Gerald Rau

Breakdown of the Origins Options

Gerald Rau provides an extremely helpful toolkit in this book. He identifies the philosophical and scientific options available when it comes to the origin of the cosmos, life, and human beings. He demonstrates that every scientific model tests on philosophical assumptions, and so sorting out even what counts as "scientific" is not a simple task.

Practically, Rau provides an encompassing framework for locating the various positions on these important matters. He explains as well the scientific basis for and issues surrounding these three categories of origins. While I currently find myself in the evolutionary creationist camp, Rau has caused me to be open to listening to those in the other camps. I have lots left to learn.

It's worth mentioning that Rau provides appendices full of tables that visually break down the various origin views on specific questions. These can serve as a valuable tool for understanding and teaching. This book would be appropriate for those trying to understand the current origins options, and might serve well in a college course on science and religion.… (altro)

"Mapping the Origins Debate" by George Rau classifies the major origin ideas into six models: Naturalistic Evolution, Non-teleological Evolution, Planned Evolution, Directed Evolution, Old-Earth Creation, and Young-Earth Creation. He arrives at these six models by examining the philosophical underpinnings of each. Is God involved in evolution, creation, and how? He defines hypothesis, theory, law and model. He then shows how each model handles each origin question: the origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of species, and the origin of man.

Mr. Rau strives for complete objectivity in his approach, presenting how each model evaluates the scientific evidence and how it interprets it. He presents the criticism of each model by other model proponents and shows how they handle the criticism.

His goal is to foster understanding of various models so each of its proponents may more effectively understand the others. He aims his book at a high school or college audience.

I believe he achieves his goals. What is striking is how the underlying philosophy of each position determines what is accepted and what is rejected as evidence for each position. I would require this book as reading before teaching any evolutionary science course in high school or college. The philosophical underpinnings of science are not usually discussed, but need to be understood to see why scientists reach the conclusions they do.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the origins of the universe, life, species, or mankind.… (altro)