http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345384725/9600-4740309-171994
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Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors : A Search for Who We Are
by Carl Sagan , Ann Druyan
Reprint Edition
Paperback
List: $14.00 -- Amazon.com Price: $12.60 -- You Save: $1.40(10%)
Published by Ballantine Books (Trd Pap)
Publication date: October 1, 1993
ISBN: 0345384725
Synopsis:
Spanning more than four billion years, from "the beginning and a little
before," this brilliant chronicle of the first stirrings of life on Earth
traces the human animal's evolution--and makes a powerful case for man's
enduring kinship with the "lower" animals.
Customer Comments
05/17/96, rating=10:
very thorough and most interesting
A truly well written account of the journey to the current human species. In
some ways quite disconcerting in terms of the narrow differences between the
human species and the chimpanzee
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I read this book and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the transition from DNA to Man sans BS. The
authors make heavy references to Dawkins' work. The notes in the Appendices alone are worth the price of the
book. Sagan & Druyan take on the ignorance of the American public and the ignorance of Congress. A couple
excerpts :-
>From "Notes : Chapter 3 : Item 1", p.424 :-
In a 1982 Gallup poll, 44% of American respondents supported
the statement "God created man pretty much in his present form
at one time within the last ten thousand years." Only 9% sup-
ported the statement "Man has developed over millions of years
from less advanced forms of life. God had no part in this process."
(Creation/Evolution, No. 10 [Fall 1982], p.38)
In a 1988 survey of 43 members of the U.S. Congress who chose
to answer a questionnaire, 88% felt that "modern evolutionary
theory has a valid scientific foundation," but less than half could
say, even roughly, what the basic idea of evolution might be. Only
one in three strongly agreed with the statement that the Earth
was 4 to 5 billion years old. In an identical survey of a quarter of
the members of the Ohio legislature, the corresponding numbers
were 74%, 23%, and 23%.(Michael Zimmerman, "A Survey of
Pseudoscientific Sentiments of Elected Officials," Creation/Evo-
lution, No. 29 [Winter 1991/92], pp.26-45.)
>From "Notes : Chapter 4 : Item 14", p.428 :-
James Watt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the first Reagan
term, justified despoiling public lands on the grounds that he was
unsure how much time we had "until the Lord comes."
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Homo Deus help us.
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* Hakeeb A. Nandalal "What does God want *
* nanco@trinidad.net with a spaceship?" *
* *
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