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Review by Margaret Helder

A just-retired forensic scientist, Dr. Mark Sandercock, has written an amazing book on scripture, science and current attitudes and customs in our modern society and how these compare to biblical revelation. The book is written for all interested Christians, but especially for those who may have doubts about six-day creation and need a little encouragement.

This work is divided into three sections. The first deals with Genesis 1-11. The second section deals with the evolution paradigm and how this does not compare favourably with what we see in nature, or indeed in scripture. The third section deals with several popular practices which plague our society, and why these customs are allowed and encouraged today when former generations did not allow anything of the kind.

The objective of education, in general, is to equip upcoming generations to understand their place in society and how to contribute in a meaningful way to the well-being of that society. Christians go further. Each generation seeks to communicate with youngsters our relationship to God, and our relationship to people and the world in which we live. Christians therefore declare that an important part of our mandate as citizens and believers, is to make sure that we are informed about current events and issues such as science which can exert such a dramatic impact on society, especially today. Thus, we seek to acquiesce with, or speak out against, various important policies in government and society. Indeed, few issues today have fashioned the values of society as much as has scientific thinking and the philosophical implications thereof.

There is a reason why people walk down the street with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They want to find out the latest news! It is indeed true that everyone is curious and likes a good story, and especially the ending to a good story. Many stories however actually are never ending. They may start in a very simple fashion, but as time goes on, the details become more and more complicated.

Many stories or interpretations in science, for example, are like this. At first the idea is straightforward, but as more studies are conducted, the story becomes more difficult to follow. Consider, for example, Darwin’s proposals about evolution. He observed that individuals in a population of organisms differed in various small details. He then argued that those individuals which were better endowed, would be the ones to leave more offspring. This was the simple story that Darwin developed to explain evolution. There were many people who did not think that this scenario of changing proportions of traits in the population could explain the appearance of new body plans. The process might explain why there were more big or small individuals (or whatever) in the population, but it could not explain the appearance of new body plans (such as insect or fish) which require a lot of new information compared to that found in other kinds of creature. But no matter, Darwin’s scenario became the basis for evolution theory in the years to come.

Book Review by Margaret Helder

Dr. Gordon Wilson has written a nice new book, Darwin’s Sandcastle, for Christians who are not scientists but who desire to be informed, but not burdened with details concerning science and origins. Such people understand that they need to keep mentally alert concerning their worldview. This means not shutting themselves off from important topics like the foundations of Christian doctrine and history. The objective of many Christians therefore is to share their worldview with others and not become bowled over by contrary views. While most people do not specialize in science, they can at least familiarize themselves with the basic issues.

Book Review –
Darwin’s Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished
Reviewed by Margaret Helder

A project which has produced a delightful read on Darwin’s life, views and impact, began many years ago when an undergraduate student, out of curiosity, dipped into a new volume in his university library. This volume was the first in a lengthy series from Cambridge University Press. These volumes contained the correspondence, both to and from, of Charles Darwin. Thus hooked on these communications, Robert Shedinger, who was majoring in a general arts degree, began a 40 years long research project on Charles Darwin’s thoughts and actions. Astonished by what he found, Robert Shedinger now shares the results of his research. His book, Darwin’s Bluff, can’t fail to interest everyone.

The people who came to Creation Weekend, October 25 and 26, 2024 were greatly impressed by Dr. Kurt Wise’s passion, depth of information and quality of his arguments.  His topics ranged firstly from the nature of dinosaur fossils and what these tell us about their lives and fate, and secondly to God’s dealing with His Creation and how this impacts our estimates of the age of the universe, and thirdly how Christians can interact with our modern society. Specifically we have no need to introduce the reality of God to anyone because everyone actually already perceives the existence of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, whether they  admit it or not.