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Struggling with God & Origins: A Personal Story
This is a story about struggling with God. As a freshman college student, Denis Lamoureux lost his boyhood Christian faith because of evolution. With no spiritual foundation, he made medical school his idol and eventually became an immoral atheist. Yet by God’s grace, and in an answer to his mother’s prayers, Denis read the Gospel of John and fell in love with the Prince of Peace while serving in the military as a United Nations peacekeeper on the island of Cyprus.
This is also a story about struggling with origins. Like most evangelical Christians, Lamoureux was a stanch young earth creationist. But the Lord had a plan for his life and led him to complete a PhD in theology and a PhD in biology. To his surprise, Lamoureux discovered that the Creator evolved intelligently designed living creatures that declare the glory of God. Through miraculous signs and wonders, the Lord Jesus called Dr. Lamoureux to be a college professor and to proclaim a peaceful relationship between his evangelical Christian faith and the modern evolutionary sciences.
This is also a story about struggling with origins. Like most evangelical Christians, Lamoureux was a stanch young earth creationist. But the Lord had a plan for his life and led him to complete a PhD in theology and a PhD in biology. To his surprise, Lamoureux discovered that the Creator evolved intelligently designed living creatures that declare the glory of God. Through miraculous signs and wonders, the Lord Jesus called Dr. Lamoureux to be a college professor and to proclaim a peaceful relationship between his evangelical Christian faith and the modern evolutionary sciences.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 9, 2023
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May 19, 2023
This is a touching and encouraging tale of the author’s personal journey in reconciling the scientific evidence in biology with the Bible, Christian faith, and his own experiences. The author is raised in a Christian home and attends Catholic schools but when he goes to university, he rejects Christianity when he is surrounded with secularism and an atheistic approach to evolution. He becomes bitter that he isn’t accepted into medical school but becomes a dentist and joins the Canadian army. Later, he discovers that Christianity can be intellectually reasonable while in the Canadian army, he returns to a Christian faith but mistakenly believes he must reject mainstream science. He struggles to overcome his idolized dream to become a medical doctor and follow God’s calling to study theology and biology. Eventually, he drops out of medical school and pursues theology, specializing in Genesis 1-11. He develops a more mature, scholarly understanding of these passages including the ancient near eastern context, ancient science, and literary genre which leads him to reject young earth creationism as unbiblical. Still planning to debunk evolution, after his Ph.D. in theology, he pursues a Ph.D. in biology specializing in tooth and jaw evolution. During his biology studies, he continues to develop his theology and by the end of his Ph.D. work comes to understand that evolution is God’s method of creation. God calls him to teach on science and religion.
Chapter 1: A Story About My Story
This opening chapter is an introduction to the book and includes the reason the author is writing this book. He has learned that personal stories are effective tools of communication and that many evangelical Christians also wrestle with the topic of origins.
Chapter 2: Losing My Faith at University
The author describes the thoroughly secular and atheistic culture pervasive at his university. He doesn’t remember any Christian influences and there was an underlying message that religion is irrelevant. During his first 2 years of university, he was lured into secularism, agnosticism/atheism, and an arrogant, selfish, immoral lifestyle.
Chapter 3: An Idolater Without His Idol
Dr. Lamoureux idolized attending medical school and becoming a medical doctor. It was a crushing blow when he was not accepted into medical school. During his time studying dentistry, he became depressed, angry, bitter, cynical, and toxic. But he did meet a couple of nice Christians and attended a debate on evolution vs creationism. He concluded that there were two possibilities: atheism + evolution or young earth creationism + Christianity.
Chapter 4: A Peacekeeper Meets the Prince of Peace
The author is an army dentist who parties, golfs, and plays hockey. He takes a philosophy class too. He becomes uneasy with his immoral lifestyle and his philosophy class helped him see a rational argument for God’s existence. During this tour in Cyprus, he begins studying the Bible and has a powerful religious experience/conversion. He also introduces the idea of accommodation, that God meets us where we are at our level of understanding.
Chapter 5: Creation of a Young Earth Creationist
This chapter tells of the author’s continuing journey into young earth creationism, joining a Protestant church, and the concept of scientific concordism – that the Bible is a science book and accurately describes natural phenomena scientifically and literally. He also learns about dispensationalism and his first introduction to various views and literary genres.
Chapter 6: Signs from God Pointing the Way?
I really appreciated the author’s emphasis on studying scripture, learning to think more godly, and sanctification. He shares his continued struggle to choose a future course – medicine or creation/theology and doesn’t have peace about his future.
Chapter 7: Clinging to My Idol & Fighting God’s Calling
Still, the author struggles – he knows what God wants him to do but won’t yet give up his hope to become a medical doctor. Dr. Lamoureux is accepted into medical school and the Canadian Army is even paying for it. It’s like a dream come true but as he realizes he is outside of God’s will, he drops out after 3 days. Finally, he is at peace.
