Why Is a Fly Not a Horse?

by Giuseppe Sermonti

This book's Italian title, Dimenticare Darwin, means "Forget Darwin," and its prologue bears the title "Evolution is dead!" The author, Dr. Giuseppe Sermonti, is a respected Italian biologist who boldly shatters the myth that all critics of Darwinian evolution are American religious fundamentalists. This delightful little book is loaded with scientific facts that aren't taught in standard biology classes, but it is also full of history and poetry. Why is a Fly Not a Horse? does not have all the answers, but it asks many of the right questions-in a style that is both entertaining and inspiring. Giuseppe Sermonti is retired Professor of Genetics at the University of Perugia. He discovered genetic recombination in antibiotic-producing Penicillium and Streptomyces and was Vice President at the XIV International Congress of Genetics (Moscow, 1980). Sermonti is Chief Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum, one of the oldest still-published biology journals in the world, and he has published seven other books, including Dopo Darwin (After Darwin), with R. Fondi (1980-1984).

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Giuseppe Sermonti is retired Professor of Genetics at the University of Perugia.
He discovered genetic recombination in antibiotic-producing Penicillium and Streptomyces and was Vice President at the XIV International Congress of Genetics (Moscow, 1980).
Sermonti is Chief Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum, one of the oldest still-published biology journals in the world.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is a Fly not a Horse?, by Giuseppe Sermonti

This book book made me laugh and shake my head in awe. It's a delightfully mind-blowing critique of Darwinism, all the more so since it is not coming from a "Christian" angle. The text sometimes suffers from translation awkwardness out of the Italian, but most of the time it is highly readable and even poetic. The book does not promote creation; it merely points out that Neo-darwinism is more of a paradigm than an explanation, a paradigm that breaks down rather quickly when it comes out of its Ivory Tower and confronts real living organisms and the actual fossil record. The magic and mystery we find in the real world of organisms CANNOT be explained by gradualism or any Neo-darwininian contortion of the idea. Something fundamentally strange and wonderful is at work in the various explosions of life we see in the fossil record, and under microscopes, and in the macro. Something completely mind-boggeling is at work when it comes to the actual morphology of living things, something which cannot be explained by appealing to the interspecies differences or similarities in genes, or "common ancestry". Contrary to what we thought we'd find when we sequenced the genome (ours and that of other organisms), there is no map there to tell us why, among other things, a fly is not a horse. The genes are shockingly silent, offering no explanation to the riddle of life's diversity or inventiveness. The current paradigm is losing its power to explain anything worth explaining. It is being replaced, grudgingly, by a new age of miracles.

The book encourages a posture of humility vis-a-vis the natural world, which is often missing in the taken-for-grantedness of darwinism on the street and in the classroom.

Highly recommended for the interested reader.

Giuseppe Sermonti is retired Professor of Genetics at the University of Perugia. He discovered genetic recombination in antibiotic-producing Penicillium and Streptomyces and was Vice President at the XIV International Congress of Genetics (Moscow, 1980). Sermonti is Chief Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum, one of the oldest still-published biology journals in the world, and he has published seven other books, including Dopo Darwin (¿After Darwin), with R. Fondi (1980-1984).


-M