A book by two Hungarian ISKCON devotees, Isvara Krishna Dasa and Bhagavat Priya Dasa, has been chosen as a Finalist in 2009’s National “Best Books” Awards, sponsored by USABookNews.com.

Nature’s IQ: Extraordinary Animal Behaviors that Defy Evolution finished as one of two finalists in the Science category, just missing out on the top spot to winner Robert L. Piccioni, with his book Everyone’s Guide to Atoms, Einstein, and the Universe.

Released in the US in April 2009 by Torchlight Publishing, Nature’s IQ was among 500 winners and finalists in over 140 categories.

The nomination, announced on October 20th, 2009, was an honor and boost of recognition for Nature’s IQ, as the “Best Books” Awards is one of the largest mainstream book award competitions in the United States.

However, Isvara Krishna and Bhagavat Priya are no strangers to appreciation for their book. Since it was released in the US last year, Nature’s IQ has garnered many glowing reviews from scientists, authors, professors, and newspaper reporters. And upon its Hungarian release back in 2002, it attracted plenty of media attention, both positive and negative, including a write-up in Hungarian Science, one of the country’s leading scientific journals.

Featuring 200 vivid color photographs, Nature’s IQ presents one hundred of the most amazing instinctive behaviors in the animal kingdom. Often highly complex, these behaviors are successful only if all elements in the chain are simultaneously present—any go missing, and the behavior is useless. The authors thus logically conclude that such animal conducts probably did not evolve over a long period of time, but appeared as a whole. This is their distinctly anti-Darwin take on life’s origin, backed up by the ancient Vaishnava perspective.

The examples in Nature’s IQ also point to a higher intelligence guiding every living being. In fact, the authors say that their research has strengthened their own conviction in this intelligence, known in Vaishnava philosophy as Paramatma, or the Supersoul.

Nature’s IQ, explains Torchlight Publishing’s Dharmasetu Dasa, invites us to investigate an alternative explanation, and the possibility that a supernatural intelligence has applied its own infinite genius to create living beings and the world around us.

“Darwinism will probably always remain on the stage,” admits author Isvara Krishna Dasa. “We cannot control that. But we will continue to inform others about its weaknesses, and about the other choices they can make.”

For more information, please visit www.naturesiq.com or www.torchlight.com, or pick up the November/December issue of Back to Godhead magazine.