Chapter 8: Theology is a Contact Sport
Dr. Lamoureux begins graduate school at Regent College and outlines his modest plan (1 year of graduate school studying theology so he can be a Sunday School teacher) and his “fanciful” plan (a Ph.D. in Theology specializing in Genesis 1-11 followed by a Ph.D. in biology) in order to become a creation scientist and debunk atheistic evolution. As he began to study, he was shocked to learn that respectful and well-educated evangelical scholars pointed out that the literary genre of Genesis 1-11 included “legends” and “picture language” rather than straight literalistic scientific descriptions. The author was very aggressive and even arrogant and obnoxious in his young earth creationism beliefs but found that other true, sincere Christians, including several respected professors, were not YECs. He was challenged in his theological approach to Scripture and learned that “The Word of God includes many ancient features that were written by ancient humans during ancient periods in the past.” “If God wanted to use non-historical and made-up accounts in the Bible, that was his decision, not ours, even though we may not like it. Our task as interpreters of the Word of God is to identify these ancient mythical stories, if indeed they are present, and then draw out the inerrant messages of faith that they transport.” It was his study of the Hebrew grammar of Genesis 1:1-3 that destroyed his belief in YEC. The grammar was clear, a watery earth existed before the 6 days of creation began so it was not possible to add up the genealogies to determine the age of the earth.
Chapter 9: Battles & Surprises in Liberal Seminaries
Though no longer a YEC for theological reasons, the author still rejected evolution and wanted to disprove it. He decided to go on to get a Ph.D. in theology at the Toronto School of Theology, an academically rigorous institution, so his credentials would be excellent and he would be exposed to more than just the evangelical views at Regent College. He signs up for an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program focusing on science and religion. The atmosphere was spiritually dark and very anti-faith. Though he felt like he was in the lion’s den like Daniel, his academic, atheist advisor was brilliant and loved scholarship. He was exposed to ideas that he would not have known if he had stayed in an evangelical cocoon.
Chapter 10: A Spy in Enemy Territory
The author goes on to study biology, particularly the evolution of teeth and jaws which was appropriate given his background as a dentist. Though still rejecting evolution, he had come to see that many faithful Christians didn’t and that there wasn’t an inherent contradiction between faith and evolution. Evidence began to mount that animals were not all created “completely good and fitted together perfectly” as William Paley proposed. Vestigial baleen whale teeth were an example. The author continued to develop his theology too, moving away from scientific concordism.
Chapter 11: Retreat of the God-of-the-Gaps
Dr. Lamoureux distinguished between interventionism in the origin of the universe and interventionism in the personal lives of people. He still rejects the former while holding onto the latter. He also was exposed to countless transitional fossils, unlike Gish’s claim that there weren’t any. In addition to studying living and extinct animal jaws and teeth, the author was involved in developmental biology in the lab. The fossils showed the pattern and evo-devo showed the progress. ID movement proponents equated “ID with divine interventions in origins.” “The bacterial flagellum “declares the glory of God” to us today and it is not God-of-the-gaps interventions that purported created this incredible biomolecular machine millions of years ago that “proclaim the work of his hands.” And “I viewed the lack of biblical knowledge as one of the most serious problems with ID theory.”
Chapter 12: Evolution of an Evolutionary Creationist
This chapter tells of the author’s completion of his Ph.D. and transition to accepting evolution as an evolutionary creationist. He also felt the pastoral need for patience and sensitivity in discussions on origins. Since that time (1995), he has given a “Beyond the Evolution vs Creation” lecture twice a year at his university.
Chapter 13: An Ordained and Sustained Calling
Dr. Lamoureux finished his Ph.D. despite a significant issue with his academic supervisor. Through several improbable and divinely timed events, he successfully defended his thesis and began teaching a new science and religion course at St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta.
Chapter 14: Lessons from My Story
This final chapter contains sage advice and wisdom the author gleaned from his journey and years of teaching.
The appendix includes a chart with information on various views on origins. There are also end notes and abbreviations.
I highly recommend this book. Biographies give a special insight into a real person’s life, struggles, and experience. Dr. Lamoureux’s own story will be helpful for many Christians and seekers who have questions about origins, evolution, and understanding the Bible and Christian faith.
Chapter 1: A Story About My Story
This opening chapter is an introduction to the book and includes the reason the author is writing this book. He has learned that personal stories are effective tools of communication and that many evangelical Christians also wrestle with the topic of origins.
Chapter 2: Losing My Faith at University
The author describes the thoroughly secular and atheistic culture pervasive at his university. He doesn’t remember any Christian influences and there was an underlying message that religion is irrelevant. During his first 2 years of university, he was lured into secularism, agnosticism/atheism, and an arrogant, selfish, immoral lifestyle.
