The mainstay of human thought, Creation or Evolution, is covered in an extraordinary fashion in Maurice A. Williams' book, Questioning Evolution. As a child he was taught creation and later in maturity, he became, in his own words, "very impressed with science and the gifted and well-educated men of science." Maurice's book, then, is simply a compilation of the short essays, all 133 of them, he posted over the internet during a twelve-year period of self-discovery. What makes them extraordinary is the level of variegation of topics covered in this medium sized book.
Given the wide range of themes arising out of the two mentioned above, creation or evolution, the book has a comprehensive index at the end, pointing to the reader where to find what. What worked for me was the fact that I could really begin reading anywhere as they are mostly randomly arranged. And besides, some themes covered in one essay are repeated elsewhere in the book, albeit under different headlines; for example, essay nine, "Evolution versus Intelligent design", covers the same themes as essay twenty, "Evolution versus Creationism", and even a subsequent one, "Intelligence". These essays present many scientists' view that the universe was not created by anyone - it happened by pure chance, and all living forms simply evolved over long periods of time. The Creationists' view, on the other hand, is to point out the complexity of the various life forms and their internal chemistry. Further that there is too much interdependence between different life forms and the nervous system, hormones, antibodies within those animals for them to accept that all that is simply as a result of random chance mutations.
The author has used short chapters to create pace in his nonfiction work. The arguments presented in each chapter are understandable and end quickly rather than bog the reader with complex descriptions or details. In addition, Maurice's thought process or personality is revealed in his search for the truth. He is, initially, faced with a dilemma between the biblical training he received as a youth and the science education he later received in his maturity. His attitude to all this is solemn. He realizes that there is no middle ground with these two presumptions - if one is correct, the other must be wrong. Moreover, the author is persuasive in his writing; though, he also employs a lot of expository writing as well, as he seeks to explain each opposing view in detail. He does this through his description of the tenets of Darwinism, on the one hand, and citing of scriptural verses on the other; ultimately, leaving the reader to decide for themselves.
My favorite essay in the book was headlined "Evolution and Abortion". It started by giving the theory of evolution as above described with the inference that no intelligent agent guides evolution, not even the organism's own intelligence. Maurice went further to give the abortion supporters' views that a person does not come into existence until after the tissue housing the person was ejected from the mother's body. Prior to that, the tissue was merely a growth within the mother's body. After ejection, with no physical or chemical change to the tissues, the tissue, instantly, became a human being. His conclusion is that the proponents of abortion claim that people didn't become "human" until after the ejection of the fully-formed body from the mother's body only destroys the theory of evolution.
Overall, this is an enjoyable read that I would recommend to each person because it tackles, convincingly, a very emotive issue that everyone grapples with at one point in their lives, if not all the time.
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