In this generation of instant knowledge access through the internet, we no longer have to depend on our teachers and the media to understand truths about our natural reality. Through research into legitimate sources, anyone can control the input to their minds, rather than have that input managed by those with vested interests. So we finally have the intellectual freedom to discover the answers to those hidden and unanswered questions that occupy our thoughts, if we are honest and curious critical thinkers. This natural reality, which we can access, will allow us to question our indoctrination concerning the origin of species, and understand that accepted scientific laws disprove spontaneous generation, that the mapping of the genetic code disproves Darwin's "Tree of Life", and solar observations disprove the "Big Bang". We can fathom the mysteries of natural reality with a little background and a little effort, but that knowledge will leave us stranded in the confusion of the interface of natural logic and supernatural or spiritual reality. In order to expand our minds and our imagination, we must consider the possibility of the supernatural. Will that possibility better explain how the universe began, how prophesy and miracles are possible, and what is behind the existence of good and evil? If we can accept the existence of a supernatural reality, we can begin to understand why the great minds of the past consistently believed in God and gave their lives to better understand His mysteries, instead of futilely fighting truths by attacking paper windmills, as does so much science, education and journalism today. the purpose of the Future of Species is to try to answer these deeper questions by examining both the theories of evolution and Creation from a scientific and theological perspective and to encourage the reader to decide objectively which theory is true, and which will lead us to a more promising future. It order to provide some information on both theories, extensive quotes are presented to try to fairly give the reasoning behind the conclusions and compare that reasoning with scientific laws. Several different philosophical and religious beliefs are reviewed from biased and neutral sources in order to discover a route forward to prepare ourselves for an unknown future. Quotes are given from many of the great thinkers of recent and current times including Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Alvin Plantinga, Pierre Teilhard, Dennis Peterson, R.C. Sproul, Gerald Schroder, Desmond Alexander, Randal Price, Michael Pitman, Robert Hazen, Paul Davies, Francis Shaeffer, John Harnett, S. Burgess, D.R. Humphries, D.M. Harris, Henry Morris, H.C. Dudley, E. Hubble, George Ellis, Kurt Wise, Brian Thomas, Dorothy Allford, Alexander Oparin, Robert Shapiro, J.D. Bernal, Clara Moskowitz, Randy Guliuzza, Nathaniel Jeanson, James Johnson, Jeffrey Tomkins, Carl Wieland, Arch Warren, and many research and technical references including the Environmental Protection Agency. As the book delves into the supernatural reality, it searches the claimed truths of the Holy Bible to determine its communication about the origin, the present and the future of species. As in most questions, the truth of the future can be better predicted by a study of the past. An in depth study of the past and the present reveals an obvious presence of the supernatural. Our problem is that the supernatural cannot be understood using natural knowledge and that is very frustrating to those of us trained to be able to understand anything. At this point in our reasoning, we need to admit that the only reason that we feel that we have to understand everything, is that we want to be God, to not only understand, but to control our future and that of those around us. If that is our future, as you should be able to imagine, there will be chaos, wars and death. But if the words of God as expressed in the Bible are true, there is a future of peace, comfort and joy!
About the Author: E. Roberts Alley is a consulting environmental engineer with a Bachelor's degree in engineering and a Master of Science from Vanderbilt University. He has been an Elder and adult Sunday School teacher for about twenty years in the Presbyterian Church in America. He has taught environmental engineering on the faculty at Vanderbilt, taught extensive courses at the University of Tennessee, East Tennessee State University, George Washington University in the US and England, and the Centre for Management Technology in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, and written five technical and two religious books. Bob has four wonderful children and ten amazing grandchildren and lives in Nashville, TN.