprise were to violate the principles expressed by Dr. Kurtz by imposing a materialistic orthodoxy on its members. The orthodoxy that comes to mind that is extensively discussed in this excellent work is methodological naturalism. The Orthodoxy simply does not permit any weighing of the evidence. In fact it permits only one answer to the historical question: What is the cause and nature of life and the universe? Only unobserved and unobservable unintelligent material causes are permitted. Life must be an occurrence, not a creation made for a purpose. Chance and necessity via physics and chemistry alone explain everything! So, weighing of the evidence responsive to this question is prohibited and unnecessary. If you are an Orthodox “scientist” exploring the cause and nature of life, there is only one alternative – materialism which is the foundation for atheism. The heretics of history are atheists as they denied God. But Atheism, the core of the materialistic Orthodoxy, and other non-theistic belief systems are also religious. Leisola, rejects the Orthodoxy so that he can do science rather than non-theistic religion. Thus, I suppose he is a heretic. His comprehensive and objective analysis that considers all the evidence based alternatives violates the Orthodoxy which permits only materialistic/atheistic answers to the ultimate questions addressed by modern origins science. Hopefully, his work will encourage others in science to join his heretical endeavors to return origins science to the objective model described by Dr. Kurtz.

This is a well written book about a complicated subject. Both sides of the Darwinian evolutionist and intelligent design groups claim to have a preponderance of evidence to support their theories. Who do you believe? The devil is in the details, a they say. The author does a pretty good job of delving into those details, and there are plenty provided in the book. It does get a little technical at times, and it would help the reader to have some knowledge of biochemistry before reading this book. In addition to the technical details of the arguments for and against materialistic evolution, the author relates some very personal experiences in dealing with the closed mindedness of the established scientific community, and really shines a light on the resistance that main stream academia and media have to even engaging in any meaningful discussion of the issues. Maybe they are afraid to, because they fear the weaknesses of their theories will be exposed. A good illustration of this is the "Semmelweis reflex". According to Wikipedia, "The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms. "The term derives from the name of a Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, who in 1847 discovered that child bed fever mortality rates fell ten-fold when doctors washed their hands with a chlorine solution between patients—or, most particularly, after an autopsy (at the institution where Semmelweis worked, a university hospital, physicians performed autopsies on every deceased patient). Semmelweis's decision stopped the ongoing contamination of patients—mostly pregnant women—with "cadaverous particles". His fellow doctors rejected his hand-washing suggestions, often for non-medical reasons. For instance, some doctors refused to believe that a gentleman's hands could transmit disease." As explained by the book's author, Dr. Semmelweis was not taken seriously by the scientific community. He was humiliated and eventually committed to an insane asylum because of his "cadaverous particles" idea, and when he tried to leave, he was beaten so severely by the guards that he died few days later. Needless to say, his idea was correct, but it was rejected by the scientific community. Today, his cadaverous particles are known a bacteria, which are very real. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in some of the technical aspects of the evolution vs intelligent design.

Many experimental evidences are discussed.

This is a very interesting and informative read. The author is an accomplished biotechnologist specialising in enzyme research. The book presents a biographical account, which combines scientific discussion with many narratives of human interest. The scientific content includes: origin of life, the nature of biological information, the scarcity of functional sequences in the sequence space of polypeptides, probability, mutations, natural selection, junk DNA, orphan genes, evolutionary family trees, fossil record, epigenetics, self-organisation, evo-devo, etc. Matters of human interest include the author's accounts of his own intellectual and emotional transition from one paradigm to another, the hostile but irrational reactions of many colleagues, the encouragement of some, the open-minded attitudes shown by many students, and so on. Readers with little or no scientific background may find some of the material difficult to digest. On the other hand, scientific readers may wish for greater detail and depth. This is inevitable in a hybrid work of this nature. The second group of readers can always supplement it with a more concentrated and comprehensive treatise, such as Stephen Meyer's "Darwin's Doubt". Nevertheless the author has succeeded well in demonstrating the woeful inadequacy of the neo-Darwinian paradigm, exposing the close-mindedness of the scientific majority, while sustaining the reader's with narratives of personal encounters. Diehard evolutionists, intolerant of opposition, will post 1-star "reviews" to disparage any independent thinker who challenges their ideology. Such "reviews" typically lack any scientific substance or cogent arguments. Open-minded thinkers can read the book, digest its contents, and decide for themselves.

Matti Leisola's journey is both thoroughly edifying from a scientific perspective but also inspiring for his boldness to travel wherever the truth leads. His story is also illustrative of the heavy-handed treatment of those that cross swords with materialistic naturalism and their unwillingness to allow "a divine foot" in through the door of thoughtful investigation. Matti's book is a very human one and takes the 'white lab coat' off the supposed neutral and impartial scientist and show the ideological thought war that engages our society.

What a fantastic book! Engaging, entertaining, shocking, illuminating and easy to read - even the science! Dr. Leisola's career as a bioengineer exposed him early on to a world of science that simply didn't fit with Darwinian materialism. Courageous enough to point out the problems with Neo-Darwinism, Leisola quickly discovered that an "objective search for truth" is not always valued as highly by the scientific establishment as we have always been told. Even a non-scientist will get an education in what real science has discovered about Life since the mid-twentieth century and, unless predisposed to accept only those conclusions acceptable to atheism and materialism, will surely see the reasonableness of intelligence as the only explanation for what has been discovered. I am especially glad to see that Dr. A.E. Wilder-Smith is finally getting the credit from an ID writer that he so richly deserves. His books helped me the most, back in the 70's and 80's, to see the untenable nature of a theory which, apart from constant propping up, would long ago have been dead and buried. Getting to know him a little from Dr. Leisola was great bonus!

This is a surprising book. It deals with the science, certainly, since Leisola is a serious scientist. The book, however, is about the scientific establishment and the way it works. It is about scientists and their highly emotional reactions in defence of naturalism. For make no mistake the implications of Darwinism are lost on no one! When you look up Intelligent Design on the mainstream media, there is nothing but scorn. In a few years, when the power of this new theory overwhelms Darwinism, you will be able to say you read it here first.