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The selfless gene

Living with God and Darwn

Christian contortionist

THE SELFLESS GENE
Living with God and Darwin
By Charles Foster
Hodder & Stoughton. 270 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978-0-34096-436-1

The book is written largely at a popular level, looking at two rival ideologies, Neodarwinists and Young Earth Creationism. The evolutionary process of natural selection is first introduced, followed by a chapter entitled, ‘Who’s right? Evidence and the lack of it’. Later chapters focus on what he sees as the real issue; the ethical implications of natural selection.

The author claims to be neither a professional scientist nor theologian but a professional assessor of evidence, a barrister. Creationism ‘has inoculated a whole generation against Christianity’. ‘… The principal casualty is the intellectual credibility of Christianity.’ These are serious charges and the reader would expect to settle down to a critical examination of the evidence from both the prosecution and the defence.

Perusal of the acknowledgements and bibliography show he has drawn evidence from those of Theistic Evolution persuasion, but not engaged with the technical literature based on the Creation model. He has consulted Lee Strobel’s book The Case for a Creator, which is at a popular level, and so must be aware of some of the people researching this issue. However, there are no references made, for example, to work at the Center for Origins Research, the RATE project, Journal of Creation (CMI), Origins (UK), or the Wort und Wissen Group in Germany. Not a promising start! The author claims that there is no conflict between science and the Christian faith if both are properly understood. But let me quote some of his conclusions:

‘God entered the evolutionary chain, and was ultimately a victim of it’;
‘Man’s disobedience did not explain suffering and death in the natural world’;
‘The post-fall Adam looked more like God than the pre-fall Adam. The image of God in Adam was enhanced.’

To me, the reading of this book was a salutary reminder of the ways people must contort the biblical doctrines to reconcile evolutionary interpretations of science with Scripture. There is a growing technical literature from creationists interpreting scientific evidence within a biblical framework. Authors need to engage with this evidence; read, evaluate and critique it, if necessary.

The average church member would be better informed by reading Debating Darwin — Two Debates: Is Darwinism True, and Does It Matter? by Finlay, Lloyd, and Pattemore, (Paternoster, 2009), which gives arguments from authors on both sides of the creation-evolution debate.

Dr. Nancy Darrall