More than Myth?: Seeking the Full Truth about Genesis, Creation, and Evolution

I am well read in the creation, evolution and intelligent design debate. I’ve also seen many times over what denying the historical reality of Adam and his sin can do to the faith practice of believers. Who is man and where did he come from! Will we ever tire of asking these questions? Of course not, they are the foundation of worldviews and important decisions, both personal and political.These authors have done a marvelous job of reviewing and summarizing the theological and scientific issues around Adam and macro-evolution. There is much original material contained therein such that the book sheds light on many issues not discussed in public view. The authors have the courage to articulate a middle position between creationism and theistic (or atheistic) evolution which is called progressive creationism. The word creationism in the phrase progressive creationism will have a different meaning for different theorists and readers. Like intelligent design theory, the tent is large. Those not familiar with PC will be uncomfortable at times when reading this book because it challenges what we think we know. The evidence of progressive creation and God’s ongoing interaction with his creation is as strong as the other positions that denigrate it and it needs to get a fair hearing. Those who want to shut down the debate do us no favors. Perhaps some TE’s and creationists will say harsh things against it but you should judge for yourselves. I believe this book, More than Myth? is an important, timely and well-presented contribution to the debate.I also believe that this book will bring comfort and joy to believers, especially those without a stake in the ground as either a TE or a seven literal day creationist. This book treats both with respect and simply asks them to consider the evidence for God having revealed himself in both nature and scripture in a progressive way.Being a Catholic, I particularly enjoyed the chapters by Dr. Robert Stackpole and Fr. Michael Chaberek. Stackpole ably defends classical Christian understanding about creation, Adam and original sin against the new creation story that is based on Neo-Darwinian theories of macro-evolution. He outlines a day-age progressive creationist viewpoint that he argues is faithful to scripture and the classical approach to Genesis as well as the scientific knowledge of the day. He sums up saying that “Perhaps He wanted a creation that left fingerprints of the kind of God He truly is: the God who displays his power and is also not far from any one of us.”Fr. Chaberek is also the author of Catholicism and Evolution, a recent book that lays out the history of the Catholic Churches consideration of Darwin’s theory. Like his chapter herein, that book is well written and an important contribution to the debate in Catholic circles. In More than Myth, he discusses the origin of theistic evolution and some philosophical and scientific problems with it summing up his chapter saying “…the vague assertion that God could have used evolution is not the final solution to this important issue.”I’m also a big fan of Casey Luskin from the Discovery Institute who wrote the first chapter entitled “The Top Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution” – well done.As a final note, I believe everyone who reads this book will take issue with more than one point of view expressed therein as there are seven writers represented with each tackling difficult controversial topics. In my case it is the views expressed about Neanderthal man on page 83 by one of the other authors. But that writer has a right to present them along with his evidence for same. I suspect his viewpoint on that may not even be shared by all his fellow authors.Bottom line, I highly recommend that you add this book to your must-read list.

The seven contributors to this book are advocates of either Progressive Creation, Intelligent Design, or Catholic theology regarding creation. One thing that they all have in common is rejection of the belief of young earth creationists regarding the age of the earth. That is, whether explicitly or implicitly, they all believe in the chronology espoused by evolutionists - that is, an age for the universe of about 14 billion years, for the earth of about 4.6 billion years, and for life about 3.5 billion years. Another belief that they share, and this is primarily implicit because it is hardly ever mentioned in the book, is rejection of a world-wide flood and general acceptance of the evolutionist's explanation for the fossil record. What they totally overlook is the intimate relationship between the 3 issues just referred to: the age of the earth, the truth about the Genesis Flood and the fossil record. Here is what they have missed: If the Genesis Flood was actually world-wide in scope, it, rather than the evolutionist's explanation, would be the cause of the fossil record. If this was so, an essential cornerstone of the evolutionist's chronology concerning the age of the earth would be completely shattered. And if this was so, the chronology itself would also be shattered (destroy the foundation and the building collapses). I could go into great detail about all of the errors in this book, but I will simply say that they all stem from the authors' failure to accept the world-wide scope of the Genesis Flood. This failure is like a deadly virus that poisons their thoughts about this subject and blinds them to the full truth about God's creation. Ultimately, their problem is failure to accept the plain truth of God's Word. To see exactly what I mean here, read Genesis 7:17-24 and answer this question: Do these verses REALLY appear to be describing a LOCAL flood?

book came as described in good time. Yhanks