Everlasting Place
  • Home
  • One way
    • Proof
  • Sadie Sparrow
    • Sadie Sparrow Excerpt
    • Author Chat
    • Articles
    • Book Reviews
  • Memoir
    • Memoir Excerpts
    • Reviews, interviews & endorsements
  • Blogs
    • Eternal eyes: a blog about forever
    • Golden years: a blog about the elderly
  • Old folks
    • Planting tips for Christians
  • Messages from Chris Carrillo
  • Library
  • Bookstore
  • Contact

Book Review: God versus the Cleveland Museum of Natural History

1/18/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Once in a great while, I come across a book that is truly wonderful, in spite of significant flaws – a book that I would gladly pass on to others, albeit with abundant warnings about its shortcomings. 
 
God versus the Cleveland Museum of Natural History: Whose Side Is Science On? is a great example of  such a book. 
 
First, the bad news. Self-published in 2007, this slim volume cries out for an editor who knows how to handle citations and footnotes, how to break up long quotes, how to use bullets to speed the reader through even relatively technical material. These problems are extensive (and distracting) enough that I could not recommend the book without pointing them out.
 
But if you have an interest in the origins debate, and if you can look past such weaknesses, I can guarantee you of a fascinating and highly unorthodox exhibit-by-exhibit tour of “one of the finest natural history museums in North America,” as the web site of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History proclaims. 
 
Here’s the main reason: In 178 information-packed pages, author Sonino John Paul Scardelletti presents overwhelming scientific refutations of what the Cleveland Museum presents as fact. 

Through impressive secondary research of his own, Scardelletti rips apart supposed evolutionary evidences ranging from redshift to tree rings, from radiometric dating to dinosaur-to-bird fantasies. 

He exposes the fatal errors in conventional interpretations of poor Lucy, whose now-famous skeleton says more about the fevered atheistic imaginations of evolutionists than it does about her family tree. 

He quotes accomplices to the purveyors of evolutionary myths, including Ronald J. Ervin, an illustrator whose drawings of “human ancestors” were repeatedly revised, at the request of publishers, to support the transitional story line. “I just kept adding and subtracting until I got what they wanted,” an apparently contrite Ervin is quoted as saying on p. 143. (The Nebraska Man drawing shown above, published in 1922, is a telling example of such early wizardry; it was created by an artist from a single tooth, which ultimately was proven to have come from an extinct pig.)

He raises vital questions that cannot be addressed by evolutionary theory – for instance, "The body is lifeless (dead) without the life, but does the life live on without the body? For that matter, when a body dies, where does the life go?” 

And so on. Although I’ve read considerably more on the subject than the average person, I found in this little book many arguments I’d not come across before – arguments made by respected scientists on both sides of the debate. That made reading it a cross-disciplinary adventure for me. 

But what really set it apart for me is Scardelletti’s winsome style. I often felt like I was standing at the side of a Lieutenant Columbo or an Adrian Monk as he oh-so-sweetly and innocently went about torching the perpetrator’s alibis. 

The proof of how much I enjoyed this book is in its margins. Amidst the corrections I wish he’d had an editor make before going to press are a steady flurry of comments such as “Excellent selection of quotes” and “Helps my understanding of the theory  & its flaws” and “fine job of driving the point home!” and “love this sneak preview” and “great point!” I do tend to mark up my books, but usually not quite to this extent. 
 
If you’re looking for the truth behind the exhibits at just about any natural history museum in the western world – or if you’d like to take a virtual tour with a disarmingly honest and charming guide – I give this book the thumbs up. Just expect to run into some editorial potholes along the way. 
 
If you can't find God versus the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in bookstores, call the author at 216-531-6052, or email him at SoninoScardelletti@att.nt. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Care to subscribe?

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from tracie7779, Luci Correia, Maxwell Hamilton, giardinaggio, Doug1021, Angel Xavier Viera, Damian Gadal, Reboots, leoncillo sabino, mRio, HikingArtist.com, guymoll, csath07, Guudmorning!, fred_v, homegets.com, ishaip, jinxmcc, freeparking :-|, CallMeWhatEver, BryonLippincott, simpleinsomnia, csread, nicephore, Doug Beckers, mandydale, berniedup, tontantravel, h.koppdelaney, Jill Clardy, anieto2k, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, QuidoX, Ryo | [ addme. ], ShebleyCL, TinyTall, proggy-yahoo, Infiniteyes, Genista, kippster, Speculum Mundi, HerPhotographer, Tauralbus, megallypuff, harshxpatel, Waiting For The Word, CoreBurn, Gordon Chirgwin, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, John McLinden, Patrick Feller, jikatu, Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, byzantiumbooks, bizmac, H o l l y., Peter Blanchard, sheriffmitchell, Tony Webster, hectorir, City of Overland Park, luis_cunha, Sam Howzit, bertknot, QuotesEverlasting, iturde, ejmc, VARNISHdesign, Cimm, Good Book Reader, Renaud Camus, banjipark, romana klee, 00alexx, erix!, branestawm2002, amsfrank, m01229, cbcmemberphotos2477, rhode.nel, Veronique Debord, joshjanssen, zenjazzygeek, h.koppdelaney, Laurel Mill Players, quinn.anya, *ErinBrierley*, Ben Pugh, Photographing Travis, BarnImages.com, anees.waqas, swambo, Alan Miles NYC, glenngould, Patrick Feller, davecito, wade in da water, Endre Majoros, France1978, dainamara, theseanster93, insightpest, eliduke, volker-kannacher, cogdogblog, Editor B, poshdee, brewbooks, J D Mack, ThomasKohler, mayeesherr. (in West Bengal!), TEDxHouston, Ms. Phoenix, PBoGS, Eselsmann™, Inside Guide To London, ShironekoEuro, Tom Anderson, flequi, cogdogblog, njaminjami, Search Engine People Blog, ShanMcG213, Julie Edgley, randihausken, pescatello, Waiting For The Word, moriza, Iain Farrell, Arizona Parrot, digitalmindphotography, enjosmith, www.WeisserPhotography.com, STC4blues, Holidayextras, Randy Roe, goprogresswent, BenDibble, kstoyer, Rennett Stowe, williac, ImNotQuiteJack, Life Mental Health, Jose Antonio Cotallo Lopez, gruntzooki, electricinca, adactio, miheco, Zemlinki!, bnilsen, chispita_666