How Did Life End Up With Us?
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley April 1, 2023
Author SS O'Connor
Distributor: Booktopia
ISBN: 9781739155902
Publisher: Otium Press
Release Date: March 2023
Website: https://www.booktopia.com.au
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How Did Life End Up With Us is a leap of faith into a mass of carefully researched and presented information, which at times makes you begin to wonder what really is the purpose of life.
In his passion for tracing the evolution of mankind, SS O’Connor takes a fascinating look at the very real fact that we have all evolved from the one single point – that of a self-replicating cell and by taking what he calls the long view, he pondered on whether this, if carefully studied could perhaps explain how ‘our complicated world had come about’.
A tall order to himself for sure, as he is not a scientist, just a man who found he was intensely curious about where this journey could lead and what wonders he could unearth on the way; his findings have resulted in a four book series written for the many people who are fascinated by the Science of what is behind life’s apparent many secrets!
Each chapter commences with a question, or occasionally more than one question, which creates the hook to get into reading what comes next, as it tantalises the mind with such thoughts as The Secrets of Life? How can one claim anything so simplistic when there is such a bewildering variety of organisms on Earth? If they are all so different, how can they share the same secret? How could you resist finding out what comes next?
Perhaps this is the secret to the book, as it is densely packed with information that needs to be read carefully, pondered upon and dare one say, digested in full, therefore chapter by chapter is the slow and steady way forward, unless of course you have a seriously scientific mind and then it will be a real page turner.
Twenty-one chapters if carefully read and considered, indicate that in reality life is just one huge circle that no matter what, which will keep on regenerating; not quickly just in a slow, steady and very intricate manner, as it has done since the very first self-replicating cell came into existence.
This very intriguing line of though leads onto further questions with answers to be sought as so many scientists, such as Charles Darwin, Sir Ronald Fisher, Alfred Russel Wallace and more modern day evolutionists such as George Price, Maynard Smith and John Haldane discovered, which encouraged them to keep on searching to find the truth they sought.
Is this a book that will depress with its fascinating look at the miniature that is humanity, or is it a book that is full of hope for the continuation of life in one evolutionary form or another. Quite the contrary as it is a bit like reading a book full of mystery and you are the detective seeking answers.
The final chapter is filled with life lessons and hope, offered by a very wise Hermit Guru as he gives to the Seeker one single thought: Think of life as an ocean………………….
An excellent conclusion to the first book, leaving much more to be discovered in book two, How Did We get To Be so Different.