Counterpoints/three Views On Creation And Evolution (Paperback)

The creation myth that exists in the Genesis is a variation of a Sumerian myth. An informative article on the Eden story can be found here :

http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/

another good site for information:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/index.htm

Think! Use your brain! Use reason, logic! Don't let yourself get caught in the fallacy of creationism. It is senseless to willfully throw yourself into believing the myths of the ancients. They created the stories because they had no real way to evaluate the world around them except to claim that unseen deities "created the world" with their "powers". Every religion and every culture has a creation myth. Logic tells you that these are untrue, stories created to explain what ancient men were unable to understand. Now in the present there are pseudo-scientists insisting that one of these ancient myths contains actual, verifiable truth. They are either themselves decieved, or THEY ARE LYING. You have to decide for yourself. If you read this book, I am positive that you will see through the fallicious thinking and the extreme stretches of reality. The authors are attempting to lead their readers down a path of ignorance using a fairy tale as a textbook.

Do not fall for their ploy...Use your mind!

this is a first book, that is suitable for educated people to delve into a topic where many of the other books in this field/topic presume a background in either science or theology, or where the books are so stridently biased as to be "preaching to the choir" and put off 'newbies' with their presentation.

the issues are presented well enough that i think if someone finishes the book they will have a reasonable idea of what the problems are and where the different parts are most concerned in the discussion. it is not a scientific or theologically based book but rather philosophic. it presents concerns from each viewpoint, thus showing relative priorities in what each person discusses first and critisies as lacking emphasis in the other viewpoints. this is one value in a debate type of format, it can leave you with a prioritized idea of what people find important in the issues.

one problem however with this debate framework is that each person reading the book who already have committments to issues or positions tend to cheer for their side and boo down the opposing sides. this is evident from the reviews posted here, the young earth creation team is not the big names in the field, so it looks like in suffers from lack of heroes. nay, the two philosophers defend the position well given the page constraints they faced.

there is one issue running through the book i wished everyone had addressed in a more explicit matter, that is the difference in accepting the functional materialism of science versus the uncritical acceptance of a materialist world and life view of scientism. there is much confusion between the two, you can see it in much YEC criticism, in this book as well, of both progressive creationism and theistic evolution. naturalism is the idea that what we see is what we get, no god's behind the curtain, no skyhooks to come down and rescue us. there must be a distinction between how science uses this idea as a working hypothesis, as a functional means to an end, versus how a philosophy uses it as an axiom. of the 3 viewpoints, only vantil talks to the separation of the two. the YEC's fault the other two positions as if they accepted the materialism/naturalism as a deep committment in their systems. which as christian's is simply unacceptable from the beginning.

i liked the book. i think if you need a place to start it supplies one. however if you are already committed to a position you would be better off served by jumping straight to one of the major works in each viewpoint. and interact with that author without the polemics that form the debate structure of the book.