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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Science AND Religion!, 8 Aug 2003
This book provides a welcome shaft of light in a world experiencing a waning respect for spirituality. In today’s world we rely upon a logical understanding of all we are normally prepared to accept as truth. Therein lies the problem with religion, for if we accept the findings of modern science, it can be difficult to believe all the Holy Bible has to tell us where there are perceived conflicts between the two. This book seeks to show that this is really down to differing perceptions resulting from contrasting views of the same truth.Starting from the viewpoint that there must be truth in both science and the ancient beliefs detailed within the Bible, the author seeks to show us connections between the two. Throughout this inspiring work Jonathan Kingsley offers up scientific evidence, compares it with Bible extracts, and then uses powerful logic to lock the two together in a most convincing way. The results are amazing, with the kernel being that both natural evolution (science) and divine creation (the Bible) are detailed in Genesis 1 and 2, wherein we are really reading an account of a two-phase creation. In other words, God created a world which evolved as the scientist believes until, at a point where the Bible introduces the Garden of Eden, he took a personal hand and divinely created Adam and Eve alongside evolutionary man, using their genetics as a blueprint. In so doing, he disproves Erich von Daniken’s theory that we were descended from spacemen, and also shows we are not directly descended from apes! Kingsley points out there is clearly an evolving process in all of creation and we should give God the credit for starting this process, not leaping in at the middle of something with an implied back-story! By using evolution to produce a blueprint for a successful species, God had a perfect plan for the survival of his chosen ‘sons of God’. Genesis 6, he then shows us, describes how these two parallel races interbred against his will and how, as a result, God’s anger brought about the Great Flood. Remarkably, this work manages to build bridges between science and the Christian religion and, despite its subject matter, succeeds in being both entertaining and enlightening. It also seeks to prove life-after-death, faith healing, the significance of Jesus, and how an overall explanation scheme can take into account the entirety of the Bible and modern science. This is a work to arrest the atheist, ignite the agnostic, assist the Christian uncomfortable with the enigmas thrown up by science, and challenge the scientist who seeks to derive a ‘theory of everything’ without recognizing the ultimate source of such unity has to be God. Although delving into the most difficult areas of human perception, this book is remarkably easy to follow, encyclopaedic in its coverage, rich and flowing in its style. It is a highly recommended read that provides a new and most valuable contribution to the science versus religion debate.
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