Talk:John C. Landon

John C. Landon on his blog has denied being "anti-evolution" and has said that this page is an attack against him. Here I will show why Landon is anti-evolution.

You can find Landon's anti-evolution blog here where he rants about how creationism is being denied by the scientific community how how intelligent design exists http://darwiniana.com/

You can read the book by Landon here http://history-and-evolution.com/

The whole book is anti-evolution, the book does not mention common descent - Landon makes it clear he rejects the view that humans have evolved or have a common ancestor. Of course Landon on purpose uses the word "Darwinism" instead of evolution. The book is a rant that natural selection cannot explain the biodiversity of life on earth and as Landon is an extreme anthropocentric (like all christians) he claims natural selection fails to explain the history of humans, free will, morality and ethics of humans etc.

The odd thing about the book is that Landon claims evolution is mostly metaphysical and not observable like all creationists claim, here landon denies naturalistic processes and mechanisms for evolution but what alternative does Landon promote instead? Something he calls the "eonic effect" which he claims is some kind of metaphysical force or field. His "eonic effect" is no different than the God of the gap argument.

Landon is in his chapter "Beyond natural selection" writes "We are still without a theory of evolution, in part because we have never observed its mechanics in action" this is how the evidence points to Landon being anti-evolution. If he had bothered to read some scientific papers or books he would of realised there is plenty of evidence for evolution in action ie - evidence for speciation and evolution in populations via mechanims such as genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, natural selection, horizontal gene transfer, symbiosis, niche construction etc etc yet he mentions none of these throughout his book.

The only other mechanism Landon mentions is self-organization but he rejects this as having a secret agenda. Basically any natural mechanism for evolution and Landon will reject it.

Landon's book is not an anti-Darwinian book, it is an anti-evolution book. It is clear he rejects any natural mechanism for evolution.

Landon starts defines his book as "The question of human origins remains as the great enigma of evolutionary biology. The findings of current Darwinism have obscured the issue with a reductionist dogmatism that has resulted in a truncated image of man and his history."

Are these really the words of a man who accepts evolution? Only creationists would write something like this.

Landon writes "Critics of Darwinism often point to the fossil record, upon which Darwin issued a claim of evidence to come, in favor of his thesis. This evidence would now seem less than clear." This is a typical creationist argument and Landon has clearly not studied the fossil record, perhaps he should read Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters by Donald R. Prothero.

Landon writes "The debate over evolution has continued since the time of Darwin without resolution, in part because it is a metaphysical contest that is conducted beyond the limits of observation." Typical creationist argument claiming evolution is metaphysical.

Landon writies "And history simply won’t conform to the assumptions of Darwinism and reductionist scientism"

Like all creationists Landon never defines "Darwinism" or "reductionist scientism" and he uses these words many times throughout the book.

Landon writies "The revolution in our knowledge of world history has uncovered something that must challenge the Darwinian assumptions about random evolution and natural selection."

"random evolution" which he never explains.

Landon writes "The moment we examine world history as an evolutionary and developmental process we see immediately that something much more complex than natural selection is at work."

Landon throughout the book seems to be saying that natural selection is the only mechanism in evolution, he obviously has never read a textbook on evolution.

Landon writes "The Meaning of Evolution = We are so accustomed to Darwinian or reductionist definitions of genetic evolution that we forget the meaning of the term: evidence of developmental emergence by any process or dynamic. By that definition history shows a clear pattern of non-random evolution in the development of civilization (and the parallel development of human individuality)."

If that is Landon's definition of evolution, then he is the only person in the world with that view, becuase science does not define evolution that way.

Landon writes "History and Evolution A paradox confronts the distinction of evolution and history: when did evolution stop and history begin?"

Landon for almost the first time uses the word "evolution" now instead of Darwinism yet he says evolution stops when human history began? What?

Landon writes '''"An Evolution Formalism Darwinism is an oversimplification of what should be a standard formalism or model of evolution: this involves a kind of macro/micro distinction, and in the case of man takes the form of the idea of the ‘evolution of freedom’ as the passage from passive evolution to active free history through a macroevolutionary process or Transition (in this case a series of transitions) matched with a microevolutionary history of man’s self-realization of his emerging freedom. This overall framework (which is not a theory but a generalized descriptive device) fits human history perfectly, and the remarkable data of the eonic effect finds a useful clarification in terms of the evolution formalism. Students of evolution have already seen a distorted example of such an evolution formalism in theories of punctuated equilibrium, where the partition into macro and micro arises spontaneously. The point here is that ‘evolution’ is about some ‘macro’ ‘force or process’ that drives development."'''

It it quite clear that Landon like all creationists puts up a barrier between "micro" and "macro" evolution.

Landon writes "In the remainder of this chapter we will look at the history behind the Old Testament, and then at the mysterious structure behind world history"

Landon believes the old testament is historical http://history-and-evolution.com/whee4th/intro1_2.htm he also dedicates another two chapters to the bible and history.

Landon writes "In the face of much criticism from religious Creationists, now accompanied by the Intelligent Design movement, adherents of Darwinism forever defend a flawed theory that has been challenged from its first appearance."

In other words Landon is anti-evolution. He is not anti-Darwinian he is anti-evolution. Creationists are anti-evolution.

Landon writes "The rise of molecular biology shows a complexity of structure that cannot easily survive statistical challenges to claims of random emergence"

Typical creationist argument.

Landon writies "Claims for natural selection are all too conveniently pressed into service to cover over the absence of close-range empirical data"

He claims throughout the book that selection is not observable, but it clearly if he had read any studies he would see that it is.

Landon writes "Sometimes random variation is paired with non-random natural selection to produce directionality, but this is misleading, and not the same as non-random evolution. We are to suppose without proof that this theory explains human consciousness, language, and morality, and much else. The theory is so heavily promoted we forget how implausible its extensions are."

It is all about humans with Landon, he is an anthropocentric christian who wants humans to be above nature and obviously rejects to evolution on his philosophical religious bias.

Landon writes "The rise of Darwinism has produced a false view of man, we see the long-predicted limits of the modern scientific worldview. It is easy, in the case of Darwinism, to see this if we explore the limits of theory, for example, in the realm of ethics or aesthetics."

He never defines "Darwinism" the truth is that Landon does not like the idea of naturalistic evolution as it upsets his anthropocentric world-view.

Landon writes in his chapter 2.1 The Legacy of Darwinism "In a nutshell, there is, as yet, no methodologically sound basis for a theory of evolution."

Thank you for coming out of the closet Landon. He claims there is no "sound basis" for a theory of evolution. - This is 100% proof Landon is anti-evolution.

Landon writes a chapter called "the metaphysics of evolution" he says "A clue to the problem lies in the failure to produce a science of history, where the facts are visible, even as Darwinists claim a science of evolution, where the facts are not visible"

He does this throughout the entire book confusing evolution with "Darwinists" or "Darwinism".

Landon writes "A useful critical history of Darwinism can be found in Soren Lovtrup, Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth (New York: Croom Helm, 1987). Lovtrup notes, “I believe that one day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science. When this happens many people will pose the question: How did this ever happen?” Soren Lovtrup, Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, p. 422."

Landon quote mines this book for one line and has misunderstood the book like all creationists.

Landon in a chapter titled "2.1.1 Debates and Darwin Trials" quotes from intelligent design books Darwin on Trial, by the lawyer Philip Johnson and Michael Denton’s Evolution: A Theory In Crisis amongst other intelligent design books in an attempt to refute evolution.

http://history-and-evolution.com/whee4th/chap2_2.htm is a chapter called "Beyond natural selection" here Landon exposes himself again as he says We are still without a theory of evolution, in part because we have never observed its mechanics in action

In some of the last chapters of his book he rejects evolution becuase he claims it is due to chance. Like all creationists he confuses punctuated equilibrium and quote mines scientists who he does not understand but the book mostly uses creationist sources.

It is 100% Landon is anti-evolution, of course he is another one of these "stealth creationists" (similar to Lee Spetner) who pretends not to be to try and sell more copies of his books. Forests (talk) 17:46, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the information. If anyone's interested, here's his post on us. Balaam (talk) 18:33, 4 September 2012 (UTC)
 * EDIT: God, this man's stuff is almost unreadable. From one of his posts on 9/11:


 * I think our article probably does need quite a bit of work, if only to help decipher what he's babbling on about. Balaam (talk) 18:42, 4 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Forests' long comment certainly looks like good starting material - David Gerard (talk) 21:00, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Further evidence Landon is anti-evolution
Landon owns an amazon account where he gives high rating to creationist books and religious books. In most of his reviews he mentions "Darwinism" even when some of these books have not even mentioned "Darwinism" in them for this it seems Landon has very low ratings for his reviews. Also his comment sections are filled up with people calling Landon anti-evoution. Landon is not a typical creationist he has some eccentric views (apparently he has studied buddhism and other religions) and he believes in something called an "eonic effect" some kind of metaphysical force he says is responsible for "macroevolution" (but this is untrue becuase his eonic effect is actually a form of creation) and he denies all evidence for natural evolution and spends his time defending intelligent design and moaning at atheism.

Landon likes to confuse "Darwinism" with evolution and it is clear he does this on purpose, there is no evidence he is "anti-Darwinian", his real agenda is anti-evolution which can be seen in his reviews and postings where he claims no natural mechanism of evolution exists and evolution has never been observed.


 * http://www.amazon.com/Genetic-Entropy-The-Mystery-Genome/product-reviews/0981631606/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFiveStar&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0 Landon gives 5 stars to a young earth creationist book by John C. Sanford which says no evolution has ever happened and that the genome is actually devolving (due to sin mentioned in the Bible).


 * Landon gives 3 stars reviews to the books by intelligent designer William A. Dembski and says that Dembski's arguments have refuted Darwinism but that mainstream ID is wrong and Landon believes his own version of design (eonic effect is correct).


 * Landon gives 5 stars and a postive review to a christian book titled The End of Darwinism: And How a Flawed and Disastrous Theory Was Stolen and Sold his review is an anti-evolution review claiming selection is metaphysical etc. The author of the book is a man called Eugene G. Windchy who denies all evidence for evolution, Landon is friends with him.


 * Landon on his amazon account has given 4 out of 5 stars to Science and Human Origins - a crackpot christian creationist book that was released by the discovery institure that was written in an attempt to prove the Biblical Adam and Eve. In his review Landon says Darwinism is a deception on human evolution and fails to explain evolution, he then says some new form of design must explain it.


 * Landon reviews the book "Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans" and says that Darwinism fails to explain the human being. Once again Landon never defines "Darwinism" and it is clear he has a problem with evolution, I doubt he even read this book becuase it does not even mention "Darwinism".


 * Landon reviews Evolution - the Extended Synthesis but totally misunderstands the book claiming the authors are all "Darwinists" and not suprising only 24 out of 176 people found his review helpful.


 * Landon reviews the Evolution Of God and starts his review with "The attempt by scientific Darwinian atheists to rewrite religion for us behind our backs is insidious".


 * Landon reviews Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves - he gives the book 5 stars claiming it has refuted evolution. Fanu however after research it reveals he has used similar arguments to creationists see James Le Fanu.

He has also reviewed many other creationist books and claimed that they have refuted human evolution. Forests (talk) 15:46, 5 September 2012 (UTC)