The Prism and the Rainbow

by Joel W. Martin

God or Darwin? It is one of the most contentious conflicts of our time. It is also completely unnecessary, according to Joel W. Martin, an evolutionary biologist and ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. In this slim but powerful book, Martin argues that it is not contradictory to be a practicing, faithful Christian who accepts the science of evolution.

Martin finds that much of the controversy in the United States over evolution is manufactured and predicated on a complete — and sometimes willful — misapprehension of basic science. Science and religion, he says, serve different purposes and each seeks to answer questions that the other need never address. He believes that many of the polarizing debates about evolution distract from the deeper lessons of Christianity and that literal, fundamentalist readings of the Bible require the faithful to reject not just evolution but many of science's greatest discoveries.

Just as the scientific explanation of rainbows is not meant to refute the biblical "rainbow" story of God's promise, evolutionary theory is not a ploy to disavow the divine. Indeed, Martin shows that the majority of Christians worldwide accept the theory of evolution. He urges his fellow Christians to refuse to participate in the intellectually stifling debate over evolution and creationism/intelligent design.

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

First published May 11, 2010

About the author

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Reviews

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this book is nowhere is thorough as "Finding Darwin's God" by Ken Miller but it is good for an introduction on the topic why Evolution is not a threat to the Christian faith, especially for those who either don't have the time to read Miller's very long book or who simply don't have the necessary background to understand it.
In both books, in my opinion, it basically comes down to the question "Why does evolution of all things bother you?"
The author of this book does a good job in illustrtating how there have been several instances where people of strong faith have thought that this and that piece of knowledge science, or generally human observation, (e.g. that the earth revolves around the sun or that it is round) where a threat against their faith, and each time Christianity has survived. The author mentions several cases of recent and current branches of christianity who base their attitudes solely on their specific interpretation of the bible and think theres is the only one and shows that many creationists/intelligent designers have the same attitude: that only their interpretation is right and nothing else.
Of course this is not the only topic of the book. The author never claims to be fully knowledgeable on science or theology and clearly states that others have much more experience in that. However he does give a good explanation on what science is and what certain terms (evolution, theory, hyothesis, fact) mean in science and what often in everday langauage and how there is a rift between the two fields. He also gives some data and which christian faiths accept evolution and which not, also the difficulty in obtaining and interpretating this data.

All in all I would say that if you looking for an entrance into to topic of evolution and Christianity, not evolution vs. Christianity, this is your book to go to.