A Book Recommendation by Don Crouse
I just finished reading the book Foresight by Marcos Eberlin. He’s a brilliant scientist with a PhD in chemistry. I don't have one of those. He’s also got a medal… the prestigious Thomson Medal. I don’t have one of those either. He also founded his own laboratory. The Thomson Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, in Brazil. And I don’t have one of those either. And he’s good looking. Okay, this is becoming depressing. But I do agree with his premise that the chemistry of life reveals planning and purpose.
If you even hinted at that sort of thing in universities in the United States of America, you’d be fired! Or at least gagged and put in a small janitorial broom closet. With no lights! Sure, we might say we’re open minded. But the liberal bastion of science, in the land of the free-thinkers and home of the brave, isn’t going to give you an inch of free-thinking when it comes to the idea of Biblical creation. I know this may all seem irrelevant in a review of Marcos’ book, but let me just say, when you have a PhD in chemistry and write a book like this, your credibility is instantly thrown under the non-proverbial bus (because there are no buses in the Bible) and run over. Then they back it up, and run over you again. And they do that as many times as needed to blend you into the pavement. Then they put your book on top of your grave, and tell all the other free-thinking PhDs how open they are to Biblical ideas.
In reading the book I noticed that Marcos is not preaching to the choir, but just inviting them to start humming. I get the sense that he has moderated his feelings to try and reach those in the scientific community, as well as the ordinary layman, like me. Consider one of the quotes that appears on the back cover of the book.
Regardless of whether one shares Eberlin’s approach, it is definitely becoming clear that nature is still full of secrets which… force us to humility. Gerhard Ertl, Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2007)
Does this sound like the quote from a Christian? “Regardless of whether one shares Eberlin’s approach….”, “…it is definitely becoming clear that nature is still full of secrets….” I don’t think Gerhard is on the same wavelength that Eberlin is broadcasting on.
Eberlin isn’t talking about “nature.” It’s a God thing Gerhard! Nature didn’t do it, because nature can’t do it. That’s Eberlin’s point. Gerhard’s point is, “if you’re going to put me on the back of your book, don’t get me involved in this God creation thing, or I’ll ‘nature’ your crazy donkey.”
But that just validates my point. The scientific community is very anti-God. However, due to the ever increasing complexity being discovered within life on earth, some scientists are beginning to admit they don’t know everything. That’s right… not only are scientists discovering that life is more complex than previously thought, they are also starting to realize that old theories of how life arose are woefully insufficient to explain its existence. That is borne out by Eberlin’s endorsements, where no less than three Noble Prize winners endorse the book.
What this tells me is that there is a paradigm shift in biological science. That old theories that have disregarded the need for intelligent foresight in the creation of life are starting to change. There has been a realization that the random actions of rogue dirt cannot explain the immense complexity that science has discovered within all living things. There had to be foresight. There had to be intellect. There had to be a creator.
Moving on. “It’s about time, Don!”
The book is… interesting. However, I’m not sure Marcos had a clear focus on what he wanted to write about. We start out with lipid membranes. That’s a good start. Then we move to water. Okay. We need water for our membranes. Then we move to the atmosphere. Lost me. And ozone. Still lost. Then a crash course on lightning. Shocking! But still lost. Then we move back to cellular biology, with a crash course on DNA. Okay, I’m back. Then we move on to operons and enzymes, before dealing with bugs, carnivorous plants, eggs and other bird stuff, finally ending with human reproduction and an appendix. “Dude, you’re all over the place!”
Eberlin makes good points with all his analogies, but I was hoping for… well, a little more. Or, perhaps a little less, in terms of the scope. Pretty much everything in science points to a creator. But this is a small book, meant, I believe, to be a quick read. Eberlin is just trying to cover too much. I did appreciate the effort to reveal the scope of God’s creativeness, but you can’t really do justice to all those topics in 147 pages.
For me the most informative parts of the book were the technical parts. Although I’m not entirely sure why Eberlin added them in, because he tells us we can “skip forward” after reading the first paragraph or two of those sections. Are they too technical for the average reader? If so, why not boil everything down to a level that everyone can understand? (I really don’t boil that much stuff, and they’re always making dumber readers, but at least Eberlin could try.) Or he could just leave that stuff out if he feels it’s too technical for the level of the intended reader. I’m glad he didn’t, but when I read those sections, I understood why Eberlin gave readers the option of skipping forward. The average reader is not going to comprehend the entirety of the information being discussed without more background than is given in the book. For this reason, the “skip forward” parts felt like a poor rendition of CliffsNotes for creationists.
Ironically, for me the “skip forward” parts were the best, most informative parts of the book. However, I only understood those parts because I have a little background in the material, which allowed me to fill in the sinkholes that would swallow up many readers. Eberlin’s discussion of things like the atmosphere and ozone were just not that compelling. Other topics, like human reproduction, were compelling, but too uninteresting for me. Not good. I have five kids. A discussion of the reproduction system should get my attention!
Overall, I recommend this book. The real benefit, and blessing, is that it’s written by a top-flight scientist. He’s got a PhD! He’s credible, intelligent, respected in the scientific community, and believes in a creator. So it’s not just us loonies that can see God’s creation in everything around us. We have a fellow believer that adds credibility to our convictions. If for no other reason, read the book to know that people smarter than me believe in God too. The book also gives scope to the foresight God employed in making His creation… from Earth’s perfect placement in our solar system, to the needs of mating moths. That’s right, without that foresight there would be no baby moths, or anything else. Granted, the scope of the book is too far ranging, but it also gives you an idea of all the things God took into account when making our little universe. He’s quite thorough.
Of course there are also those little “skip forward” parts that I really liked. For me those were the best parts of the book. I even learned a few things.
So read the book. It’s not as well written as I would like… but who really cares? Consider it a tour de force (not really sure what that is, but it sounds strong) of God’s creative genius and power. He’s amazing! And this book will help you understand why.
Be smart, be blessed, ignore all the rest,
Don
© D Crouse 2020