A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence that Points Toward God
Author: Strobel, Lee (1952 – ) An American award-winning investigative journalist and Christian apologetic author (Wikipedia).
Published: Grand Rapids, MI. Zondervan. C. 2004
Type of book: Non-fiction, Religious, Christian, Apologetic
Purpose: To advance the idea that there is an enormous amount of evidence to conclude that the universe is the product of an intelligent designer. This is done against a back-drop of an investigative reporter’s personal mission to investigate the plausibility of creation.
Argument: The author argues for the intelligent design of the universe, not from a biblical point of reference, but from the sciences and he does so in a very unique fashion. In The Case for a Creator, the author organizes his arguments in the form of interviews with noted advocates of intelligent design who are, themselves, experts in the particular fields of study being examined.
Chapters in the book take the form of these individual interviews. Here are examples of them:
Doubts About Darwin are presented in the form of an interview with Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture (CSC) fellow Jonathan Wells.
Where Science Meets Faith is a discussion about the relationship between science and religion, the origin of life, and the unlikely prospect of life spontaneously evolving without the assistance of a creator. This is accomplished in an interview with a noted philosopher of science, Stephen C. Meyer.
In this chapter, The Evidence of Cosmology is examined in a discussion about the big bang and argues for a creator as first cause, using the Kalam cosmological argument. The interview is with philosopher of religion William Lane Craig.
An interview with International Society for Complexity, Information and Design fellow and philosopher Robin Collins constitutes the chapter on The Evidence of Physics in which the anthropic principle is discussed as an argument that the universe must be designed by a creator.
The Evidence of Astronomy: in an interview with Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and theologian Jay Wesley Richards, a case for the Rare Earth hypothesis supports intelligent design.
More of The Evidence of Astronomy: Galaxies and the strategic placement of the earth in ours, according to an interview with Dr. Guillermo Gonzales, point to intelligent design.
Biochemist Michael Behe is interviewed in the chapter on The Evidence of Biochemistry and discusses irreducible complexity in biology as an argument for a creator.
Philosopher and theologian J.P. Moreland examines the supposed existence of consciousness separate from the brain as an argument for a creator in the chapter The Evidence of Consciousness.
The Evidence of Biological Information is presented in a second interview with Stephen C. Meyer and is centered on the implausibility that organized information contained in human DNA spontaneously evolved.
The unique format and the author’s ability to make the book an easy read despite it’s technical and scientific nature make The Case for Creation a must read for anyone, believer and nonbeliever alike, interested in examining the science behind intelligent design. This is a compelling presentation of intelligent design of the universe as the most plausible explanation of the origins of life.
For a closer examination of the discussions outlined above, click on the chapter names to be taken to blog posts in an apologetic series in which I present intelligent design leaning heavily on Mr. Strobel’s work.
Sketches on the way 