Most likely scenario

Thomas Levenson’s The Hunt for Vulcan (Random House, 2015) studies a little-remembered example of astronomical stickiness. For decades scientists thought a small planet, Vulcan, lurked close to the sun, and it was only a matter of time before it would be observed—but “Vulcan refused to appear, decade after decade.”

Scientists should have made some radical reassessments of existing theory, but they didn’t until Albert Einstein came along and showed how the conventional wisdom was wrong. Darwinism is today’s Vulcan, since the evidence of species-to-species change that Darwin anticipated has not arrived. Macroevolutionists, though, are sticking to their beliefs, and supporters of intelligent design await an Einstein.

In June I reviewed books published by the four leading U.S. groups standing up against Darwinism: Answers in Genesis, Reasons to Believe, the Institute for Creation Research, and the Discovery Institute. Another gutsy group, Creation Ministries International (CMI), has worldwide scope and a significant entry in book publishing via Creation Book Publishers. Among its books:

CMI’s Bible-centered analysis is far superior to Chuck Klosterman’s agnostic romp through scientific arrogance, But What If We’re Wrong? (Blue Rider, 2016). Still, Klosterman’s poke at “superstar astrophysicist” Neil deGrasse Tyson is useful. When Tyson says we haven’t seen “beliefs being completely thrown out the window” since 1600—so expectations of a scientific revolution concerning evolution or anything else are dumb—Klosterman asks, “How do we know we’re not currently living in our own version of the year 1599?”

Klosterman says the 20 numbers that make the universe possible (for example, the mass of an electron or the strength of gravity) “appear inconceivably fine-tuned—in fact, if these numbers didn’t have the exact value that they do, nothing in the universe would exist. They are so perfect that it almost appears as if someone set these numbers. But who could have done that?” Christians and most other people point to God, while Klosterman thinks we may be living in a simulation created by a kid in his garage centuries from now. Which is more likely?

Bookmarks

Two handbooks with pages to fill in are useful. Jamie Aten and David Boan’s Disaster Ministry Handbook (IVP, 2016) can help prepare congregations for crisis response. T. Chris Clark’s The Household Financial Record Book (TopCoolTech, 2013) is useful for hardcopy recording of financial assets: It’s trouble when one spouse dies and the other does not know his online passwords or cloud niches. —M.O.