Michael Pfunder and Ernest Lucas, Think God, Think Science: Conversations on Life, the Universe and Faith (Carlisle, Paternoster, 2008), viii + 112 Pps., $16.99.
Michael Pfunder is Bible & Church Development Officer, Bible Society, UK, and Ernest Lucas is Vice-Principal and Tutor in biblical Studies, Bristol Baptist College, UK. In this title, Pfunder talks to biblical scholar and biochemist, Lucas, asking such questions as, Has science killed God?, and How, if at all, are we to ‘think God’ in the scientific twenty-first century? The conversation recorded in this book engages three broad areas: 1) the Sky, 2) the Cell, and 3) the Faith. If the gospel of Christ is worth anything, Pfunder notes, it surely shall stand up to our attempts to makes sense of it (4).
The first part of this book questions whether our scientific understanding of the universe in its vastness, in its age and in its origins, has undercut the notion of the heavens declaring the glory of God (?). They both conclude in the negative, noting that the foundational text of the Christian view of nature, Gen 1, is an extended metaphor, in which God is presented as doing work in the cosmos (41). The second part of the book, asks what place is there for a good creator amidst the random genetic mutations and brutal processes of neo-Darwinian evolution? How can mere animals think of themselves as being made in the image of God? In view of these questions, did Genesis get it wrong? Not at all, states Lucas. Adam and Eve were merely the representative couple of humanity before God, so Christians can affirm the verity of evolution, while also maintaining the general thrust of the Scriptures (64). In this second part, Lucas openly criticizes William Dembski’s approach to purported design in the universe, and prefers instead a correlation of God with the principle of creativity (cf. 73–75). The third part of the book is the fitting end of the title, asserting that only faith in the gospel is able to prove the existence of God, not cosmology or biology.
In this short title, the authors show that it is not irrational to believe in an ultimate mover behind the universe, and that it is just as likely that the fine-tuning apparent in the universe is attributable to God as to chance. Moreover, they show that evolutionary biology is neither invariably atheistic, nor demonic in its attempt to deceive the faithful.This title is admittedly intended for the non-specialist, the one who may know little of the relation between science and theology, but who is nevertheless interested in finding out more. For its intended audience, I recommend this title without reservation.