Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose

I found this book eminently readable and informative. I particularly liked and agree with the author's definition of science: “There must be a better, more general definition for science. And indeed there is: Science is a systematic and unbiased search for knowledge about nature. Under this definition, we are free to think, investigate, doubt, and conclude based on whatever evidence we have. The underlying principles of science are freedom of thought and speech, guided by data collected using systematic methods. If science—the search for absolute truths hidden within nature—is to be considered an unflinchingly truth-directed endeavor, reason and evidence must be the only constraints. With this understanding in place, it becomes clear that investigating possible evidence for fine tuning, foresight, and intelligent design are valid scientific projects. Honest debates and dialogue among people involved in a free scientific search for knowledge is the driving force of science. We should follow the evidence no matter who finds it and no matter what the motivation of the person who conducted the search, and regardless of what it may tell us about reality. That’s the only science worth doing.” The author, Marcos Eberlin, points out many examples that demonstrate that amazing foresight was required for even the simplest life to exist. He also gives many examples of the required systems for the higher animals, including humans, to live and thrive. These systems either required foresight or have no plausible explanation from evolutionists. In addition, Eberlin points out examples such as the appendix and the amygdala that materialistic evolutionists had long claimed were unnecessary vestigial organs from earlier species. These organs have recently been found to perform very important functions in humans. As I read his examples of studies of the workings of proteins and enzymes and the mechanisms to ensure against mistakes, I am amazed that the human brain, even the brains of many confirmed materialists, is capable of designing and interpreting the results of such studies. It reminds me of Douglas Axe’s comments on the amazing capabilities of the mind in his book “Undeniable”. Materialistic evolutionists have absolutely no plausible explanation for the existence of the miracle that is the human mind. Many brilliant scientists have devised biological experiments and/or computer simulations to try to prove that evolution works. All they have proven so far is that, even with the best human intelligence involved to coax it along, evolution accomplishes very little. Maybe after a few million years of trying these scientists will have been able to coach evolution to come up with just a few of the marvels that we see in living things today. Then what will they have proven? They will have proven that intelligent design works! Given enough time, even limited human intelligence can accomplish wonders of design and engineering. Still nothing, of course, compared with what God has accomplished through overwhelming intelligence and engineering design. Opponents of intelligent design criticize the “God of the Gaps” that they say ID’s proponents posit. To me, however, it requires many orders of magnitude greater faith to believe in the “Chance of the Gaps” the materialistic evolutionists worship than it does to believe in a God who I cannot see, but whose love and care have been undeniably demonstrated many times in the events of my life. The writings of Eberlin, Behe, Axe, Meyer and many other ID advocates offer very plausible and compelling cases for intelligent design based on the recent results of real scientific studies of living things. Those studies are real science, unlike the unproven and unprovable speculations of materialistic evolutionists, which only masquerade as science, while they insist that everyone should blindly accept their speculations as “real science”.

This book is a readable tour de force of some amazing discoveries of science, not a boring chemistry book written by a leading scientist. He details a myriad of solutions to major bio-engineering challenges that are not explained by mutations selected by natural selection as Darwinism would have it, but are only explained by an attribute unique to minds, namely intelligent foresight. As of 2016, Marcos has published over 1,000 scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals that so-far have been cited 16,000 times. He is currently a research scientist at the Chemistry Institute at a leading Brazilian University. He has supervised over 200 graduate students. This book uses example after example to illustrate what is obvious to those who are driven by the data, namely design is everywhere in the natural world that produces awe and admiration for its ingenuity. Professor Eberlin also covers the attempts to explain away the many wonders found in Nature everywhere. He also knocks down the popular myths such as bacteria are simple organisms and just cause problems. The vast majority are critical for life. One example is they contribute up to half os aa N2 productions. Not only are our bodies irreducibly complex (IC), the world is as well, IC defined as the irreducible core. For those who teach biology, the book was a good review that reminds us of the joy we experienced in first learning about how life works and why it works so well.

Anyone who is interested in the topic of origins and evolution has to read this book to understand the scope of the question, how did life evolve? Here, the author pulls back the curtain to show the myriad system which have dependencies which had to arise at the same time for life to survive - for example, the cell membrane, crucial to protecting the insides of the cell, had to arise at the same time as the various cellular gates to selectively import stuff into the cell. If one were missing, the cell would be DOA. Various other mechanisms of life, exquisitely designed and built of proteins, perform mind-boggling feats that were absolutely necessary for life, such as the nitrogen-fixing bacteria we depend on, performing ballets on the scale of atoms. Water gates twist the H2O molecule at the moment it enters the cell, breaking the ion conducting "wire" formed by the molecule, in order to keep the cell electrically safe. For each of these stupefying features which seem to tell us that intricate planning or foresight was involved in their formation, we have to ask ourselves just how much blind faith we are prepared to keep having in evolution, which is becoming increasingly bankrupt intellectually.

If you don't like intelligent design, stay away from this one. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author doubles down on irreducible complexity by showing the most irreducibly complex components, such as the cell, have other irreducibly complex components that they must interface with in order to carry out their functions. In the case of the cell, there is a membrane that must be combined with the cell to shield it from the oxygen in the atmosphere. It must let the correct nutrients and other commodities enter and the waste expel while protecting it from the oxygen. During these discussions, he gives some technical background on how these must work and how unlikely it is that they evolved via random mutation and natural selection. One of his much-repeated lines is that the evolutionist description is "Starved for details". It has the information and summaries and carries through several biological systems that are complex and rely on already existing irreducibly complex systems. It is difficult to see how a random and blind process could have had these systems ready when needed. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Recommend.

amazing

An excellent book which yet again outlines the strong evidence we have for the intelligent design of the universe and life. The evidence it gives cannot be dismissed by any purely materialistic alternative. If design is the best answer to the question of 'why we intelligent-life are here to ask the question?' then we need to look no further!

Very well thought out and challenging especially to the established dogma like doctrines of old academia. When it’s heresy to challenge entrenched ideologies, it’s no longer science but a fraudulent religion.

Marcos does a first rate job in blending together the wisdom inherent in biological systems and the enjoyment thereof. Perhaps the author's Brazilian culture adds the flavour to this book for it brims with reflections from a remarkably well credentialed scientist as well as the wide-eyed enjoyment of the one's inner child. A worthy read and tonic for both the mind and soul.

This book is really amazing author presents all the technical information in a very lucid way. I have never read any book with such high quality endorsements of 3 nobel prize winners . This book will bring what kuhn calls paradigm shift........