I love reading about evolution, anthropology, and the distant past... that said, I really tried to enjoy this one. I was aware that there would be a religious element, but I didn't expect it to be so prominent. This is written almost like fiction, following conventional creative writing rules - which just became... annoying? Wrong place, wrong time, I guess. I tried to look for little bits of fun evolutionary trivia and information about fossils that I hadn't read or heard before, but in the end, it all circled back to religion. This should've been marketed as an autobiography, in my opinion. There's a lot of personal journey retelling and dialogue with people the author encountered, which isn't what I expected. So the low rating might stem from disappointment. Also, it would be easy to miss that this is a religious book before purchasing, so just keep that in mind if you're thinking of picking this up.

This book was great to help me reconcile my religious beliefs with my biology-related career. I highly recommend this book to others.

I have been entrusted with a copy of this literary work for the express purpose of conducting a review. Authored by Daniel Friedmann and Dania Sheldon, the book endeavors to proffer a plausible explication of the origin of life. The authors posit how intricate life forms emerged during the epoch known as the Cambrian explosion, elaborating upon a multitude of intricate and comprehensive instances that reinforce their belief in the hypothesis they have presented.

The book "Mysteries of the Origin of Animals" explores the origins of life and the appearance and development of animals by combining scientific theories with biblical teachings. While the authors claim to answer the mysteries surrounding the inception and development of animal life, combining science and faith is far-fetched. Ancient scriptures were written in an allegorical or metaphorical language, and the authors read it symbolically at times and literally when convenient, which is not correct.

The book for adopting an obsolete idea of a material container filled with a ghostly soul, which may not have been supported by the scriptures or the commentators 300 years ago. Despite these criticisms, the reviewer gives the book a four-star rating for pointing out some of the issues in the modern understanding of evolution.

The book addresses some issues with evolutionary theory, such as the origin of life and the gradual evolution of the most primitive bacterial cell. However, the book should have addressed other important issues, such as the definition of life, the evolution of consciousness, and the whether consciousness had an evolutionary advantage.

The "Mysteries of the Origin of Animals" may be a good read for someone interested in a Jewish-Kabbalistic perspective, even when disagreeing with combining science and faith.

Interesting points made in this book about evolution /creation.
The problem being there's no definitive answer to these questions so you could literally argue this for the rest of time unless breakthroughs are made.
Definitely interesting points put forward though.

Surprisingly, the content is written like a story, instead of a scientific textbook. This makes it easy to float from chapter to chapter as each is full of discussions about the theories and conundrums about how life came to be. Even if you're not religious, it's still worth it to keep an open mind about the theological concepts mentioned when the author begins to dive into the link between the six-day Creation story and the scientific ~4 billion years old timeline of life. It's peculiar, now that it has been pointed out in detail, that biblical and scientific timelines of when life first emerged can align, with scary specificity. An interesting read, for sure.

Thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.