Short list
Theistic Evolution
Various authors
This 962-page book edited by J.P. Moreland, Stephen Meyer, Christopher Shaw, Ann Gauger, and Wayne Grudem is a tremendous achievement. Its bulk and $60 list price will overawe typical readers, but it’s a must-read for pastors and professors taken in by the well-funded BioLogos campaign to sell macroevolution to Christians. Thoughtful chapters by scholars and scientists show that Neo-Darwinism fails scientifically, with neither the fossil record nor genetics undermining the first two chapters of Genesis. Transitional ape-to-human fossils remain conspicuous by their absence, and humans and chimpanzees are not similar at the genetic level. We cannot worship both God and current science dogma.
Purpose & Desire
J. Scott Turner
Darwin’s House of Cards is a good gift for someone who already sees the weaknesses of macroevolution. Purpose & Desire is perfect for a Darwinist just starting to wonder whether he’s pledged allegiance to the modern version of the geocentric solar system: Hmm, the new data undermine it, but add an epicycle here, a few fixes there, and some tweaks on the fixes, maybe that will work. J. Scott Turner explains homeostasis, the incredible resiliency of living things seeking equilibrium, and raises questions about our essence with a measured tone that will entice scientific materialists to look in the mirror and wonder what they’re missing.
Zombie Science: More Icons of Evolution
Jonathan Wells
Jonathan Wells has fun zinging Darwinists in Zombie Science. If you’ve fallen for tree-of-life charts, embryo drawings that make us start off looking like little animals, or lectures on how eyes slowly evolved and how “god” (if there was one) botched the job, you’ve fallen for zombie science. The same goes if you applauded science illuminati who waxed on about “junk DNA” and thought “vestigial organs” had no purpose. Wells shows that much contemporary science teaching isn’t merely innocent error, because discredited evolutionary ideas keep coming back.
Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design
Ken Ham, Hugh Ross, Deborah B. Haarsma, and Stephen C. Meyer
Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design gives Ken Ham (young-earth creation), Hugh Ross (old-earth creation), Deborah Haarsma (theistic evolution), and Stephen Meyer (intelligent design) the opportunity to put their best feet forward, have the other three participants step on them, and then kick back, gently. The format works, and the result is a lively discussion that shows the sharp differences among the various positions. Editor J.B. Stump works for BioLogos but played fair and hopes the book will be “a first step that leads to some in-person interaction” down the road.
Comments
vantil
Posted: Wed, 11/29/2017 10:17 amThanks!
Green Olive Tree
Posted: Wed, 11/29/2017 12:16 pmAs mentioned in the above review, "Bethell concludes that 'the science of Darwinism amounts to little more than the "wedding" of materialism and Progress…'"
Right. This "wedding" is basically a kind of pantheism, which presupposes that: 1) there is no supernatural Creator outside of nature [naturalism or materialism]; and 2) one can find meaning in aligning with the principle behind nature, which is perceived to be evolutionary Progress.
Speculations about evolution in the past [macroevolution] are falsely called science, since the supposed events are not observable or repeatable. Hence the conflict about origins is not about science vs religion. What we are in is a spiritual conflict, according to Ephesians 6. In the context of discussions about origins, therefore, it's no surprise that the conflict is a religious one. Namely, a kind of pantheism vs Biblical Christianity.
RC
Posted: Wed, 11/29/2017 01:43 pmThe majority of the Darwinist claim, that in time, science will answer the unanswerable questions. But in reality exactly the opposite is happening. Scientific discovery is creating even wider holes.
Brendan Bossard
Posted: Thu, 11/30/2017 02:12 pmI program computers as a hobby. Computers may become superior to human beings at processing information according to instructions, but they will never be able to apply information creatively. I will take Kim Jong Un over Skynet any day.