MAPPING THE ORIGINS DEBATE
Six Models of the Beginning of Everything
By Gerald Rau
IVP Academic. 236 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 844 746 163
I have been disappointed with so many Christian books on the origins debate that I was prepared not to like this one either, but the author managed to completely confound my expectations. Gerald Rau sets out to present in as objective a manner as possible the full spectrum of models — from naturalistic evolution to young-earth creationism — and to demonstrate in each case how our religious and philosophical presuppositions affect the way in which we interpret the scientific evidence.
Rau contends that any successful model of origins must provide a consistent explanation for four things: the origin of the universe, life, species and humans. He devotes a chapter to each topic, laying out the evidence that must be explained, how each model interprets the evidence and why it matters. It is clear from these chapters how hard it is to even describe the evidence in a neutral manner. Terminology is often model-driven (e.g. labelling a fossil ‘transitional’ already implies a certain conclusion). Generally, though, the author does a good job and makes the important point that ‘data that may appear inconsequential from one vantage point may appear very important from another’ (p.102).
