On Evolution... I highly recommend two books by Dr. Lee Spetner:
Not by Chance! and The Evolution Revolution: Why Thinking People are Rethinking the Theory of Evolution--these two books pose the greatest challenges to Darwin's theory in my opinion. They are must reading for anyone who honestly wants to consider what science may say about evolutionary changes.
From the back covers of Not by Chance! and The Evolution Revolution:
"It is certainly the most rational attack on evolution that I have ever read." Professor E. Simon, Department of Biology, Purdue University
"...a strong, erudite critique of the theory of evolution." Sanford R. Sampson, PhD., Emeritus Professor of Cell Physiology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
"The Neo-Darwinists have pulled the wool over our eyes for over 100 years, conflating arguments for evolution with Common Descent. Spetner has proven them wrong." S. Kelman, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine.
About the author (from Amazon.com):
Lee
M. Spetner is an American physicist (now in Israel) and author, known best for
his critique of the modern evolutionary synthesis. In spite of his opposition
to neo-Darwinism, Spetner proposes a form of non-random evolution outlined in
his 1996 book "Not By Chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of
Evolution." and developed further in his 2014 book "The Evolution
Revolution." Spetner received his BS degree in mechanical engineering at
Washington University in 1945[2] and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1950. Spetner
was at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University from
1951 to 1970, where he was a principle-staff member, working on guided-missile
systems. In 1970 he became technical director of Eljim, Ltd., later a
subsidiary of Elbit, Ltd. in Nes Tsiona, Israel where he was a manager, a
period that lasted a further 20 years.[2][4] His work here was on military
electronic systems including electronic countermeasures, and a military
electronic navigation system. He
taught courses at the Johns Hopkins University, Howard University and the
Weizman Institute including classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory,
real-variable theory, probability theory, and statistical communication theory. Spetner
first became interested in evolution in 1963 while on a fellowship in the
biophysics department of the Johns Hopkins University. His interest in
evolutionary theory continued after he returned to APL. Spetner developed what
he called his "nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis" (NREH), which
accepted micro evolution (which he attributed to nonrandom mutations directed by
the environment), but rejected macro evolution. Spetner
is a critic of the role of random mutations in the modern evolutionary
synthesis. He claims that there is no known random mutation that adds
information to the genome. Spetner
continued to study after retirement, pursuing interests in evolution[4] and
cancer cures. Dr. Lee Spetner's latest book "The Evolution Revolution: Why
Thinking People are Rethinking Evolution" develops his nonrandom
hypothesis (NREH) and claims to have demolished neo-Darwinian evolution. The
book was published in 2014 by Judaica Press.
___________________________________________
Dinosaur soft tissue? The next recent challenge on a separate front comes in the area of paleontology. Though somewhat hidden from popular notice, a debate has been raging for a little bit over a decade over the presence of soft tissue in dinosaur fossilized remains.
 |
| T. Rex soft tissue |
Though
this find was over a decade ago, the implications are still being debated. I
find that few people even know of the mounting evidence for soft tissue found
in connection with fossilized material. From the National Geographic article in 2005:
A
Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil has yielded what appear to be the only
preserved soft tissues ever recovered from a dinosaur. Taken from a
70-million-year-old thighbone, the structures look like the blood vessels,
cells, and proteins involved in bone formation. Most
fossils preserve an organism's hard tissues, such as shell or bone. Finding
preserved soft tissue is unheard of in a dinosaur-age specimen. "To
my knowledge, preservation to this extent—where you still have original
flexibility and transparency—has not been noted in dinosaurs before, so we're
pretty excited by the find," said Mary H. Schweitzer, a paleontologist at
North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The
findings may provide new insights into dinosaur evolution, physiology, and
biochemistry. They could also increase our understanding of extinct life and
change how scientists think about the fossilization process. "Finding
these tissues in dinosaurs changes the way we think about fossilization,
because our theories of how fossils are preserved don't allow for this
[soft-tissue preservation]," Schweitzer said.
An article published the next year (2006) raised the level of visibility and discourse as well:
Dinosaur Shocker: Probing a 68-million-year-old T. Rex,
Mary Schweitzer stumbled upon astonishing signs of life that may radically
change our view of the ancient beasts. By Helen Fields, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2006.
 |
| T. Rex blood cells |
On
other dinosaur, soft tissue finds:
“It is also
interesting to note that though Schweitzer’s T-Rex is the most notable soft
tissue sample, many other samples have been found as well. One in 2013 was the
soft tissue in a triceratops, which Schweitzer had nothing to do with –
Armitage, M.H., and K. L. Anderson. Soft sheets of fibrillar bone from a fossil
of the supraorbital horn of the dinosaur Triceratops horridus. Acta
Histochemica. Published online before print, February 13, 2013." https://jrcooper.org/2017/03/21/answering-critics-soft-tissue-in-dinosaur-bones/
An excellent, lengthy, recent blog post caught my attention that brought the discourse/debate up to date across the past decade. J. R. Cooper, on his blog, has written a very thoughtful article on the implications of soft tissue finds in the fossilized remains of dinosaurs:
