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Who Was Adam?: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man

Product Overview

Was Adam an accident of nature, or a creature designed with significance and purpose? Did humans descend from an ape-like ancestor through lucky happenstance, or were the first man and woman deliberately created, made in God's image?

Evolutionary theory dominates academic thought and public discourse as the only valid explanation for humanity's origin.

• The hominid fossil record
• Neanderthals
• Junk DNA
• Human and chimp genetic similarity

Many observations appear to validate Darwin's ideas. But do they? Long before Darwin, a man named David voiced a different view. And, both men can't be right.

Recent discoveries, some with biblical overtones, are causing many scientists to abandon traditional evolutionary accounts in favor of a radically different explanation. In Who Was Adam? biochemist Fazale Rana and astronomer Hugh Ross discuss many of these advances and propose a new scientific model for human origins, a creation model. Can human evolution be declared a fact? Or does creation make more scientific sense? Reasons To Believe's biblically consistent model can be tested to answer the questions, with astounding results.

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About the Authors

Hugh Ross

Hugh Ross launched his career at age seven when he went to the library to find out why stars are hot. Physics and astronomy captured his curiosity, and they never let go. He was the youngest person--at age seventeen--ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver's Royal Astronomical Society. With the help of a provincial scholarship and a National Research Council (NRC) of Canada fellowship, Hugh completed his undergraduate degree in physics (University of British Columbia) and graduate degrees in astronomy (University of Toronto). The NRC also sent him to the United States for postdoctoral studies at Caltech, where he researched quasi-stellar objects, or "quasars," some of the most distant and ancient objects in the universe.

Not all Hugh's discoveries had to do with astrophysics. He observed with amazement the impact of describing for people both inside and outside his collegial community the process by which he came to personal faith in Jesus Christ. A few expressed dismay but most seemed overjoyed to meet someone who started at (or near) religious ground zero and through reality testing, both scientific and historical, became convinced that the Bible is truly the Word of God. For his part, Hugh was stunned to discover how many individuals believed--or disbelieved--blindly, without checking evidence.

Fazale Rana

Fazale "FUZ" Rana discovered the fascinating world of cells while taking chemistry and biology courses for the premed program at West Virginia State College (University). As a Presidential Scholar at West Virginia State College he earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry with highest honors. He completed a Ph.D. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry at Ohio University, where he twice won the Donald Clippinger Research Award. Postdoctoral studies took him to the Universities of Virginia and Georgia. Fuz then worked seven years as a senior scientist in product development for Procter & Gamble.

Research in biochemistry provided Fuz with the initial evidence that life must have been created. Although he recognized the work of a designer, he did not know the designer's identity. A personal challenge daring him to read the Bible revealed the scriptural evidence that the God of the Bible is the Creator. Eventually, concern for the supposed incompatibility of science and Scripture led Fuz to Reasons To Believe.

Fuz lives in Southern California with his wife, Amy, and their three daughters.

Loving Truth Books & Gifts Review

In a way, this book is a continuation of the Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off also by Dr. Rana with Dr. Ross, moving from the origins of life time to focus on the origins of humanity. It also covers often related topics such as: hominids, Neanderthals, chimpanzees, bipedalism & brain size, fossil record, "junk" DNA, migration of peoples (out-of-Africa winning over the multi-region theory - now most scientists agree; even SciAm - see Jul'07 issue), recent genetic analysis, etc. Consider only 3 highlights:

1. Re. Hominids (Turkana Boy, etc): a very insightful point: "RTB's biblical creation model considers the hominids found in the fossil record to be animals created by God's direct intervention for His purposes. They existed for a time, then went extinct. These remarkable creatures walked erect. They also possessed limited intelligence and emotional capacity. Such characteristic allowed them to employ crude tools and even adopt a low lever of 'culture', much as baboons, gorillas, and chimpanzees do. But, while the hominids were created by God's command, they were not spiritual beings made in His image. That status was reserved for human beings." (pg 50). Human beings possess unique characteristics: morality (sense right & wrong), being spiritual beings with propensity toward worship and prayer, relational aspects, mental capacity with reason, logical thinking, and symbolic thought, are aware of past, present, and future, display intense creativity, all reflecting being made in God's image. (pg. 79). Many objections are answered such as the "lucky happenstance" (answer: "hundreds of simultaneous just-right mutations would be required to transform the archaic hominid brain into a human one" (pg 93)), plus other problems.
2. Re. Neanderthals: from genetic analysis research "Neanderthals were not more closely related to Europeans or any other population group than to human beings as a whole. This potent genetic data casts serious doubt upon the multiregional hypothesis..." (pg.184) Further interesting note: "Compared to Neanderthal's brains, the human brain has a larger parietal lobe. This brain region plays a vital role in language, math reasoning, sense of self-identity, and religious experience." (pg. 197)
3. Re. Chimpanzees: a lot has been made out of the 98% chimpanzee to human genetic similarity, but consider this quote from anthropologist Jonathan Marks: "...to say that humans are over one-third daffodils [35%] is more ludicrous than profound..." (pg. 220) Dr. Rana explains that sharing design components reflects elegant design efficiency, as even kids with building blocks and computer engineers such as myself can readily attest. Some object that fossil records out-of-order (in terms of complexity) would be needed to prove Dr. Rana and Dr. Ross' views. But, in design sciences, it always makes sense to build your creation from simpler forms to more complex (consider any engineering field: computers, software, etc that humans have intelligently designed as a valid analogy for expected flow of design).

Filled with careful analysis, research, and calm answers to objections, this book is written so much better than any biology textbooks that I have read. The authors do an excellent job in connecting the various pieces of research into a coherent theory which are Biblically aligned. The RTB model (old earth creationism model) is put to the test and compared with blind Darwinian evolution.

Review By:  Zoran Zaev

Related Products

Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off by Hugh Ross, Ph.D. & Fazale Rana Ph.D. $15.00

The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry by Fazale Rana, Ph.D. $15.00

Dual Revelation DVD by Reasons to Believe $17.00

Journey Toward Creation DVD by Hugh Ross $17.00

The Privileged Planet DVD by Illustra Media $17.00

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