Man's Origin, Man's Destiny: A Critical Survey of the Principles of Evolution and Christianity

Rating:
Summary: This book made me change from atheism to agnosticism.
Review: To understand Wilder-Smith's ability to produce such a profound spiritual change, it's necessary to understand my personal background. Although I was the grandson of a Protestant pastor, I decided (at the age of 9) that I was an atheist. Reading "Man's origin, man's destiny" helped me to change again from atheism to agnosticism.

In the first part of the book, (entitled "Man's Origin") Wilder-Smith uses powerful scientific arguments to show that the idea of a God makes sense. His use of the law of entropy (the second law of thermodynamics) made the most impression on me, even though I hadn't yet met this law in my educational studies. This was the part of the book that made me shift from atheism to agnosticism.

In the second half of the book (entitled "Man's Destiny"), Wilder-Smith tries to convince the reader that the ideas of Adam and Eve, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and the whole of Christianity makes sense. He failed to make me see this, due to Christianity's many internal contradictions and its failure to correlate with scientifically observable reality. A worthwhile contribution to the debate on Christianity's relevance to the real world.