Customer Reviews

Man's Origin, Man's Destiny: A Critical Survey of the Principles of Evolution and Christianity

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A well argued book on the subject of man's beginnings. The book explains the extreme complexity of life and the dependence of the various systems on each other. He discusses relevant scientific issues that deal with the origins of life, such as overcoming the entropic forces of nature which prevent order from arising out of chaos. This is the first book I ever read on the subject and have recommended this book to many people.

I read the other review on the book and the writer makes a ludicrous, broad sweeping statement as a point of criticism of the book as follows:

"He failed to make me see this, due to Christianity's many internal contradictions and its failure to correlate with scientifically observable reality. A worthwhile contribution to the debate on Christianity's relevance to the real world."

The book is one of the bests on the topic.

Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith (1915-1995) was an organic-chemist, humanitarian, lecturer and an author on young earth creationism. He also wrote books such as The Creation of Life: A Cybernetic Approach to Evolution, He Who Thinks Has to Believe, The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution, The Scientific Alternative to Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory: Information Sources and Structures, etc.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1968 book, "In the following text I have examined some of the possibilities open to us to explain the origin of man. I have also endeavored to look at the thought concept behind our creation---what God intended in making us. For this reason I have referred to both science and to the Bible in an attempt to arrive at a balanced view on the creation and the meaning of life."

Here are some quotations from the book (NOTE: page numbers refer to the 320-page 1968 Harold Shaw edition):

"...one could never assume, if one took the Bible as the only source of information, that all species or kinds are absolutely constant. The reason for this statement is, of course, that the Bible account recognizes that Adam's species of man gave rise, after Noah, to the various ethnic strains of man, that is, the Semitic, the Hamitic (black or colored) races and the other white races." (Pg. 36)
"The fundamental problem ... is that of building a protein metabolic motor to support life before life was present to build it. The motor has to be built under the choking restriction ... that it must have been built by chance in a nonliving medium by chemical evolution." (Pg. 61)
"How then does the thinking creationist visualize the synthesis of life from nonlinving matter if he rejects the Darwinian postulates? What has he as a scientist to replace the evolutionary concept? Such a question is a perfectly fair one which is being asked the creationists, who have, up to present, only blandly repeated that creation replaces evolution. This can amount to obscurantism and begging the question on the part of the creationist." (Pg. 77)
"Fine clear tracks of dinosaurs, brontosaurs and also probably of tyrannosaurs have been found in the Paluxy Riverbed near Glen Rose, Texas." (Pg. 135)
"But can one follow the logic of one who, on the ground of the horrible suffering all around him, maintains that there can be no reason for allowing it simply because he can find no reason?" (Pg. 217)
"The question here is whether gthe heathen who has never ever heard of the name of Christ is not in a similar position to our hypothetical baby. In the nature of things, such a heathen could not make any conscious decision on Christ, he does not know what to decide about. No one has ever told him. Can such a one be damned forever with hellfire because he is really in no better position to save himself by turning consciously to Christ than the small baby was? I believe it would be unthinkable that the God of heaven and earth, who will do right, would ever act this way." (Pg. 265-266)

To understand Wilder-Smith's ability to produce such a profound spiritual change, it's necessary to understand my personal background. Although I was the grandson of a Protestant pastor, I decided (at the age of 9) that I was an atheist. Reading "Man's origin, man's destiny" helped me to change again from atheism to agnosticism.

In the first part of the book, (entitled "Man's Origin") Wilder-Smith uses powerful scientific arguments to show that the idea of a God makes sense. His use of the law of entropy (the second law of thermodynamics) made the most impression on me, even though I hadn't yet met this law in my educational studies. This was the part of the book that made me shift from atheism to agnosticism.

In the second half of the book (entitled "Man's Destiny"), Wilder-Smith tries to convince the reader that the ideas of Adam and Eve, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and the whole of Christianity makes sense. He failed to make me see this, due to Christianity's many internal contradictions and its failure to correlate with scientifically observable reality. A worthwhile contribution to the debate on Christianity's relevance to the real world.

This book was recommended to me by a friend as an "alternative to Darwinism", so I bought it. It was disappointing!

The first chapter at least made some sense: As (to my knowledge) nobody has yet managed to create self replicating molecules, the real start of life is still clouded, so there is at least an argument, that this needed a creator. ( I personally find even this unconvincing - and the author himself later on admits, that we might find a way..., but at least it is an argument...!)

Then it becomes more and more ridiculous: The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is completely misunderstood / misapplied by him. ( This seems coomon with these type of people, but he is a bit extreme....!
I cannot believe, that Dr. Wilder-Smith with all his degrees would so misunderstand this law - was he trying to misguide his readership?). He claims, that Darwinism simply cotradicts this law! If this was so, would any scientist think Darwinism was correct - or is Dr. Wilder-Smith the only one who understands it?

The last part of the book seems to be an attempt to explain everything with the literal words of the Bible, I believe, even normal Christians would have problems following his ideas to that extend. ( Incest of Adam & Eve's children.....)

Overall, the book is simply silly!