J. Warner Wallace’s God's Crime Scene

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1434707849/fragrancy-21
God’s Crime Scene is a good resource for those who don’t mind putting on a detective’s hat and going on an unbeaten path of discovery.

Apologists use different tools to defend their positions. Christian apologists, in particular, are well-known for using science, philosophy and or bible verses. However, I have never come across an apologist with a detective (private eye) skillset, who employs techniques used in solving murder cases to justify the existence of God, until I picked up God’s Crime Scene by J. Warner Wallace.

J. Warner Wallace is a cold-case homicide detective in real life. He brings his work experience to the table and uses actual cases to determine whether a divine being created the universe or not. He says,
“This book is my attempt to help you look at the nature of the universe – my effort to share a personal investigation of God’s existence. I hope to pass along a detective’s perspective related to evidence and case construction. I want to make you a better investigator and give you a few tools for your call-out bag.”

J. Warner Wallace starts by examining a particular case where someone did break into a home from outside and killed a man. One of the reasons the detectives on the case came to this conclusion was because the suspect left his shoe foam behind. Thus the author concludes that if an important evidence points to the existence of an external suspect, it is imperative that the investigation must follow that trail. He says, “… like the shoe foam, the earth’s creation cannot be explained from ‘inside the room’. The evidence points to a cause outside of space, time and matter.” This means, for a relevant explanation as to why the universe came to be, we must take look outside of it.

The author offers the Milky Way as an example. He states that the position and size of it is favourable to life. Also, the composition, position, age, and mass of the sun is perfect for life on earth. Not only that, the earth’s atmospheric condition and terrestrial nature are just right for our existence in this world. These, he says, are evidence that disproof the theory that the world sprang out of nothingness.

The author also expresses concern that the people who believe that the earth came out of nothing are redefining the word “nothing” to suit their agenda. J. Warner Wallace quotes the theoretical physicist, Lawrence Krauss who says,
“’Physics has changed what we mean by ‘nothing’…Empty space is a boiling, bubbling brew of virtual particles popping in and out of existence…If you wait long enough, that kind of ‘nothing will always produce results.’”
The author counters this view by asking,
“…can we rally avoid a beginning from nothing by simply redefining nothing? When theoretical physicists behave in this way, they remind me of my sons when they were teenagers. They would come home from school and look in the refrigerator for something to eat. My wife always stocked the refrigerator with healthy food, leading at least one of my sons to proclaim, ‘There’s nothing to eat in the refrigerator.’”

J. Warner Wallace says those who believe there are imperfections in human biological systems, hence, ruling out any notion of a designer or God, simply do not account for human’s limited understanding of this world. He argues that,
“There are times when our limited understanding of biological systems leads us to perceive some degree of imperfection even when this is not the case. This appears to be the situation involving what used to be considered ‘junk DNA’. The more we learn about apparent ‘non-functioning’ genes and seemingly useless genomic regions, the more we recognize them as important contributors to an elaborate informational system. In the past several years, scientist have discovered a large number of non-protein-coding DNA regions under strong ‘selective constraints.’”

God’s Crime Scene is a rigorous attempt at looking at a mountain of evidence to bring together a full picture of a supreme maker behind the creation of the universe. Whether you are convinced by the author’s arguments or not, God’s Crime Scene is a serious and bold work of painstaking detail.
The language used is simple enough. However, the introduction of science terms can be overwhelming for laymen. Having said that, I believe the overall book is simple enough to understand as a whole.

God’s Crime Scene is a good resource for those who don’t mind putting on a detective’s hat and going on an unbeaten path of discovery.

God's Crime Scene is written by J. Warner Wallace and published by David C. Cook (August 1, 2015).

Many thanks to David C. Cook for review copy. All images are © to their respective owners.
 

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