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WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?: Reflections of a Journey
WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?Reflections of a JourneyWhy did I write this book ? Because I went on an incredible, life-changing journey and I'm excited about that!I hit a season in my life where I started asking questions again I went from passive to active I started challenging my own worldview I applied jumper cables to my brain I woke up from a long slumber and opened my eyes a little wider!My only hope is that you'll start some kind of journey in your life!Ask some questions Explore some assumptions Examine some long-held preconceptions about life, purpose and meaning In no way do I think your journey has to mirror mine My only hope and prayer is that you'll start an honest quest!-Randall Niles
124 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 12, 2026
Imagine if you will, a man with absolutely no scientific background asking a bunch of questions literally any undergrad who's taken a genetics or cell biology class could answer, following that up with the argument from incredulity, and pretending that he's done something.
If this was a memoir like the title implies it probably would have actually been interesting. I find the ways individual people approach religion, especially people who either have become or have stopped being religious very interesting.
Unfortunately the bulk of the book isn't a memoir at all. It's just a bunch of creationist ramblings from a former attorney with no science background.
But to answer some of the questions our author has posed:
"How did life come from a rock"
It didn't. No one is claiming it did. Chemistry and biochemistry are both much more complex than this strawman would imply. Abiogenesis is not "life came from a rock"
"how did a bird come from a lizard"
It didn't. Lizards are Lepidosaura, a sister taxon to Archosauria which is the group that includes birds. They share a common ancestor but birds did not come from lizards. Birds and lizards are less related than birds and turtles.
"why are there no transitional fossils"
There are.
"why have we never observed beneficial mutations"
MRSA would like a word. Also the sickle cell allele, while a harmful mutation in individuals with two copies of the allele confers a level of increased resistance to malaria in individuals with only one copy of the allele. It's called a trade off.
"where did the language convention that interprets DNA come from"
Humans. Humans is where that came from. Because we made it up so we would be able to talk about what happens.
"how can we explain the random development of xyz"
Well they didn't develop randomly so that would be your first problem. Mutations are random, selection isn't.
"Does this science stuff make sense?"
Yes.
"am I correctly interpreting the awesome complexity of the DNA molecule"
No.
The information is not independent from the chemical makeup of DNA. It is arguably the opposite of that.
What if instead of asking a bunch of easily answerable questions creationists just
Took a basic undergrad level genetics and/or cell biology class.
Like genuinely I think we need to start requiring it.
I also think we need to stop letting "authors" publish books that are more than half a collection of incomplete quotes from other writers that they've deliberately cut off or removed from context to pretend they support their point.
The second half of the book is about the bible and at one point the author says this: "yes the bible has been translated from its original languages but it had not been changed, interpreted, or interpolated along the way"
Which is ridiculous nonsense because all translation is interpretation actually.
His interpretation of Biblical archaeology is suspect at best and indicative of someone with very little exposure to biblical archaeology outside of Christian spheres.
If this was a memoir like the title implies it probably would have actually been interesting. I find the ways individual people approach religion, especially people who either have become or have stopped being religious very interesting.
Unfortunately the bulk of the book isn't a memoir at all. It's just a bunch of creationist ramblings from a former attorney with no science background.
But to answer some of the questions our author has posed:
"How did life come from a rock"
It didn't. No one is claiming it did. Chemistry and biochemistry are both much more complex than this strawman would imply. Abiogenesis is not "life came from a rock"
"how did a bird come from a lizard"
It didn't. Lizards are Lepidosaura, a sister taxon to Archosauria which is the group that includes birds. They share a common ancestor but birds did not come from lizards. Birds and lizards are less related than birds and turtles.
"why are there no transitional fossils"
There are.
"why have we never observed beneficial mutations"
MRSA would like a word. Also the sickle cell allele, while a harmful mutation in individuals with two copies of the allele confers a level of increased resistance to malaria in individuals with only one copy of the allele. It's called a trade off.
"where did the language convention that interprets DNA come from"
Humans. Humans is where that came from. Because we made it up so we would be able to talk about what happens.
"how can we explain the random development of xyz"
Well they didn't develop randomly so that would be your first problem. Mutations are random, selection isn't.
"Does this science stuff make sense?"
Yes.
"am I correctly interpreting the awesome complexity of the DNA molecule"
No.
The information is not independent from the chemical makeup of DNA. It is arguably the opposite of that.
What if instead of asking a bunch of easily answerable questions creationists just
Took a basic undergrad level genetics and/or cell biology class.
Like genuinely I think we need to start requiring it.
I also think we need to stop letting "authors" publish books that are more than half a collection of incomplete quotes from other writers that they've deliberately cut off or removed from context to pretend they support their point.
The second half of the book is about the bible and at one point the author says this: "yes the bible has been translated from its original languages but it had not been changed, interpreted, or interpolated along the way"
Which is ridiculous nonsense because all translation is interpretation actually.
His interpretation of Biblical archaeology is suspect at best and indicative of someone with very little exposure to biblical archaeology outside of Christian spheres.
March 5, 2009
Great read to find out about a man searching, and God finding him. The writer searches for knowledge to find God.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews