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It Couldn't Just Happen: Fascinating Facts About God's World
Presents biblical and scientific evidence that the natural world was created by God rather than through evolution
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1987
173 people are currently reading
455 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence O. Richards
233 books30 followersB.A., University of Michigan; Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Northwestern University
A native of Michigan, Richards entered the world on September 25, 1931, to faith-affirming parents. His father served as an elder in their Presbyterian church, and Richards grew up immersed in religious education classes. However, he lost his interest in religion, later decided to enroll at Antioch College, and lacking any guiding factor in his life, he enlisted in the Navy.
Stationed in New York City, Richards encountered Donald Grey Barnhouse who led him to rededicate his life to the Lord. This forever changed Richards who finished his Navy time and went back to school to receive his bacherlor's degree in philosophy. After getting married, Richards attended Dallas Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1962. Moving to Illinois he worked as an editor for Scripture Press Publications and as an associate pastor. His role of overseeing the church education program and teaching a Bible class concerned him. Richards believed that Christian education, practice, and theory needed to be changed and reevaluated.
While teaching as an Assistant Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton College Graduate School, Richards also applied himself to Ph.D. studies. His dissertation research provided him with the framework for his Sunday School PLUS curriculum, and a summer seminar with Wheaton faculty resulted in a book called A New Face for the Church. The impact of this book led Richards to become a full-time author and speaker at conventions and seminars. A prolific writer, Richards has penned over 200 works with much of his writing having been translated into 24 languages.
With his emphasis on the theory of Christian education, Richards has created many changes in the church environment, but he also has taken some criticism. As a researcher and writer, Richards hasn't put his theories to the test in the church or the classroom as he once did. Some practitioners have disagreed with his ideas based on their troubles implementing them. However, other people have found that Richards has found a way to teach Bible content productively, and his approach to teaching Sunday school is the one most used by curriculum publishers.
Currently Larry, who is a member of the International Society of Deliverance Ministers, writes on biblical demonology on the blog www.demondope.com. He conducts FREEDOM WORKSHOPS in churches and communities around the country. These workshops and any personal ministry are offered at no charge to individuals and to sponsoring groups.
A native of Michigan, Richards entered the world on September 25, 1931, to faith-affirming parents. His father served as an elder in their Presbyterian church, and Richards grew up immersed in religious education classes. However, he lost his interest in religion, later decided to enroll at Antioch College, and lacking any guiding factor in his life, he enlisted in the Navy.
Stationed in New York City, Richards encountered Donald Grey Barnhouse who led him to rededicate his life to the Lord. This forever changed Richards who finished his Navy time and went back to school to receive his bacherlor's degree in philosophy. After getting married, Richards attended Dallas Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1962. Moving to Illinois he worked as an editor for Scripture Press Publications and as an associate pastor. His role of overseeing the church education program and teaching a Bible class concerned him. Richards believed that Christian education, practice, and theory needed to be changed and reevaluated.
While teaching as an Assistant Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton College Graduate School, Richards also applied himself to Ph.D. studies. His dissertation research provided him with the framework for his Sunday School PLUS curriculum, and a summer seminar with Wheaton faculty resulted in a book called A New Face for the Church. The impact of this book led Richards to become a full-time author and speaker at conventions and seminars. A prolific writer, Richards has penned over 200 works with much of his writing having been translated into 24 languages.
With his emphasis on the theory of Christian education, Richards has created many changes in the church environment, but he also has taken some criticism. As a researcher and writer, Richards hasn't put his theories to the test in the church or the classroom as he once did. Some practitioners have disagreed with his ideas based on their troubles implementing them. However, other people have found that Richards has found a way to teach Bible content productively, and his approach to teaching Sunday school is the one most used by curriculum publishers.
Currently Larry, who is a member of the International Society of Deliverance Ministers, writes on biblical demonology on the blog www.demondope.com. He conducts FREEDOM WORKSHOPS in churches and communities around the country. These workshops and any personal ministry are offered at no charge to individuals and to sponsoring groups.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
January 16, 2016
I've just found this book for $2, so I've ordered it. Mad or what? LOL. It was the 'warmth' of the reviews that got me going.
Directions for reading the reviews on this book:
1. Find a long scarf.
2. Tie it around your jaw in a knot - or a bow - on top of your head.
3. Put down your coffee, but nowhere near your foot, knee or elbow.
4. Find the Goodreads reviews of this book.
Now you may read the reviews without danger of catching flies, spilling, snorking sniggering or laughing loudly in a vulgar and certainly incredulous fashion.
Directions for reading the reviews on this book:
1. Find a long scarf.
2. Tie it around your jaw in a knot - or a bow - on top of your head.
3. Put down your coffee, but nowhere near your foot, knee or elbow.
4. Find the Goodreads reviews of this book.
Now you may read the reviews without danger of catching flies, spilling, snorking sniggering or laughing loudly in a vulgar and certainly incredulous fashion.
November 13, 2014
The first question many of my friends will ask is, "Why on earth did you read this, Thom?" To that I will answer that the creation-evolution "debate" has been central to my life since I brought home the Time-Life book on human evolution from the Decatur public library, and my parents explained to me that it was all lies because it contradicted their literal reading of the Bible. To them, as to the author of this book, you must take all of the Bible literally if you are to take any of the Bible seriously. And, just like this author, they posed what should have been a nuanced question in the terms of a dichotomous false choice: either God made the universe just like it says in Genesis chapter 1, or it "just happened." (More on my problems with that false choice below.) The resulting dilemma lead me to study biology and religion in college, where I was convinced of the truth of biological evolution and the absurdity of reading the Bible as a science textbook (if not of reading the Bible, period).
The book begins with some fairly tame observations about the apparent oddness of our world, in terms of its seeming "fine-tunedness" for the existence of life. Some have speculated that this implies the existence of a fine-tuner; others that there is some sort of "anthropic principle" built into the fabric of the cosmos; and still others that this simply means that the puddle that formed in a crack in the sidewalk is astonished to find that the crack was "perfectly tuned" to form that particular puddle.
Then the author goes on to remind readers that scientists are human beings, with biases and cognitive filters, and that oftentimes what is regarded as "scientific truth" to one generation is later revealed to be hogwash thanks to further exploration and experimentation. Again, by itself, this would be a welcome reminder to scientists and the rest of us to be a bit more humble in our pronouncements about "truth with a capital T"; in this case, though, the intention isn't to inspire humility but to sow doubt about the methods and conclusions of science.
As the book proceeds, this intention becomes increasingly apparent, at about the same rate as that at which the absurdities mount. On p. 81, in one of the end-of-chapter "Just For Fun" exercises, the author says, "If someone wants to know why you think Evolution cannot have happened in the plant or animal world, ask him to read [a book refuting evolution by a Bible publisher]," as if handing someone a book is the same as explaining your own thoughts on a subject. (But when you're used to mindlessly parroting "The Book," or more accurately, your pastor's reading of "The Book," this is standard operating procedure.)
The author asks for evidence of "transitional species," but when presented with a pretty clear case of one in the form of Archaeopteryx, the author denies that its hybrid reptile-bird characteristics provide the evidence he seeks. It was "definitely a bird," he asserts, that just happened to have a lot of reptilian qualities. (Why wasn't it "definitely" a reptile with a lot of bird qualities? And what does the author base his "definitive" opinion upon, other than inference, which he elsewhere condemns biologists for using in lieu of evidence?) What he wants to see, in terms of transitional species, is a fossil that captures the transition in process, which is as absurd as wanting to watch a film by looking at a single photograph. A more accurate assessment of the fossil record is that it is like a comic strip in which many panels are missing. You can infer the change from the arrangement of the panels, while the absence of many panels makes those inferences challenging and tentative.
Then the author goes off the rails completely, and reveals that he doesn't actually understand the science involved at all when he explains that homology is not good evidence for biological evolution. He argues that homology is simply evidence of a basic plan that is expressed in many variations; so, for example, the fins of an icthyosaur, a shark, and a dolphin are all similar, and thus are all varying expressions of this "basic plan." But in stating this, the author clearly confuses homology with analogy; homology is where the same anatomical structures have been modified for different functions, as in the human hand, whale flipper, and bat wing, whereas analogy suggests precisely the opposite: a similar function arrived at from different anatomical structures, as in the pectoral fins of icthyosaurs, sharks, and dolphins, which have radically different anatomies. The similarity, for biologists, is explained by the phenomenon of convergent evolution, in which similar environmental constraints lead different structures to arrive at similar forms and functions. Of course, the author has to mock college zoologists at the end of the same chapter, apparently because those stupid zoologists try to understand their subject matter and teach it to their students!
I don't have the time or energy to provide a point-by-point rebuttal to the author's ignorance of the biological sciences ("Here's the Proof!"). Instead, I want to return to the false choice with which I opened this review—that either God created the world or it "just happened." (I won't belabor my wife's point that the explanatory difference between "it just happened" and "God did it" is effectively zero.) The author's book is an exercise in what used to be called "natural theology," which is an attempt to prove that the universe had an intelligent designer by examining that designer's alleged handiwork. To my way of thinking, Scottish Enlightenment thinker David Hume effectively neutralized the efforts of natural theology in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion . He (or rather one of his characters in the dialogue) points out that "it's either God or an accident" is a false choice which he takes to result from a failure of the imagination—why, he asks, couldn't the universe be the literal child of a previous universe, hatched from a cosmic egg, or a structure built by a presumably unintelligent designer, much as a web is made by a spider without that spider having studied engineering in college. (Of course, the author would cite eggs and spider webs as further evidence of a designer, but that simply begs the question.) Modern readers could also invoke alternate explanations of causality and "creation" like Prigogine's dissipative structures, Maturana and Varela's autopoiesis, and the Buddhist notion of Pratītyasamutpāda. One of Hume's characters then asserts that, if we're using the universe as evidence for the existence of God, the presence of so much suffering and death in the world certainly argues against an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent creator. (There are entire libraries of Christian theology that wrestle with this problem, which is known as the "argument from suffering.")
But let's set Hume aside and assume that the author is right, and that the natural world shows evidence of an intelligent designer. Nothing in the natural world supports the contention that this intelligent designer is the God of the Abrahamic faiths (and, in fact, the argument from suffering provides some good challenges to that contention). To prove that the author reverts to "revealed theology," which takes us fully outside the realm of science and back to faith. He "proves" that the Bible is absolutely true because of the 100% accuracy rate of Biblical prophecy, and he arrives at this accuracy rate by forcing prophecies and fulfillments in a Procrustean bed where all the inconvenient, erm, inaccuracies get unceremoniously lopped off. (For example, the Hebrew bible does not predict a virgin birth, because the Hebrew word used is "maiden" rather than "virgin," and it certainly failed in its prediction that the messiah would be a king in the line of David, unless we radically redefine what we mean by king, which is what the apologists do. Again, you can believe those mutilated predictions if you want, but you can't credibly cite them as "evidence.")
In short, if you want to drive your kids away from your faith, share this book with them and insist that they believe it 100%. They will realize, like I did, that the choice with which they are presented leaves them with only two alternatives: (1) believe in God and reject science, or (2) believe in science and reject God. The dumb kids will stay in the faith, the smarter ones will leave, and the lucky ones may stumble onto the vast middle ground between those two options (perhaps by studying biology and religion in college). And as science demonstrates its explanatory power by, well, explaining things, that choice will become clearer and clearer, if not any easier or less painful. This book, and many others like it, will create more atheists that Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris could ever dream to create. And that needn't be the case.
The book begins with some fairly tame observations about the apparent oddness of our world, in terms of its seeming "fine-tunedness" for the existence of life. Some have speculated that this implies the existence of a fine-tuner; others that there is some sort of "anthropic principle" built into the fabric of the cosmos; and still others that this simply means that the puddle that formed in a crack in the sidewalk is astonished to find that the crack was "perfectly tuned" to form that particular puddle.
Then the author goes on to remind readers that scientists are human beings, with biases and cognitive filters, and that oftentimes what is regarded as "scientific truth" to one generation is later revealed to be hogwash thanks to further exploration and experimentation. Again, by itself, this would be a welcome reminder to scientists and the rest of us to be a bit more humble in our pronouncements about "truth with a capital T"; in this case, though, the intention isn't to inspire humility but to sow doubt about the methods and conclusions of science.
As the book proceeds, this intention becomes increasingly apparent, at about the same rate as that at which the absurdities mount. On p. 81, in one of the end-of-chapter "Just For Fun" exercises, the author says, "If someone wants to know why you think Evolution cannot have happened in the plant or animal world, ask him to read [a book refuting evolution by a Bible publisher]," as if handing someone a book is the same as explaining your own thoughts on a subject. (But when you're used to mindlessly parroting "The Book," or more accurately, your pastor's reading of "The Book," this is standard operating procedure.)
The author asks for evidence of "transitional species," but when presented with a pretty clear case of one in the form of Archaeopteryx, the author denies that its hybrid reptile-bird characteristics provide the evidence he seeks. It was "definitely a bird," he asserts, that just happened to have a lot of reptilian qualities. (Why wasn't it "definitely" a reptile with a lot of bird qualities? And what does the author base his "definitive" opinion upon, other than inference, which he elsewhere condemns biologists for using in lieu of evidence?) What he wants to see, in terms of transitional species, is a fossil that captures the transition in process, which is as absurd as wanting to watch a film by looking at a single photograph. A more accurate assessment of the fossil record is that it is like a comic strip in which many panels are missing. You can infer the change from the arrangement of the panels, while the absence of many panels makes those inferences challenging and tentative.
Then the author goes off the rails completely, and reveals that he doesn't actually understand the science involved at all when he explains that homology is not good evidence for biological evolution. He argues that homology is simply evidence of a basic plan that is expressed in many variations; so, for example, the fins of an icthyosaur, a shark, and a dolphin are all similar, and thus are all varying expressions of this "basic plan." But in stating this, the author clearly confuses homology with analogy; homology is where the same anatomical structures have been modified for different functions, as in the human hand, whale flipper, and bat wing, whereas analogy suggests precisely the opposite: a similar function arrived at from different anatomical structures, as in the pectoral fins of icthyosaurs, sharks, and dolphins, which have radically different anatomies. The similarity, for biologists, is explained by the phenomenon of convergent evolution, in which similar environmental constraints lead different structures to arrive at similar forms and functions. Of course, the author has to mock college zoologists at the end of the same chapter, apparently because those stupid zoologists try to understand their subject matter and teach it to their students!
I don't have the time or energy to provide a point-by-point rebuttal to the author's ignorance of the biological sciences ("Here's the Proof!"). Instead, I want to return to the false choice with which I opened this review—that either God created the world or it "just happened." (I won't belabor my wife's point that the explanatory difference between "it just happened" and "God did it" is effectively zero.) The author's book is an exercise in what used to be called "natural theology," which is an attempt to prove that the universe had an intelligent designer by examining that designer's alleged handiwork. To my way of thinking, Scottish Enlightenment thinker David Hume effectively neutralized the efforts of natural theology in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion . He (or rather one of his characters in the dialogue) points out that "it's either God or an accident" is a false choice which he takes to result from a failure of the imagination—why, he asks, couldn't the universe be the literal child of a previous universe, hatched from a cosmic egg, or a structure built by a presumably unintelligent designer, much as a web is made by a spider without that spider having studied engineering in college. (Of course, the author would cite eggs and spider webs as further evidence of a designer, but that simply begs the question.) Modern readers could also invoke alternate explanations of causality and "creation" like Prigogine's dissipative structures, Maturana and Varela's autopoiesis, and the Buddhist notion of Pratītyasamutpāda. One of Hume's characters then asserts that, if we're using the universe as evidence for the existence of God, the presence of so much suffering and death in the world certainly argues against an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent creator. (There are entire libraries of Christian theology that wrestle with this problem, which is known as the "argument from suffering.")
But let's set Hume aside and assume that the author is right, and that the natural world shows evidence of an intelligent designer. Nothing in the natural world supports the contention that this intelligent designer is the God of the Abrahamic faiths (and, in fact, the argument from suffering provides some good challenges to that contention). To prove that the author reverts to "revealed theology," which takes us fully outside the realm of science and back to faith. He "proves" that the Bible is absolutely true because of the 100% accuracy rate of Biblical prophecy, and he arrives at this accuracy rate by forcing prophecies and fulfillments in a Procrustean bed where all the inconvenient, erm, inaccuracies get unceremoniously lopped off. (For example, the Hebrew bible does not predict a virgin birth, because the Hebrew word used is "maiden" rather than "virgin," and it certainly failed in its prediction that the messiah would be a king in the line of David, unless we radically redefine what we mean by king, which is what the apologists do. Again, you can believe those mutilated predictions if you want, but you can't credibly cite them as "evidence.")
In short, if you want to drive your kids away from your faith, share this book with them and insist that they believe it 100%. They will realize, like I did, that the choice with which they are presented leaves them with only two alternatives: (1) believe in God and reject science, or (2) believe in science and reject God. The dumb kids will stay in the faith, the smarter ones will leave, and the lucky ones may stumble onto the vast middle ground between those two options (perhaps by studying biology and religion in college). And as science demonstrates its explanatory power by, well, explaining things, that choice will become clearer and clearer, if not any easier or less painful. This book, and many others like it, will create more atheists that Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris could ever dream to create. And that needn't be the case.
July 14, 2011
The book starts off talking about galaxies and Earth, transitions into living creatures, highlights humans, and wraps up with how we know the Bible & Christianity is both true and historically accurate. At the end of each chapter are "just for fun" sections that both kids and adults will enjoy. They are not so much the typical fill-in-the-blanks type but are more of just initiated prompts for the reader to learn more. Bible is quoted at times, if your anything like me you want to look up what they're saying. This book is a good read for all ages, my mom who is lets just say in her 50's read the title and dissapeared with the book and her bible going back and forth, and she couldnt help herself of telling my aunts and cousins about it and pointing out the fact that just about every question we could asked has not only the answers but where you can see for yourself where the information came from. Love it!
May 9, 2018
AmblesideOnline year 6 book. There was a lot of good in this book but I felt like it had a bit of a tone of incredulity that people could believe in Evolution. At one point I had to remind my daughter that God tells us in the Bible that we won’t see or understand His truth unless He reveals it to us. This is Him being gracious to us and we need to have the same grace to people who don’t believe what we believe to be truth. If God hadn’t saved us we would be in the same boat. The statistics and things like that are amazing. There is a ton of good in this book...and I would probably view more as an apologetics book that a science book, but there was also a fair amount I didn’t love.
March 28, 2008
I used to love this book - before I realized how full of holes it is. It's completely inaccurate in so many ways. Like 90% of the book is fiction passed off as fact. The book does ask a lot of interesting questions, but beyond that it's rubbish.
January 8, 2017
A good introduction to Biblical creationist thought for adults who don't mind the fact that it's aimed at kids. Pretty lightweight compared to something like Denton's Evolution, a Theory in Crisis (which isn't technically creationist or remotely Biblical, now I think on it, but was kind of the first "creationist" book I read, in that it seriously questioned evolution and said we need to explore alternatives), but seems to me it's written more to get Christian kids thinking about alternate explanations for the various stuff they run across in school, so it doesn't work that hard to prove any particular point, just lays out some possibilities to explore.
June 27, 2011
I love this book. I am reading it for the second time and getting so much more out of it this time around. It really makes you think! I have even gone to my bookshelf and pulled off my highschool biology book just to verify what he says in this book is accurate. He often refers to things in biology text books and he explains how the text books are wrong. Sure enough upon viewing my biology textbook, the author is correct about the falicies in evolution that are taught as "truth".
March 28, 2008
I thought this book completely misrepresented the science of evolution. The author overlooks absolutely scads of mountainfulls of scientific evidence, while paying close attention to a few bits and pieces. On the other hand - he does try to illustrate how cool nature is, which is something everyone should be able to agree on, whether christian or not.
March 5, 2018
Excellent resources for teaching kids how to defend their faith
This book did a great job of pointing out the inconsistencies of some arguments widely accepted within modern science, and teaching how we can defend what we know based on our knowledge of the Bible.
This book did a great job of pointing out the inconsistencies of some arguments widely accepted within modern science, and teaching how we can defend what we know based on our knowledge of the Bible.
October 17, 2024
I read this with my young teens. Its a beautifully illustrated book with many good points. It helped him think through some of the more difficult questions he has studied this year regarding origins of the earth.
August 26, 2011
“It couldn’t just happen, knowing the truth about God’s awesome creation” by Lawrence O Richards is a great non-fiction book that you definitely want to get into with your kids. If you want your kids to be versed on a scientific approach to seeing God’s hand on this world and how yes, even science points to the hand of a creator, then I would recommend you buying this book. The book marries scripture to science in an interesting and fun way for the reader. After reading about the universe and what it’s made of -planets, stars, quasars, etc. and their relation to the earth makes Psalm 19 come alive-”The heavens declare the glory of God”.
This book is broken down into 5 parts- the first part is “Earth in our universe” and the uniqueness of our planet in the scheme of things to section 2 and “How life began” and how there is more scientific evidence that points to creation than against it. The 3rd section deals with “Evidence from Living Things” and addresses amazing facts about animals that Evolution simply cannot explain. Section 4 is Humanity in God’s Nature- and debunking the whole Neanderthal people “animal like chain of human evolution” aka cavemen situation. And finally the last portion called “The Book that just didn’t happen” dealing with the Bible and how it is a “revelation”-“that it tells us things about God we couldn’t discover without God telling us.” (pg 169) It also links in the science of archeology and how it has shown Bible claims to be true over and over again.
This is a great book to go through with your children and will give them a good working base knowledge in helping to know that science can be on God’s side. I also really appreciated how the author always included at the end of the chapters a fun activity to illustrate his point. It was labeled a “Just for fun section” and it would ask questions to make you think or give you hands on activity like go look at a map to look at how many mountain ranges you could find, etc. And the best thing of all is that parents, you might even learn a thing or two in the process.
I was graciously provided a digital copy of this book through the Booksneeze program in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are honest and my own.
This book is broken down into 5 parts- the first part is “Earth in our universe” and the uniqueness of our planet in the scheme of things to section 2 and “How life began” and how there is more scientific evidence that points to creation than against it. The 3rd section deals with “Evidence from Living Things” and addresses amazing facts about animals that Evolution simply cannot explain. Section 4 is Humanity in God’s Nature- and debunking the whole Neanderthal people “animal like chain of human evolution” aka cavemen situation. And finally the last portion called “The Book that just didn’t happen” dealing with the Bible and how it is a “revelation”-“that it tells us things about God we couldn’t discover without God telling us.” (pg 169) It also links in the science of archeology and how it has shown Bible claims to be true over and over again.
This is a great book to go through with your children and will give them a good working base knowledge in helping to know that science can be on God’s side. I also really appreciated how the author always included at the end of the chapters a fun activity to illustrate his point. It was labeled a “Just for fun section” and it would ask questions to make you think or give you hands on activity like go look at a map to look at how many mountain ranges you could find, etc. And the best thing of all is that parents, you might even learn a thing or two in the process.
I was graciously provided a digital copy of this book through the Booksneeze program in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are honest and my own.
September 22, 2017
I read this book for school (I'm homeschooled), and it is a great book with lots of facts and logic that made me think. As I said, there is a lot of logic in this book, and it's such a simple explanation for creation and it's easy to understand and hard to pass of because if you only used your logic you'd know it was true. It includes bible verses, but for those people who are like me and prefer facts, those are in this book as well. After each chapter, there are some 'Just For Fun' questions (aimed at kids) to answer as well.
This is a good book for younger children and teens. It makes you think! It would be good for adults too, although a lot of the science they probably already know.
This is a good book for younger children and teens. It makes you think! It would be good for adults too, although a lot of the science they probably already know.
April 3, 2015
I read this because it was a nice supplement to Defeating Darwinism, and is actually required reading for the level just before the class D.D. is used in for Classical Conversations. I liked that it was written in an entirely easy-to-understand way. Probably because it was for younger kids, probably 11-13 years old or so. The points are well argued and it has good photographs and illustrations. It really helped me understand even better why Intelligent Design is a scientific possibility and not just "religious belief".
February 10, 2016
I've been reading this through the year with my Challenge A class in Classical Conversations. It was a very informative, enjoyable read. There were many fascinating facts and arguments presented for thought and discussion. I enjoyed especially the detailed descriptions of many animals and their unique design and the last chapter on life after death I thought very compelling and well done.
October 3, 2007
I learned alot of new things about why creation is true, and Evolution is not. It's great information to know if you are ever confronted with a person who believes in Evolution. It can also be a great witnessing tool. I read it for school, and it told things in an interesting and fun way.
March 19, 2008
This book was a great science book about how everything in world couldn't "Just Happen" How much detail God put into making this earth, that a big bang couldn't do.
Currently reading
January 11, 2009This is excellent for anyone who wants to know why there is most undoubtedly a God. It just helps smooth out the facts
December 1, 2009
very good arguments. i agree with almost everything in the book
May 28, 2017
This is one of my FAVORITE books! I've created a lesson plan around it and have taught kids using it as a guideline. I love the projects and how simple it is.
October 27, 2017
Maybe the least honest book I've ever read.
May 23, 2021
Overall I enjoyed this book. It can get a little preachy, and a little repetitive, but for the most part it does a good job of laying out what the Bible says vs. what the world says. It raises questions to help you think and wraps everything up with what we do and do not know, and that they aren’t salvation issues that we need to divide the body of Christ over.
December 14, 2020
Even though my addition is 30 years old, and doubtless there are new thoughts and theories about the origins of the earth (as was pointed out would always be the case in this book), I still really enjoyed reading this with my son. I learned a lot.
March 8, 2021
This book is a good compilation of strong ideas arguing for creation. I loved the section on animal behavior and the argument whether the Bible is God’s inspired. I wish he did talk less about The Theory of Evolution in a negative way. The book turned into “we are right they are wrong” war field. Without it, I think I have learned a lot and I was happy to read it to my children.
May 6, 2022
This book has its merits, but I can see why it was dropped from the classical conversations curriculum. It is a bit outdated, and trite when it comes to talking about parts of creation. I did enjoy the chapters that point out the uniqueness of God‘s creation and how “it couldn’t just happen.”
April 18, 2024
This is a great book for any Christian family who has middle schoolers. I recommend reading it together as a family and discussing the ideas presented.
The author gives many reasons why “it couldn’t just happen” when it comes to the theory of evolution and shows how science supports Biblical creation.
I’m sure this book will be a resource on our shelves for many years to up come.
The author gives many reasons why “it couldn’t just happen” when it comes to the theory of evolution and shows how science supports Biblical creation.
I’m sure this book will be a resource on our shelves for many years to up come.
May 6, 2024
Loved this foray into Apologetics with my AO Year 6 students. Was also happy to see how often this caught the attention of my Year 4 and Year 1 students.
July 31, 2020
Great synopsis of the huge gaps in the Theory of Evolution for ~7-10th grade science level. Which was great for me at 44.
November 24, 2018
This book would probably change your entire life. I'm not saying that lightly.
For those who believe in the Theory of Evolution, this is a gentle way of explaining how, evidentially, it doesn't hit the mark for explaining the origins of our world. In fact, Creation is a much more plausible explanation. We need a Creator, not chance, to shape the world around us.
Wait! Don't step away just yet, please hear me out! :)
Lawrence O. Richards does not use this book to blaspheme Evolutionists. In fact, he is respectful and thorough in his understanding of what Evolution is. He is a Christian, but his primary objective through this book is to use evidence and facts to explain why Christianity actually proves why our world is the way it is.
He does a compare and contrast, and if you've ever wondered if what you believe can stand the test of science, this is the book to read. Truly.
> So, why do I think this book will change your life?
Again and again, it practically debunks Evolution. Scientists are amazing--I mean, they are so smart! But there are many things in our world that have never been able to be explained, and there's a reason for that. Furthermore, Creation explains things in the most direct and possible way.
I am a Christian, but this book would convince me to not believe in Evolution, if I weren't. And I say that honestly. It really has so much evidence in this book!
Anyway. I don't much like science *gasps*. I know, I know! :D I appreciate it, but I don't like it, if you know what I mean. But even I could read this book easily without getting bored at long texts and confusing jargon. It's an easy, light, and yet significantly impactful book.
I think anyone would love it, but I'm going to be frank: you have to read this book with an open mind. I'm talking Evolutionist or Christian or anyone! You have to be on your guard, of course, because this is a serious topic, but importantly, one who reads this book should try to read it with an open mind and heart.
I don't quite think I can convince anyone to read this book, but...if you do, it'll explain what I mean so much better! Life as we know it couldn't have, well, just happened.
For those who believe in the Theory of Evolution, this is a gentle way of explaining how, evidentially, it doesn't hit the mark for explaining the origins of our world. In fact, Creation is a much more plausible explanation. We need a Creator, not chance, to shape the world around us.
