Evolution Is Wrong: A Radical Approach to the Origin and Transformation of Life

by Erich von Däniken

A Fascinating Exploration on Why the Darwinists' Theory No Longer Explains Everything

Everywhere there are characteristics of animals that do not want to fit into the theory of evolution anywhere. And man? Are we really the most adapted life-form on this planet? Today, more and more scientists who contradict the previous theory of evolution speak out. The theory fits the changes within the species, but it can no longer be reconciled with the inner workings of the cell. Some other influence that has so far escaped us is affecting evolution. It is called "Intelligent Design." Intelligent planning is suspected behind this. Anyone or anything—a spirit of the universe? aliens?—could be behind this planning.

In this must-listen book, Erich von Däniken uses countless examples to demonstrate the impossibility of the previous evolutionary idea. He quotes scientists who argue against the previous teaching, but also those who defend it. Unfortunately, established science still refuses to look at discrepancies and holes in the theory of evolution, even though it is quite obvious that there is more going on with regard to the development of all species, as well as human culture, than could be explained by the theory of evolution alone.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

About the author

Greek: Έριχ φον Νταίνικεν

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (1935–2026) was a Swiss author of several pseudoscientific books which made claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Däniken was one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the "paleo-contact" and ancient astronauts hypotheses.

The ideas put forth in his books are rejected by virtually all scientists and academics, who categorize his work as pseudohistory, pseudoarchaeology, and pseudoscience. Early in his career, he was convicted and served time for several counts of fraud or embezzlement, and wrote one of his books in prison.

Reviews

[Madde Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great start, odd finish

[Katarzyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Najgłupsza książka jaką przeczytałam od dawna. Człowiek, który nie rozumie jak działa ewolucja, napisał o niej książkę. Jego źródła to m.in. Wikipedia i "czytałem kiedyś". Dowiadujemy się z niej, że chrabąszcze mają skórę i strzelają jadem, i że węgorze elektryczne nie mogły wyewoluować, bo pierwszy węgorz elektryczny, który by spróbował razić prądem, poraziłby siebie i umarł. Co więc według autora jest wyjaśnieniem, skoro nie ewolucja?

...kosmici.

A, i jeszcze że kukurydza nie występuje naturalnie na ziemi, tylko pochodzi od Bogów.

Jestem pełna podziwu dla lektora, że dał radę przeczytać tę książkę nie dusząc się ze śmiechu.

[Darrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a hard time categorizing this as non fiction...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evolution is Wrong is an interesting book presenting questions about the development of many species. The behavior, attack and defense mechanisms and physical capabilities of numerous creatures are examined. Darwin's Theory of Evolution alone does not explain many or the complexities of life providing room for other theories such as intelligent design.

[cypher · Rating 1 out of 5]

first, if something is not yet understood, that does not mean it's magic.
second, this book is badly organised, if it were not for the title i would not have known what the point is until too late in the book, the chapters at the end should have come before the first chapter, where you get some general information about various animals/insects/plants thinking it's a nature book. then the chapters which are supposed to prove the "point" are also not done nicely. i kept asking myself what is it that he's trying to prove.

ok, so, the book says, "evolution is wrong" because nature did not pick the best path overall?! so, we have a spider with 6 eyes, and there are other spiders with 8 eyes, 8 eyes are better than 6 ergo "evolution is wrong"...and i can ask: why don't humans have wings?...because birds exist, with wings, and bats, with wings..."evolution is wrong". spider - spider, is "evolution is wrong" only because we don't have monkeys with wings?
that was not how evolution worked, the best path overall, it was what worked in whatever context and managed to reproduce, that (those genes which keep mutating in the reproduction process) survived. that's a TLDR on evolution.

a partial DNF, i skipped some of the "arguments".
but what is the idea, as in, what is "right" (as opposed to this "evolution is wrong")? it was not easily accessible, what this right answer is, from the book.
"darwinism can't explain (...)", but if we don't have an explanation, that does not mean it's magic.
now, intelligent design does not have to contradict evolution, God could have designed evolution (i don't think God was limited, in God's "intelligence", if God made everything...or is it as Dawkins says, intelligent design only up to a point because God can't be too intelligent...or too complex...only Dawkins can come with a straight face to insist that if God exists God can't be too complex or intelligent). i find it ridiculous how these two theories are presented to be necessarily in opposition...they are both compatible theories: science can't actually prove God does not exist (no, evolution does not prove that, that's faulty logic), and God could have designed evolution. compatible, science and the existence of God (unless you insist to take the bible, for example, literally and not more as a metaphor).
it's a bit annoying that Dawkins made such a big thing out of this "evolution OR God" (either-or, NOT BOTH, Dawkins insists, and a few others) when it's missing logic.

...then the book mentioned aliens...
...this is really not gonna work for me.

now, if science makes a wrong assumption, about when whatever dinosaur lived (an example from the book), that does not mean all of evolution is wrong, some events need reorganising, but evolution still stands. evolution was a thing. whether or not we evolved "right", that's a different thing to debate. philosophy and ethics...
science is not one big conspiracy.

[Richard West · Rating 2 out of 5]

Erich von Daniken, the godfather of the ancient astronaut theory, takes time out from writing about ancient astronauts to write what reads a lot like a college Biology text and it is less than interesting. That could be because I hated Biology! Of all the courses I took in college, it is the one course I have never referred back to and I do mean NEVER! It's only in the latter (roughly 1/3) part of the book where he - after delivering a lengthy Biology lesson - gets into the meat of the issue.

Of all the books he's written - about 40 or more according to the blurb on the back of the book - this one is definitely the most disappointing. If you're into Biology, Anatomy, Physiology and all those imply and enjoy reading about DNA, body parts, plant parts, and the like, you'll love this one to death and re-read it until you have it memorized. I think it's safe to say that of all his books - and I have most of them - this is one I will never bother to re-read.

There is some redeeming value to it though once he gets into discussing ancient civilizations as I found the discussion of the various flood stories in what is essentially their (translated) original form to be interesting, but just a few pages doesn't make up for all the biological claptrap.

Time to go back to the ancient astronauts Erich. That material is interesting. Biology and the like, very boring.

[Karolina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Niestety, książka bardzo mnie rozczarowała. Początkowo autor stawia kilka ciekawych pytań, ale szybko okazuje się, że wszystkie zagadnienia są jedynie powierzchownie potraktowane, bardziej przypominając zbiór ciekawostek niż głębszą analizę.

W drugiej części książki pojawia się "rozwiązanie" rzekomych problemów ewolucji – autor tłumaczy je poprzez religię i... kosmitów. Trudno było mi potraktować te teorie poważnie. Znajdziemy tu na przykład twierdzenie, że pochodzimy z innej planety, ponieważ nie jesteśmy tak dobrze przystosowani do życia na Ziemi jak inne zwierzęta: nie mamy ostrych pazurów, odpornej skóry, a woda z rzeki może nam zaszkodzić.

Liczyłam, że chociaż znajdę tu jakąś ciekawą myśl czy nową perspektywę, ale niestety nic z tego nie znalazłam.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

My problem is this book is poorly written. The book presents a the premise that evolution is wrong and then proceeds to throw a lot out there to see what sticks. Even that could be forgiven if it was not for the nearly constant strawman arguments and other logical fallacies. There was a single section about molecular biology that I found interesting, only because he discusses other in that field that sound like they might be worth reading. The worst part was the conclusion he finally gets to and the last few chapters are no longer about biology. I won't ruin it but if I had looked at the other books he had written I should have known to expect this.

[Connor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Up to the halfway mark, this was just a book of wacky animal facts, so I was almost going to give it 2 stars. Unfortunately, in the final third or so, it veers into conspiracy theory territory; the author begins claiming alien abductions are obviously real and advertising his previous works for further enlightenment. I got this book for free, and I really can't recommend paying anything more for it.

It was still worth my time for the laughs and fun animal trivia!

[Kirstin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a verbal machine gun. From beginning to end, the author threw out data points and ideas, one after another, with little, if any, supporting details. There was no time to think about his assertions or consider whether or not they made sense before he was on to his next piece of information.

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing in this book disproves evolution. Nothing in this book proves ancient aliens either.

The only thing this book proves is that the author has no qualifications and doesn't know what he's talking about.

Kinda fun to see him say a bunch of explicit evidence for the process of evolution disproves evolution though.

[Hania Sokolnicka · Rating 2 out of 5]

no nie, ktoś kto nie rozumie ewolucji napisał książkę o ewolucji i uważa mity starożytnych za bardziej przekonujące niż naukę, dawno żadna książka nie wywołała we mnie powiedzenia tylu ‚co ty pieprzysz’ na głos

[Heather Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to rate this.
I enjoyed the concepts and new ideas being thought deeply upon. I think it’s valuable to think beyond the box about the world. It’s definitely a subject I feel may never fully be answered in our lifetime but it is interesting.

[Irvin Rodhe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like his books but this one was really written very badly. Some interesting questions and information thrown in haphazard way. If it was better organized and with more data to back-up his claims it would be pretty good. But as it is... no.

[David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done, well researched. von Daniken makes some very good observations concerning
evolution. And Intelligent Design.

[Matthew Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crazy guy monologging. Aliens are real and are the progenitors of humanity, that’s fine for the author… evolution? Now that’s just too much‽

[Jakub · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pseudoscience book. Don't recommend 1/5

[patrycja slocinska · Rating 2 out of 5]

no Daniken, takie między 2 a 3