Origins - Brian Hills

As its title suggests, ""Origins: cosmology, evolution and creation"" presents the reader with a critical analysis of the subject of ""Origins"" and assesses the current state of the evolution-versus-creation debate. It should appeal to anyone interested in the issue of origins but assumes the reader has a basic scientific background. The book is written in four parts. Part I undertakes a critical appraisal of current cosmologies and argues that, despite their popularity, the big-bang and inflation models are inconsistent with a number of key observations including those pertaining to quasar and stellar red-shifts. Alternative ideas based on Quasi steadystate, inertia and plasma cosmologies are considered and it is concluded that our current ideas about the true nature of mass, space and time are still woefully inadequate. A similar systematic approach is taken to the origin of galaxies, stars and planetary systems, basing the analysis on a comparison of the latest theories with observational data. Part II progresses to the Earth itself and considers theories for the origin of the Earths internal structure, the atmosphere and oceans. Part III considers the various theories about the origin of life and it is concluded that our current evolutionary ideas about the origin of living cells are highly improbable. Recent results from the rapidly developing field of molecular phylogenetics are discussed. Part IV addresses the controversial issue of human origins. The analysis begins with the key fossil evidence for the evolution of Homo sapiens from Australopithecus and proceeds to the more recent molecular data from mitochondrial DNA analysis. The discussion then broadens to include archaeologicaland historical data pertaining to the spread of Homo sapiens throughout the world and it is concluded that, once again, current evolutionary ideas fail to provide a consistent explanation of the data.