Book Review: It Couldn't Just Happen

I took the opportunity to read and review It Couldn't Just Happen Knowing the Truth about God's Awesome Creation by Lawrence O. Richards.  This is the first book I've reviewed for Book Sneeze.  You can find out more about Book Sneeze in my sidebar. 

                                                                                                                         Let me preface this by saying, I'm one of those people that believe in a young earth.  Now, if you were to ask me to give you solid proof, I would have some trouble.  I'm just starting to delve into the proofs behind Creation, although I have most certainly believed in the Truth my whole life.  I was the first to speak up in Science class when the inevitable talk about Evolution surfaced. 

 It Couldn't Just Happen is marketed to a juvenile audience, but the writing is a bit advanced, in my opinion.  My boys are 3,6 and 9.  I would not hand any of them this book at present, nor would I use it as a read-aloud.  I really found the book to be more of a reference material that will go on my bookshelf.  When my boys are a bit older, I think we will refer to it often.

It Couldn't Just Happen is written well, laid out in traditional format, with  a list of Just For Fun questions to think about or activities to do at the completion of each chapter. Richards gives solid Biblical evidence for Creation shown through astronomy, the animal kingdom, plant life, geology, and human anatomy.  That's the basic scheme of the book. Following is my opinion.
There's this whole controversy (I think the debate's probably been going on forever!) over whether the earth has been around for billions or thousands of years.  Evolutionists, of course, perpetuate the billions theory.  But there are Creationists who speak in terms of billions as well.  I was hoping this book would give me age proof, but it did not.  In the fifth chapter, Richards points out that we can easily see why the "many different and complex living creatures on Earth could hardly have developed from a single, ancient cell, as Evolutionists think.  All this is evidence that God exists and that he is our Creator.  But none of this tells us the date of Creation."

Though It Couldn't Just Happen disappointed me on my age questions, it is definitely a book filled with evidence of Creation.  Sometimes, there's this certain way the sun shines out from behind clouds, and the first thing I think is "wow, how awesome is this Creation."  I point out to my children the fact that "Isn't that cool that God created that for us to enjoy?"  But I've never really researched just how awesome Creation is!   Richards unveils just how awesome the Truth really is!

Quite frankly, if you are an Evolutionist reading my blog, which I doubt there are any, but that would be cool because I've always thought it'd be neat to have a controversial blog ...here are some interesting points from It Couldn't Just Happen for you to consider.

• you have to have DNA to make DNA (hence, life could not have come about by chance, it must have been created by God)
• animals that adapt to their environment were created with those variations already built into their genes! they don't just happen to change over time
• there is not one complete fossil sequence of slow change from one kind of plant or animal to another
• similarities in the animal world suggest an Intelligent Designer!
• everything bears the clear mark of planning
• "when someone finds a few bones or bone fragments and announces to the world that he has found the link between human and animal, we don't have to believe him!...because every other claim to have discovered some link to man's animal past has later been proven wrong!"

Mr. Richards includes a chapter on human anatomy and how God designed us just perfectly in His image. In one of the last chapters he writes how we can be sure the Bible is Truth and couldn't have just happened.  He concludes his book with a very important question.  Would you rather succumb to the false Theory of Evolution and have death be your destiny... your end?  Or could you suppose that the Theory is wrong, and you find a Hope for your future through the realization that you were specially created by one amazing Intelligent Designer?

The above post is my own opinion.  I was not compensated for reading this book or giving my opinion.