What Is Man? By Edgar Andrews

Reading What Is Man? By Edgar Andrews was a sheer delight.

Having published over 100 scientific research papers, Andrews is a scientist of the highest caliber. He is also a pastor. Even though I am not a scientist myself, Andrews did a masterful job explaining complex scientific ideas in a way that was easily attainable for me.

His book is broken up into 3 main parts:

1) Man And The Cosmos

2) Man And The Biosphere

3) Man And The Bible

Man And The Cosmos

Andrews introducing his book explaining how there are 4 views as to how mankind was made:

1) in the image of apes

2) in the image of an emergent spirit

3) in the image of an implanted spirit

4) in the image of God

Andrews himself believes mankind to be made in the image of God and spends the rest of the book building a case for his position.

He makes the important point that one of the greatest clues to understanding man’s existence is to understand where it is that mankind lives. Specifically, he uses cosmological arguments to display that it is far more likely that mankind lives in a universe created by God rather than a naturalistic one.

His treatment on aliens and extraterrestrial life was one of the most interesting aspects of the book in my opinion. He looks at past and current attempts of discovering extraterrestrial life and makes the case that the existence of aliens in our universe is highly unlikely.

In his chapter on fine-tuning he uses Martin Rees’ six fine-tuned quantities to show how perfect our universe’s laws of physics are set for life. In the following chapter, he analyzes different models of the multiverse and makes a devastating case against those who believe the multiverse can somehow account for the creation of our finely-tuned universe.

In the conclusion of chapter 5, in strong words Andrews says,

It has been said that neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them, and psychiatrists collect the rent. Scientists who urge upon us the “reality” of their mathematical castles-in-the-air are neither neurotics nor psychotics (thought they might, of course, be psychiatrists). They are among the most intelligent of people. But their supposed “realities,” when examined in the cold light of day, turn out to be mirages masquerading as science.

Man And The Biosphere

In Part 2 of the book Andrews argues powerfully against evolution, especially as an explainer for the existence of man.

He responds to the oft quoted fact that chimpanzee genes are 98% the same as the genes of humans. This fact is often used as ammunition to defend the idea of common ancestry and specifically that mankind is merely a more evolved ape. He argues that this fact is misused and in fact does little to support the evolutionists’ cause.

For example, while the genes of chimps and men are very similar, genes are only a small part of the genome as a whole. It turns out there is much more of a difference between the chimp genome and the human genome. Furthermore, genes on their own do not determine the makeup of a being. Epigenetics shows us that genes are used in many different ways. For example, a caterpillar which later turns into a butterfly has identical genes in both forms, however caterpillars and butterflies are very different creatures. Additionally, alternative splicing shows us that cells often use different parts of a gene and not the gene as a whole. This leads to all kinds of variability not included in the 98% comparison.

In his chapter on fossils, Andrews shows how the field of paleoanthropology is mostly an inner-circle controlled, bias echo chamber. In museums when we see “fossils” of our pre-human ancestors, we are usually looking at models created from very small bone fragments or teeth.

Andrews also critiques the misuse of Carbon 14 dating along with other forms of radiometric dating such as the potassium-argon method. Some of these methods are only useful for relatively recent dates and others for extremely old dates. In both cases, we are assuming that the molecules being measured have not been disrupted over time in any way. The assumptions are dangerous since it has been shown many times that we are not as consistent in our dating abilities as many are led to believe.

This entire section of Andrews book was highly beneficial to me and helped me to respond to common pro-evolution arguments I often hear.

Man And The Bible

Andrews introduces the third section of the book addressing the importance of worldviews. Certainly, answering the question “what is man?” is about as foundational of a worldview question there is. In this section he describes the Biblical worldview and goes on to address some specific aspects of the Biblical worldview.

Today, many Christians doubt the existence of a historical Adam. There is an often-quoted idea that there had to have been 10,000 Adams (pre-humans) in order to see human society as we see it today. Andrews argues that idea is factually untrue, and it is perfectly scientific to believe in a historical Adam as the father of all humanity.

After this point, the book transitions towards far more theology and less science. Andrews considers the creation and fall narratives in Genesis and how they describe what man is.

He makes a strong emphasis on mankind being made in the image of God and emphasizes the role Jesus plays in helping us to understand ourselves as human beings.

He wraps up the book with an apologetic for the resurrection. The resurrection is a critical part of answering the question “what is man?” because understanding man’s “end” is just as important as understanding his beginning.

Overall, I would give a strong recommendation for this book. It was full of valuable information and was even fun to read.

How often can you say that about a science-heavy book?

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