Exploring the species

LIFE’S STORY 2 (DVD and booklet)

Written & produced by Mark Haville

NPN Videos — available from http://www.christianvideos.co.uk

Running time: 143 mins

£50.00 for 20 DVDs + 1 booklet — discounts for quantity

I refused to buy Darwin first class stamps the other day! He is everywhere, and I find the unthinking acceptance of Darwin quite maddening. Let’s hope this is the high tide of secularism. To help make that possible, here is a useful resource worth giving to your neighbour and showing to your youth group.

Our youth group watched the first LIFE’S STORY DVD spellbound. This is Mark Haville’s second DVD on creation and evolution. While he didn’t have the BBC’s budget, the quality is remarkably good, with some high quality filming, much of it done by Haville and friends. (Was that Martin Jarvis doing the voice over? No, but Nick Jackson is a dead ringer!) On this DVD, over 13 sections, a wide variety of different species are explored. The first half covers marine life in the Red Sea and Malta; the second visits African game reserves. The footage of clown fish living in anemones and of turtles migrating were stunning, most of all because the design built into their existence defies secular explanations. Many claims are made which I would like to see developed for a more scientifically sophisticated audience. In particular, I would like to know from a geneticist whether the claim of the first DVD can be substantiated, that we know that DNA has its own built-in system to weed out genetic mutations so that evolution from one species to another is impossible. If that is the case, why haven’t we been told?

This DVD might have been usable in schools if it decided purely to stick to an apologetic theme. Instead, Mark weaves in an explicitly evangelistic theme which will limit its impact in the education sector. Rather tenuous applications are made at times: e.g. ‘The Kudu can see through the spiral shape of its horns to the tip, enabling him to point the tip of his horns precisely. Like the kudu, we need to see through the twists of life to see the point of it all.’

Overall, I wouldn’t use this to reach the science community, but do give it to Joe Public.

Jim Sayers, Grace Baptist Mission