Wait! Don't step away just yet, please hear me out! :)
Lawrence O. Richards does not use this book to blaspheme Evolutionists. In fact, he is respectful and thorough in his understanding of what Evolution is. He is a Christian, but his primary objective through this book is to use evidence and facts to explain why Christianity actually proves why our world is the way it is.
He does a compare and contrast, and if you've ever wondered if what you believe can stand the test of science, this is the book to read. Truly.
> So, why do I think this book will change your life?
Again and again, it practically debunks Evolution. Scientists are amazing--I mean, they are so smart! But there are many things in our world that have never been able to be explained, and there's a reason for that. Furthermore, Creation explains things in the most direct and possible way.
I am a Christian, but this book would convince me to not believe in Evolution, if I weren't. And I say that honestly. It really has so much evidence in this book!
Anyway. I don't much like science *gasps*. I know, I know! :D I appreciate it, but I don't like it, if you know what I mean. But even I could read this book easily without getting bored at long texts and confusing jargon. It's an easy, light, and yet significantly impactful book.
I think anyone would love it, but I'm going to be frank: you have to read this book with an open mind. I'm talking Evolutionist or Christian or anyone! You have to be on your guard, of course, because this is a serious topic, but importantly, one who reads this book should try to read it with an open mind and heart.
I don't quite think I can convince anyone to read this book, but...if you do, it'll explain what I mean so much better! Life as we know it couldn't have, well, just happened.
January 1, 2014
Throughout this book I had mixed views on many of the author's statements. Though I enjoyed reading many fascinating things about Creation I realized that several things in this book are outdated, which does not come as a surprise since my copy is from 1989.
But it was not the outdated information that I was troubled by. I was troubled by the author's lack of taking a stance on certain details about Creation, specifically that of the age of the earth and whether the Genesis flood was local or global. As I recall, the author claimed that no one could know for sure what the Bible says on these issues, and that it did not matter what interpretation you believed to be true. I believe that it is a serious error to make a statement like that. For instance, if you believe that instead of God creating the world in six 24 hour days, and instead believed that He created the world over the course of time then you would have to believe that there was death before the fall, which is unbiblical because death in Creation is a result of the fall.
From my understanding, this book is written for kids and young teens. In my opinion it is very repetitive and very simplistic which is probably good for a child, and might be good to use as an introduction to the Creation verses Evolution debate, but not as an in-depth study. Even if you plan on using this book as just an introduction I would still recommend researching everything in the book since it is outdated and things listed as facts may or may not be accurate (I was never really sure if some of what I was reading was true because there were few references). There are several statements made that did not match up with facts, which could either be due to updated information that has been discovered, poor editing (sorry I hate to criticize someone's editing skills since I know mine are nothing to boast about, but when compiling a work like this you ought to triple check it), or the author simply was wrong on some "facts."
I don't think this is a terrible book. Again, I think it is ok as an introduction, but be sure to do your own research. However, I would personally suggest you check out the Answers in Genesis website for better resources.
But it was not the outdated information that I was troubled by. I was troubled by the author's lack of taking a stance on certain details about Creation, specifically that of the age of the earth and whether the Genesis flood was local or global. As I recall, the author claimed that no one could know for sure what the Bible says on these issues, and that it did not matter what interpretation you believed to be true. I believe that it is a serious error to make a statement like that. For instance, if you believe that instead of God creating the world in six 24 hour days, and instead believed that He created the world over the course of time then you would have to believe that there was death before the fall, which is unbiblical because death in Creation is a result of the fall.
From my understanding, this book is written for kids and young teens. In my opinion it is very repetitive and very simplistic which is probably good for a child, and might be good to use as an introduction to the Creation verses Evolution debate, but not as an in-depth study. Even if you plan on using this book as just an introduction I would still recommend researching everything in the book since it is outdated and things listed as facts may or may not be accurate (I was never really sure if some of what I was reading was true because there were few references). There are several statements made that did not match up with facts, which could either be due to updated information that has been discovered, poor editing (sorry I hate to criticize someone's editing skills since I know mine are nothing to boast about, but when compiling a work like this you ought to triple check it), or the author simply was wrong on some "facts."
I don't think this is a terrible book. Again, I think it is ok as an introduction, but be sure to do your own research. However, I would personally suggest you check out the Answers in Genesis website for better resources.
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