Book Reviews on the Creation Evolution Issue

Michael J. Penfold

Perhaps the most powerful and influential book exposing evolution ever written is Evolution a Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton. It is a 350 page broadside against Darwinism and discusses everything from fossils to gene mutation. What makes it so powerful is the fact that it was not written by a creationist (Michael Denton is an agnostic).

 

One man who read Denton was the Berkeley lawyer Phillip Johnson. He then wrote Darwin On Trial, which as well as being easier to read book than Denton’s book, captured a much wider audience. Johnson waged a war on scientific naturalism for 20 or more years and founded what is known as the intelligent design movement (which was advocated by President Bush in August 2005). He wrote a cut down version of his book in 1997, calling it Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds.

 

Another scientist who felt the impact of Michael Denton’s book was Michael Behe. Behe, a professor of biochemistry, had never questioned the evolution paradigm until reading Denton’s book. Once his eyes were opened to the problems with Darwinism, Behe set to writing his own book called Darwin’s Black Box, published by secular publisher Simon & Schuster. It was a publishing sensation, introducing a new expression to the world – ‘irreducible complexity’. Behe successfully proved in his lucid work that they are many systems in nature, including the famous bacterial flagellum, that could not have been formed by successive slight modifications, as proposed in the gradual Darwinian model.

 

Another leading member of the intelligent design movement is Jonathan Wells. Wells holds Ph.D.s from both Yale and Berkeley. He put out a tremendously enlightening book called Icons of Evolution, in which he looks at the 10 most famous so-called proofs for evolution and shows them to be either flawed or fraudulent. He examines science textbook after science textbook to prove that they contain lies, misinformation and unscientific data on the origin of life, species and fossils.

 

The world’s leading Darwinist for the last two decades of the 20^th Century and into the 21^st Century is Richard Dawkins of Oxford. For years his clever books (Selfish Gene, Blind Watchmaker etc.) have been hoodwinking millions into believing that all is well with the Darwinian hypothesis. Until 2005 no book-length refutation of Dawkins’ prejudiced nonsense existed. However, Alister McGrath has stepped up to the plate with his devastating critique Dawkins’ God. Though McGrath is a theistic evolutionist, in a curious way that makes his book all the harder for evolutionists to refute. His examination of Dawkins’ ridiculous meme theory is especially enjoyable.

 

Another tremendous title in the ever growing body of anti-Darwinian literature is The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. Strobel was an angry atheist and one time legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. After his conversion to Christ he wrote The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith. His new book on creation is a fascinating and enthralling read. The chapter on DNA is a real eye opener.

 

On the more populist level, another converted atheist, free-lance writer James Perloff has written two unique titles. Tornado in a Junkyard is a 300 page user-friendly and lavishly illustrated critique of all things Darwinian. Perloff’s other work, The Case Against Darwin, is a cut-down 80 page version of his earlier work and serves as a great starter book for questioning Darwinism in general.

 

We stock a large number of titles from the young earth Answers In Genesis camp (we take a young earth position). Probably the best title in their range is The Answers Book by four creationist writers. It takes the 20 most asked questions about the creation/evolution controversy and provides solid Biblical and scientific answers. One of its authors, Jonathan Sarfati, came out with a book in 2004 called Refuting Compromise. It is a 400 page refutation of the progressive creationist views of Hugh Ross. For any evangelical struggling with the question of the age of the earth, the extent of Noah’s flood and the place of dinosaurs in the Christian worldview, this is a very helpful book.

 

One of the newer creationist writers is Stuart Burgess, head of department at Bristol University, England. His best title, which contains a good deal of original research, is The Origin of Man, a title which successfully sets out to show the huge unbridgeable gap between humans and apes.

 

For those looking for DVDs on this subject, there are four special ones that deserve a mention. Unlocking the Mystery of Life is probably the most effective creation video ever produced. A group of intelligent design scientists explore the DNA in cells and conclude that design is scientifically detectable. The Privileged Planet proves that the earth’s situation and constitution cannot have happened by chance but must have been designed. A Question of Origins tackles the whole subject of evolution from the Cambrian explosion to the origin of life and makes a powerful case for creation. The Hearing Ear features Dr. David Menton giving an amazing presentation on the wonder and delicacy of the hearing and seeing systems in the human body – which demand a creation and defy evolution.

 

Penfold Book & Bible House Ltd. stocks dozens of books and DVDs on the creation evolution issue, so take a good look around and make your selections today!