Kirkus Reviews QR Code
EVOLUTION FROM SPACE by Fred & C. Wickramasinghe Hoyle

EVOLUTION FROM SPACE

By

Pub Date: Sept. 10th, 1982
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The pair that brought you Lifecloud (organic molecules in space) and Diseases from Space now proffers Evolution from Space: We are Here because the Universe has so dictated--in a purposive, intelligent gesture. In thus concluding, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe pooh-pooh the organic soup model, lambaste Darwinism, and argue ad infinitum that biologically useful macromolecules (such as enzymes) could not have evolved fortuitously. Granted that neither Darwin nor anyone since has been able to explain the beginnings of life on earth, all the authors do is appeal to a higher authority. They go beyond Crick and Orgel's recently revived panspermia idea, moreover, by postulating an ultimate purposive force--an all-embracing unity, a ""convergence to God"" they call the Universe. This power continuously creates DNA and kindred molecules, distributing them through the galaxies with benevolent largesse. Those familiar with Hoyle's sf works, as well as with his stoutly-held belief in a steady state (not Big Bang) universe, will see that the present theory mirrors those fictional and cosmological ideas. (The continuous creation of hydrogen central to the steady-state model is now replaced by continuous creation of bio-molecules, while the Ultimate Intelligence embodied in The Black Cloud is now the universe itself.) Hoyle and Wickramasinghe adduce no evidence to support their theory--and push their attack on evolution beyond all reason. (E.g., the lack of intermediate fossil forms is said to favor a thesis of separate creation of each species--made possible by random DNA fallout from the skies.) Wishful thinking that may nonetheless be seized upon, given Hoyle's renown, by counter-evolutionists of all stripes.