We are witnessing an aggressive attack on the credibility of the Christian faith. Christians are increasingly called to embrace Darwinian evolution—or acknowledge that they are altogether opposed to science.
But for the contributors to this volume, this is a false premise. Committed to the authority of Scripture, the need for careful exegesis, and the importance of rigorous scientific investigation, these thirteen scientists and theologians offer valuable perspectives on a controversial area of debate for concerned Christians who are determined to draw their own conclusions.
“This is a most helpful compilation, which is designed to make one think very seriously about the whole issue of evolution and the Bible. To those who love the Scriptures, and seek to be faithful to them, this will prove enormously helpful.” —Rt. Rev. Wallace Benn
Table of Contents Foreword—Wayne Grudem Preface: A twenty-first-century challenge—Phil Hills 1. Evolution and the Church—Alistair Donald 2. The language of Genesis—Alistair McKitterick 3. Adam and Eve—Michael Reeves 4. The fall and death—Greg Haslam 5. Creation, redemption and eschatology—David Anderson 6. The nature and character of God—Andrew Sibley 7. Faith and creation—R. T. Kendall 8. Towards a science worthy of creatures in imago Dei—Steve Fuller 9. Interpretation of scientific evidence A. Homology—Norman Nevin B. The nature of the fossil record—Norman Nevin C. Chromosomal fusion and common ancestry—Geoff Barnard D. Information and thermodynamics—Andy McIntosh 10. Does the genome provide evidence for common ancestry?—Geoff Barnard 11. The origin of life: scientists play dice—John Walton Conclusion: Should Christians embrace evolution?—Phil Hills and Norman Nevin
Available: Now in stores! ISBN-13: 978-1-59638-230-5 List Price: $14.99 Sample Chapters
Zuma
-There should be space prior to the creation of this universe. It is rational to assume that the space before the creation of this universe should have existed in infinity before. As the space should have existed in infinity before the creation of this universe, it is rational to assume that something should have existed in infinity before that would have the potentiality to create the universe. Religious people, such as, Muslim, Christianity and Judaism, call it, God. As God should have existed in infinity before the creation of universe, nothing has created Him since He has existed in infinity before.
Jason Tannery
-Let’s assume that evolution could be true. As all animals and plants could be traced back to a common ancestor, the common ancestor must be one that has to be capable in asexual reproduction. The only living things that could be found to be asexual reproduction are archaea, bacteria, protists, algae and fungi. As all these living things are either micro-organisms or the selected plants instead of any other living things, it implies the common ancestor could be either micro-organism or the selected plants. There are a few queries have to be raised pertaining to the reliability of the source that has been used to support the evolution:
a)Biologists did successfully clone animals in the past and even to use the gene to improve the animals. However, what they clone, it just improves the living thing instead of modifying it into different kind of animals. If they would clone any animals, such as cow, they still produce cow at the end of the experiment without causing it to stream out into different kind of animal, such as giraffe or etc. Has there any experiment been performed in the past that could develop into a more complexity of animals, such as, from micro-organism to worm or fly or etc.? If none of the scientists have done the experiment successfully in converting micro-organism into a worm or fly or etc., other than merely a micro-organism, the evolutionary theory is simply a concept without being tested.
b)As the common ancestor could be micro-organism or a selected plant, it is simply without bone structure or could be one that could have either plant embryo or animal. As this common ancestor could be an algae or fungi or archaea or protists or etc., how could it be able to be developed into both plants and animals with complexity of bone structure? Did biologists perform the experiment successfully to convert any of these living things into a more complexity of animal, such as, worm or fly or etc.? Or else, the evolution theory is just a concept without being tested.
c)As this common ancestor could be either plant embryo or animal, how could it be able to stream out into plants as well as animals? Or in other words, how could this common ancestor be able to produce plant embryo as well as animal despite it was simply either micro-organism or plant? Did the biologists perform the experiment in the past successfully to cause micro-organism to be able to convert into both plants as well as animals with complexity of nature?
Refer to the website address http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant under the sub-title of ‘Evolution’. A proposed phylogenetic tree of Plantae has been drawn. There are a few queries pertaining to the reliability of the evolution tree:
There is a great work done in joining plants from one to another to determine the process of evolution. However, a query has to be raised whether the tree of evolution has been drawn through fixing the plants that ought to be there due to by comparing of feature of plants instead of through testing and observing the nature that these could occur. Let’s give you an illustration: From the chart, it could come to the conclusion that Chlorophyta was the predecessor right before the plants, i.e.Ulvophyoese, Cholrophyoese and Trebouxiophyoese. Did any biologists see or did perform experiment that Ulvophyoese could transform into Ulvophyoese, Cholrophyoese as well as Trebouxiophyoese in the past? If they did not do the experiment and just fixed them into the evolution tree due to the feature and/or the nature of these plants, it implies that there was no eye-witness or experiment did in the past to prove that Ulvophyoese could be able to evolve to Ulvophyoese, Cholrophyoese and Trebouxiophyoese.
Some biologists might comment that evolution tree might be done through thousands and thousands of individual bits of data–observations made in the real world, testable and repeatable by anyone who takes the time to look. Things like the shapes of bones and how they fit together, genetic sequences, behaviors, developmental sequences, shared features with fossil forms and so on. As they did not perform the test whether the plants or animals could be transformed in accordance to the evolution tree that has been drawn, there could be a possibility that the evolution could not be workable as what has been laid out in the evolution tree. Besides, the plants could have been created in the beginning with identical features and they were not the result of evolution.
Aaron Sellars
-I would love a copy of this book. Looks like a great read!
Craig Hurst
-I am VERY interested in reading this book this year! I plan to read the new book John Lennox is working on which should be interesting.
Dennis Yam
-If it is the World Magazine Book of the Year, then it must be read!
Chris Reese
-This looks like a fascinating book on a timely topic. I’m glad you’re exploring the issues of creation and evolution, faith and science. We need lots of good thinking on these issues to engage our culture and defend the intellectual viability of biblical Christianity.
Kevin Fiske
-Congrats on receiving WORLD’s Book of the Year award!! Looking at the book’s contents, this is undoubtedly a needed volume in the debate. I’m particularly interested in Grudem’s foreword along with the chapters by Walton and Reeves. Thanks so much for your generosity in giving away several copies!!
Blessings,
Kevin Fiske