Richard Milton (author)
| Richard Milton | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1943 London |
| Occupation | writer and journalist |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genres | Fiction and non fiction |
| Subjects | Controversies |
Richard Milton (born 1943) is a British journalist and writer who deals with often highly controversial subjects. Milton, an engineer by training,[1] has published on the topics of popular history, business, scientific controversies and alternative science and has published a novel.
Contents |
[edit] Books
Popular science book The Facts of Life: Shattering the myth of Darwinism, is a re-evaluation of the Darwinist evolutionary mechanism of the natural selection of genetic mutations. It reports on research in many fields by professional scientists that cast doubt on accepted ideas, which it describes as having become a dogma. In the book Milton was supportive of alternative evolutionary mechanisms such as Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics.[2] Milton has criticised neo-Darwinism.[3] Milton also claimed in his book that the earth may be as young as 175,000 years old, based on the amount of helium in the atmosphere.[4] In a review in Third Way Magazine Douglas Spanner, while suggesting that it should be taken seriously by orthodox Darwinism, was dubious about his attempts to dispute traditional methods of estimating the earth's age and said "on matters of biological importance he can be off-course at times".[1]
[edit] Controversy
His books, especially those on scientific controversies, have given rise to heated debate. To his critics Milton is a contrarian who engages in controversy for its own sake, while to his supporters he is a writer unafraid to tackle uncomfortable subjects and orthodoxies that have become dogmas. Milton is controversial in the field of evolution as he is a neo-Lamarckian who has supported the experiments of Paul Kammerer.[5]
The Facts of Life aroused intense controversy and was met with both high praise and intense criticism. Reviewing it in New Statesman, Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins described it as "twaddle that betrays, on almost every page, complete and total pig-ignorance of the subject at hand".[6]
Milton's claims have been criticised as pseudoscience by philosophy professor Robert Carroll.[7] Milton appeared on The Mysterious Origins of Man, a television special arguing that mankind has lived on the Earth for tens of millions of years, and that mainstream scientists have suppressed supporting evidence.[8]
Milton's claims on the age of mankind have also been criticised for scientific inaccuracy.[9] Milton's "Best of Enemies" [Page 167] quotes David Irving as a source on Hitler, despite the fact that Irving was jailed for Holocaust denial, and is no longer generally regarded as a reliable source by Holocaust scholars.
[edit] Works
[edit] Non-fiction
- The Facts of Life: Shattering the Myth of Darwinism. London: Corgi. 1993. ISBN 0552141216.
- published as Il Mystero Della Vita, Editoriale Armenia, 1993 (Italy)
- published by Sinkosha Publishing, 1995 (Japan)
- Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. Rochester: Park Street Press. 2000. ISBN 9780892818846.
- published as O Mythos tou Darwinismou 1996 (Greece), Park Street Press, 1997 (US Hardback, US Paperback)
- published by Forepace Publishing, 1997 (Thailand)
- Forbidden Science. City: Trafalgar Square. 1996. ISBN 1857023021.
- published as Verbotene Wissenschaften, Zweitausendeins, 1996 (Germany)
- Alternative Science. Rochester: Park Street Press. 1996. ISBN 0892816317.
- Bad Company. London: House of Stratus Ltd. 2001. ISBN 0755101510.
- Best of Enemies. London: Icon. 2007. ISBN 9781840468281.
[edit] Fiction
- Dead Secret. London: House of Stratus. 2000. ISBN 0755101782.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Spanner, Douglas (April 1993). "The Facts of Life (review)". Third Way. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wi_tmG-bE6UC&pg=PA30&dq=RIchard+milton&hl=en&ei=88jaTYW0Oc-z8QOqyuWDBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=RIchard%20milton&f=false. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
- ^ Book Review of Facts of Life in the Independent Newspaper
- ^ Article by Richard Milton Online
- ^ Milton, Facts of Life, pp. 62 - 65
- ^ Milton in Forbidden Science, p. 229 discussing evidence Neo-Lamarckism
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (28 August 1992). "Review of Richard Milton: The Facts of Life: Shattering the myth of Darwinism". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20071028190957/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Reviews/1992-08-28shattering_the_myths.shtml. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ Carroll, Robert (2008). "The Alternative Science Pages of Richard Milton". The Skeptic's Dictionary. http://skepdic.com/refuge/altscience.html. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
- ^ The Mysterious Origins of Man
- ^ Thomas, Dave (March 1996). "NBC's Origins Show". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20070203134301/http://www.csicop.org/sb/9603/origins.html. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