Chapter 3: An Idolater Without His Idol
Dr. Lamoureux idolized attending medical school and becoming a medical doctor. It was a crushing blow when he was not accepted into medical school. During his time studying dentistry, he became depressed, angry, bitter, cynical, and toxic. But he did meet a couple of nice Christians and attended a debate on evolution vs creationism. He concluded that there were two possibilities: atheism + evolution or young earth creationism + Christianity.
Chapter 4: A Peacekeeper Meets the Prince of Peace
The author is an army dentist who parties, golfs, and plays hockey. He takes a philosophy class too. He becomes uneasy with his immoral lifestyle and his philosophy class helped him see a rational argument for God’s existence. During this tour in Cyprus, he begins studying the Bible and has a powerful religious experience/conversion. He also introduces the idea of accommodation, that God meets us where we are at our level of understanding.
Chapter 5: Creation of a Young Earth Creationist
This chapter tells of the author’s continuing journey into young earth creationism, joining a Protestant church, and the concept of scientific concordism – that the Bible is a science book and accurately describes natural phenomena scientifically and literally. He also learns about dispensationalism and his first introduction to various views and literary genres.
Chapter 6: Signs from God Pointing the Way?
I really appreciated the author’s emphasis on studying scripture, learning to think more godly, and sanctification. He shares his continued struggle to choose a future course – medicine or creation/theology and doesn’t have peace about his future.
Chapter 7: Clinging to My Idol & Fighting God’s Calling
Still, the author struggles – he knows what God wants him to do but won’t yet give up his hope to become a medical doctor. Dr. Lamoureux is accepted into medical school and the Canadian Army is even paying for it. It’s like a dream come true but as he realizes he is outside of God’s will, he drops out after 3 days. Finally, he is at peace.
Chapter 8: Theology is a Contact Sport
Dr. Lamoureux begins graduate school at Regent College and outlines his modest plan (1 year of graduate school studying theology so he can be a Sunday School teacher) and his “fanciful” plan (a Ph.D. in Theology specializing in Genesis 1-11 followed by a Ph.D. in biology) in order to become a creation scientist and debunk atheistic evolution. As he began to study, he was shocked to learn that respectful and well-educated evangelical scholars pointed out that the literary genre of Genesis 1-11 included “legends” and “picture language” rather than straight literalistic scientific descriptions. The author was very aggressive and even arrogant and obnoxious in his young earth creationism beliefs but found that other true, sincere Christians, including several respected professors, were not YECs. He was challenged in his theological approach to Scripture and learned that “The Word of God includes many ancient features that were written by ancient humans during ancient periods in the past.” “If God wanted to use non-historical and made-up accounts in the Bible, that was his decision, not ours, even though we may not like it. Our task as interpreters of the Word of God is to identify these ancient mythical stories, if indeed they are present, and then draw out the inerrant messages of faith that they transport.” It was his study of the Hebrew grammar of Genesis 1:1-3 that destroyed his belief in YEC. The grammar was clear, a watery earth existed before the 6 days of creation began so it was not possible to add up the genealogies to determine the age of the earth.
Chapter 9: Battles & Surprises in Liberal Seminaries
Though no longer a YEC for theological reasons, the author still rejected evolution and wanted to disprove it. He decided to go on to get a Ph.D. in theology at the Toronto School of Theology, an academically rigorous institution, so his credentials would be excellent and he would be exposed to more than just the evangelical views at Regent College. He signs up for an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program focusing on science and religion. The atmosphere was spiritually dark and very anti-faith. Though he felt like he was in the lion’s den like Daniel, his academic, atheist advisor was brilliant and loved scholarship. He was exposed to ideas that he would not have known if he had stayed in an evangelical cocoon.
Chapter 10: A Spy in Enemy Territory
The author goes on to study biology, particularly the evolution of teeth and jaws which was appropriate given his background as a dentist. Though still rejecting evolution, he had come to see that many faithful Christians didn’t and that there wasn’t an inherent contradiction between faith and evolution. Evidence began to mount that animals were not all created “completely good and fitted together perfectly” as William Paley proposed. Vestigial baleen whale teeth were an example. The author continued to develop his theology too, moving away from scientific concordism.
Chapter 11: Retreat of the God-of-the-Gaps
Dr. Lamoureux distinguished between interventionism in the origin of the universe and interventionism in the personal lives of people. He still rejects the former while holding onto the latter. He also was exposed to countless transitional fossils, unlike Gish’s claim that there weren’t any. In addition to studying living and extinct animal jaws and teeth, the author was involved in developmental biology in the lab. The fossils showed the pattern and evo-devo showed the progress. ID movement proponents equated “ID with divine interventions in origins.” “The bacterial flagellum “declares the glory of God” to us today and it is not God-of-the-gaps interventions that purported created this incredible biomolecular machine millions of years ago that “proclaim the work of his hands.” And “I viewed the lack of biblical knowledge as one of the most serious problems with ID theory.”
