Who better to present the intelligent design theory than Dembski (with seven earned degrees, including doctorates in philosophy and mathematics) and Wells (with doctorates in molecular and cell biology and religious studies)? Because the two are not armchair philosophers or scientists, engaging with this short book will take effort from the reader to comprehend some high-thinking principles. But, for those willing to tackle the challenge, the information is rich and worth the labor.

The premise of the book is stated in the introduction when the authors quote from Richard Dawkins’s book The Blind Watchmaker. Here Dawkins hypes that “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist” (as quoted on p. i). Since Darwin lived in an age that did not have many technological advantages—for example, today’s high-powered microscopes can detail the minutest part of an intricate single cell by a billion times—he was at a disadvantage and ended up making a number of false assumptions. Darwin even accepted spontaneous generation as the explanation for how nonliving matter turns into life. As the authors write, “Darwin is wrong. Life’s origin poses insuperable difficulties to unguided material processes, so intellectual fulfillment remains for atheism but an elusive dream” (iii).

One theme found throughout the book is how faith plays such an important role for Darwinists in explaining the origin of life. Many in academia have presupposed that evolution is true, but until recent years—credit should be given to Phillip Johnson who began the intelligent design movement in the 1980s—there were no serious academic objections from qualified participants. College and university leaders have stifled the debate by censoring any opposition to Darwinism. Dembski and Wells argue that, instead of firing professors who disagree, the available research needs to be considered and the red herrings as well as straw men should be avoided at all costs.

In chapter sixteen, the authors decry how many evolutionists believe that “the problem of life’s origin has essentially been solved already” (69). They write, “Like the alchemists of old, who never explained exactly how gold could be produced from lead, origin-of-life researchers never tell us exactly how ‘an ordered hierarchy [of] structures and functions’ could emerge from the chemical processes that might reasonably have existed on the pre-biotic Earth” (75). Thus, while evolutionists would have us be-lieve that there are many potential explanations for the origin of life, they really show that there isn’t one single compelling answer. For too long many people have taken the word of the “experts” at face value and not considered how weak their theory is in contrast to intelligent design.

Dembski and Wells point out in chapter twenty-one that there are good reasons to reject Darwinism, including the lack of data to explain how cells can be so rich with information and the failure of evolutionists to “provide a coherent theoretical framework for the origin of life” (97). With that as a background, there are positive reasons for accepting intelligent design, including the engineering of cellular systems and irreducible complexity, a concept explained in great detail by Michael Behe in his book Darwin’s Black Box. Instead of merely attacking design, Darwinists need to supply reasons why evolution is the more tenable answer to the beginning of life. The theory with the better evidence should be what is accepted, regardless of one’s presuppositions.

The last paragraph in the epilogue ends the book fittingly: “Atheism is a belief with scientific pretensions but no scientific backing. It promises freedom from superstition but is itself the slave to superstition. It is an ideology even more intolerant and demeaning than anything Dawkins attacks in [his book] The God Delusion” (115).

—Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson is a high school/college teacher as well as a researcher with Mormonism Research Ministry. He is an associate editor for The Apologetics Study Bible for Students (Holman, 2010).

Basing each chapter on stanzas from the 1779 John Newton hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” the authors begin their work by stressing the overall authority of the written Scripture. Utilizing a presuppositional apologetic viewpoint, they propose that the Bible—“not our senses and our mental faculties”—should be the ultimate authority or “we will be forever confused and confounded with the issues that press in on us every day” (p. 32).

Once the Scripture is accepted as the foundation, the believer must understand that fulfillment in life only comes through following God. Those desiring the things contrary to God end up resorting to sins such as using drugs, drinking to excess, and even cutting parts of one’s own body with razor blades. “We must worship something,” the authors write on page 54. “And if our misdiagnosis of our felt needs leads us to pursue something created rather than the Creator, then we will attach ourselves to that created thing religiously. We will, in fact, worship it.”

One of the more challenging chapters of the book was titled, “We are not alone.” The authors believe there are too many distractions in life, including “time-saving technology” that ends up eating up more time rather than conserving it. Even too many church activities can get in the way. “Could it be that the church is no less guilty than the culture in its attempts to entice us into the programming whirlwind?” they ask on page 96. The result of a hurried lifestyle? Missing the opportunity to properly sit at the feet of the Savior and meditate on God’s truth.

In Chapter 4, a Calvinistic view of salvation is stressed because the work of Christ “was planned and agreed upon before time began.” When the Holy Spirit comes into the lives of the sheep (John 10), a struggle for holiness ensues. Two words are used—mortification and vivification—to explain how Christians live their lives warring against sin while partaking in life with the Holy Spirit.

The final chapter compares this world to C. S. Lewis’s Narnia, a place where Lucy and her siblings were not destined to spend the rest of their lives. The authors write on page 151: “As we know Christ here, more and more, we are preparing ourselves to know him better there, where he will have a new name. There we will see him face to face, and his presence, now invisible to us, will be visible in all its glory.”

Praise God for those things of God that cannot be shaken!

—Eric Johnson