What Darwin Didn't Know
by Geoffrey Simmons, M.D., Harvest House Publishers,
318 pages, $12.99, ISBN 0-7369-1313-0, 2004

When I ordered this book, I expected it to be a discussion of Darwinism, and since the author was a medical doctor, I was quite skeptical about the value of the book. Most medical doctors have only a passing acquaintance with the technicalities of Darwinism and in the past there have been some rather poor books by doctors on subjects outside their field. The fact that the forward was written by William Dembski who is one of the champions of the Intelligent Design movement gave me some indication this book might be different--and it is.

Simmons spends one short chapter dealing with the general problem of explaining great complexity by Darwinian mechanisms. The remainder of the book is an astounding description of how the human body works. Simmons deals with cells, reproduction, the neurological system, the senses, and six body systems (endocrine, respiratory, gastrointestinal, circulatory, excretory and musculo-skeletal), in incredible detail. The descriptions are well written, easy to understand, accurate, and have some great illustrations. The last chapter deals with special things like biorhythms and what makes humans unique with a list of 81 special traits of humans. There is a short discussion of the problems of Darwinism and a discussion of the differences between apes and man.

This is an excellent book to give a young person who is in medical school or interested in medicine. So many doctors have faith problems develop during their training, and this book would be useful in that area. It is an excellent book on design characteristics of the human body and offers some significant insights into the problems of Darwinism in things as complex as the human body.

We recommend this book highly. It will be of interest to almost any reader, especially to those in the medical professions.

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