Chapter 12: Evolution of an Evolutionary Creationist
This chapter tells of the author’s completion of his Ph.D. and transition to accepting evolution as an evolutionary creationist. He also felt the pastoral need for patience and sensitivity in discussions on origins. Since that time (1995), he has given a “Beyond the Evolution vs Creation” lecture twice a year at his university.
Chapter 13: An Ordained and Sustained Calling
Dr. Lamoureux finished his Ph.D. despite a significant issue with his academic supervisor. Through several improbable and divinely timed events, he successfully defended his thesis and began teaching a new science and religion course at St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta.
Chapter 14: Lessons from My Story
This final chapter contains sage advice and wisdom the author gleaned from his journey and years of teaching.
The appendix includes a chart with information on various views on origins. There are also end notes and abbreviations.
I highly recommend this book. Biographies give a special insight into a real person’s life, struggles, and experience. Dr. Lamoureux’s own story will be helpful for many Christians and seekers who have questions about origins, evolution, and understanding the Bible and Christian faith.
April 13, 2023
Denis Lamoureux’s latest book reads like you are observing the author’s turmoil of making significant life decisions. He continuously refers to entries in the detailed diary and notebooks that he kept throughout his adult life, in which he recorded his spiritual and intellectual struggles with God and origins while earning doctorates in dentistry, theology and biological evolution.
This is really three books in one: (1) Lamoureux’s personal journey from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity, including his struggle with his personal idol of wanting to go to medical school, (2) Lamoureux’s struggle with discerning and following God’s will for his life and how it led to his current position of teaching science and religion courses at St. Joseph’s College in the University of Alberta, and (3) his struggle with the credibility of biological evolution and God as the best explanation of how it happened.
The defining point in his life was his final choice of medical school or graduate school in theology. He likened his situation to that of Jonah, who tried to avoid God’s will for his life, hence the illustration on the cover of the book.
He presents a convincing description of the biological evolution of teeth and jaws via transitional fossils and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This is a logical result of his professional training as a dentist and his graduate education in biological evolution.
He describes how he realized that the Bible was not the problem, but that human interpretation of the Bible was the problem and that accepting biological evolution as the way God chose to create had no impact on his Christian faith.
Along the way, Lamoureux presents numerous insights into discerning God’s will for one’s life and into the creation-evolution dialogue. He concludes his book with a review of lessons learned.
The book includes ten pages of Endnotes and one Appendix containing Lamoureux’s excellent one-page description and comparison of five views of Creation (Young Earth Creation, Progressive Creation, Evolutionary Creation, Deistic Evolution, and Atheistic Evolution).
I recommend Denis Lamoureux’s book to anyone interested in the creation-evolution dialogue and/or the Christianity-Atheism dialogue.
This is really three books in one: (1) Lamoureux’s personal journey from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity, including his struggle with his personal idol of wanting to go to medical school, (2) Lamoureux’s struggle with discerning and following God’s will for his life and how it led to his current position of teaching science and religion courses at St. Joseph’s College in the University of Alberta, and (3) his struggle with the credibility of biological evolution and God as the best explanation of how it happened.
The defining point in his life was his final choice of medical school or graduate school in theology. He likened his situation to that of Jonah, who tried to avoid God’s will for his life, hence the illustration on the cover of the book.
He presents a convincing description of the biological evolution of teeth and jaws via transitional fossils and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This is a logical result of his professional training as a dentist and his graduate education in biological evolution.
He describes how he realized that the Bible was not the problem, but that human interpretation of the Bible was the problem and that accepting biological evolution as the way God chose to create had no impact on his Christian faith.
Along the way, Lamoureux presents numerous insights into discerning God’s will for one’s life and into the creation-evolution dialogue. He concludes his book with a review of lessons learned.
The book includes ten pages of Endnotes and one Appendix containing Lamoureux’s excellent one-page description and comparison of five views of Creation (Young Earth Creation, Progressive Creation, Evolutionary Creation, Deistic Evolution, and Atheistic Evolution).
I recommend Denis Lamoureux’s book to anyone interested in the creation-evolution dialogue and/or the Christianity-Atheism dialogue.
April 2, 2023
This is a fascinating story, honestly shared of Lamoureux’s journey to evolutionary creationism. His discernment of the guidance of God at many points along the way is striking, to say the least. This is an essential book for all those who are being pressed with the false dichotomy of either affirming 6 day young earth creation or being accused of denying the Word of God.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews