Book Review-The Genesis Enigma

The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible is Scientifically Accurate. Book Review.



Book Details:

The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible is Scientifically Accurate?

Andrew Parker

Dutton (Penguin Group USA), October 2009

ISBN 9780525951247

Buy The Genesis Enigma @ Amazon

Regular readers are aware of my fascination with Genesis. I am, however, usually turned off by debate disguised as discourse about the "accuracy" of Genesis. The sides are typically well-defined, immovable,  and predictable. Andrew Parker's take on Genesis 1 is anything but predictable.


In his words:


Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself by beginning with Parker's conclusion. In his introduction, Parker outlines his thesis and makes the following comparison (edited for brevity):

Genesis - Scientific History

1. Let there be light...

The formation of the sun.

2. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let dry land appear...

The formation of the seas and separation of the land areas.

3. Let the earth bring forth grass and herb yielding seed...

The beginnings of life, including single-celled photosynthetic organisms

4. Let there be lights…to divide the day from night...


5. Let the waters bring forth abundantly moving creatures that hath life...

The Cambrian explosion-evolution’s Big Bang. Exclusively marine life (emphasis added).



And every winged fowl after his kind...


Generally speaking, I think creationists, who I'll call "old earth" for lack of a better term, accept some similar Genesis/evolutionary progression. What is unique about Parker's assertion, and, in my humble opinion, scientifically revolutionary, is the light switch theory and the parallel between the evolution of the eye and "let there be lights..."

The light switch theory, in short, holds that the evolution of vision is what led to the Cambrian explosion (of aquatic life). Parker suggests, "The very first eye on earth effectively turned on the lights for animal behavior and consequently for further rapid evolution, while providing accurate recognition of night and day." It's an interesting correlation which Parker attempts to make. In fact, I would suggest his whole thesis depends on it.

Using these heretofore unmade correlations, Parker determines,



We have passed from the first stage in the creation account on the Bible's opening page to the sixth, and found it all remarkably accurate, as if the modern scientific story of the universe and life were being narrated. I don't know the odds against such a parallel-against making a successful guess at the scientific orthodoxy of three thousand years in the future from a knowledge base of nothing-but they must be extraordinarily long. As I first looked through this sequence of Genesis, I did not think that we could possibly reach the end of an impartial history of the universe and life without finding more than a few obstacles. I thought Genesis would fall at the first hurdle or two. I'm amazed that we have made it to the end unscathed.

It should be obvious, but if not I'll mention that Andrew Parker, Ph.D., is a scientist, a research fellow at Oxford and a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. And as expected, the young-earth creationists/ID camp don't buy it, but neither do the other guys (I read one reviewer who actually called this intellectual suicide, yikes!).

Honestly, I don't understand the nature of the criticism. In the legal community, some judges hold to the theory that if both sides are upset, the ruling must have been fair. Such wisdom has limited application, of course, but this may be an applicable circumstance: since both opposing camps are critical of the book, perhaps the conclusions reached are fair. There's no way to know if they are entirely accurate, but perhaps they are fair.






Parker succinctly characterizes the issue he presents:




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