List of Topics
The purpose of this website is to offer a public display of a book that I have written. The title of this book is The Fact of Evolution?
The short answer is that Google-Sites offers free access to the Internet-Cloud. Because this is a non-profit work, the availability of a free product is a big consideration. Although I am on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Google, I appreciate the value of all the products that they offer the public free of charge.
In Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Directive, a Russian financial wizard with a mafia background, made the following comment:
If somebody put sixteen million dollars in Grigori account, Grigori not insist on dental examination of the gift horse.[1]
That being said, I believe that Google-Sites has many issues that make it lower quality than other Google products. One of the most annoying things to me was the fact that fonts and line spacing mysteriously change size in a manner that is beyond the control of the website author. Other users of Google-Sites have experienced similar problems.
Another feature is that I would love is the ability to alias hyperlinks. Currently, my documents show up with hyperlink names that have obscure ID numbers generated by Google. It would be preferable to have them aliased to a hyperlink with these forms:
http://sites.google.com/site/factofevolution/document_name.doc
http://sites.google.com/site/factofevolution/document_name.pdf
But as the saying goes, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
A website doesn’t have to be fancy to be useful. The Drudge Report is one of the simplest sites on the Internet. Despite its simplicity, it draws millions of visitors each day.[2]
Mainline publishers typically do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is very hard to find a mainline publisher who will even consider evaluating a book from an unknown author. At this point, I am an unpublished author with no audience whatsoever. Hence, I decided to display my book on the Internet and avoid the hassle of dealing with publishers.
The Internet has opened up publishing options that were previously not available. A number of completely unknown people have been able to attract a huge Internet audience by providing information that people want to read. For example, Matt Drudge’s website has become a huge success with millions of visitors each day.[3]
It is clear that the scientific-topic like the Fact of Evolution will not attract the audience size that a political-topic, such as the Drudge Report, will. But, if I have written a book worth reading, I believe an audience of interested readers will find my book through the magic of the Internet.
I didn’t write this book for financial motivations. I wrote it because I believe that many of the arguments used to promote the Fact of Evolution resemble political-spin more than they resemble objective facts. I believe promoting speculation as fact is not a good thing for science.
I hope that this book provokes an open and polite debate of the Fact of Evolution. I am happy to share my thoughts with anybody interested in evaluating and debating the reasons for my skepticism. I hope this book encourages both proponent and skeptics of the Fact of Evolution to separate uncontroversial facts from controversial speculation.
Although I love printed books, an Internet book has many advantages. Because I did not write this book with a profit motive, I think it is a great fit for my application. Here are some of the advantages that I see for my publishing my book on the Internet:
- The potential audience range of the Internet is huge (as Matt Drudge discovered).[6]
- Additional information on nearly any topic of interest is a Google-search away.
- Internet sites can be quickly accessed when on-line.
- Searching for words, phrases, and names is quick and easy.
- Internet words are cheap relative to printed words.
- You only have to print chapters you have a significant interest in.
- I didn’t have to work with an agent to get my book published.
- I have the final decision on the content of my book.
That being said, I think that printed books will never be replaced completely. People like printed books for a wide variety of reasons. Any advantages offered by the Internet will never obsolete those reasons.
Acknowledgements
Endnotes are contained in the following section. The following shorthand notation connects the numbered endnotes to permission statements:
N(x, y, z, …) indicates endnotes numbered ‘x’, ‘y’, ‘z’.
I gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce quotes from the following copyrighted material:
N(11): Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1999), http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6024.html. Reprinted with permission from Science, Evolution, and Creationism, 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences, Courtesy of the National Academies Press, Washington , D.C.
N(29, 30, 33-38): Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Notes and References
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