By John Blanchard
Evangelical Press 160 pages. £6.95
ISBN 0 85234 568 2
This is the latest addition to the author's 'popular Christian apologetics collection'. Clearly it is a resource for his itinerant ministry, but the question addressed is hardly new, and whether yet another response is needed is debatable. This one follows some well-worn paths, albeit in a racy style driven along by a cascade of references and quotations.
Chapter 1 gives a working definition of science, briefly indicates that the 'big five' world religions are not the same, and affirms evangelical Christianity. Chapter 2 refutes the claim, by those like Richard Dawkins, that science can explain everything (scientism). Chapter 3 looks at the limits of science. Chapter 4 focuses on Darwinism and macroevolution, and finds five 'huge flaws' in the widely accepted scenario. Chapter 5 examines the 'faith factor' in science, and concludes with discussion of the evidence for, and implications of, the resurrection of Jesus. Chapter 6 ('Lazy fatheads?') counters critical comments by atheist scientist Peter Atkins by pointing to many influential scientists past and present who were or are convinced Christians (of various shades). Chapter 7 affirms that the Bible's doctrine of creation is not only thoroughly consistent with the scientific endeavour, but also provides a conceptual basis for it, and concludes with some apologetics for God's revelation in creation, in the Bible and in Jesus Christ.
Much of this says the right things - but some key questions arise, and remain largely unanswered. For example: 'If macroevolution is so flawed scientifically, why is it still vigorously promoted by Dawkins et al.?' 'Don't some Christians affirm macroevolution as the scientific description of God's creative activity?' 'If macroevolution is to be rejected, how should we understand creation scientifically?' The space used for the appendix on Christian Science might have been better spent engaging with such questions.
If you have friends or colleagues who are beginning to think about 'God and science', you could do worse than give them this book. Whether or not you do is likely to depend on the extent to which you agree with the author's view of evolution, and his related strategy for apologetics.
Philip Duce,
Leicester
Author of Reading the mind of God: Interpretation in science and theology (Apollos, 1998)
