“The central argument of the book is simple,” writes reviewer John M. Lynch: “certain aspects of nature reveal a purpose that reveals the ‘Genius of Nature’ ... there literally is a Genius (namely, God) behind nature, and we can demonstrate this by the example of the existence of Shakespeare’s works, Euclid’s geometry, the periodic table and its elements, fine-tuning in the cosmos, and biological complexity. The degree to which one is convinced ... will be dictated by one’s exposure to both philosophical argumentation and contemporary science. I remain unconvinced.”

Far from being a scholarly treatment, reviewer Marc-André Lachance warns, Charles Darwin’s Religious Views is “a deception, a carrier wave for a disparaging message; not entirely surprising, as Herbert is candid enough to confess his allegiance to biblical inerrancy and the resultant frame of mind.” Redefining terms, pigeonholing views, and ignoring context, Herbert treats evolution as a religion with natural selection its divinity. Lachance concludes, “those curious to see yet another muddled religionist’s attempt to conflate science and religion in a vain hope of discrediting one of our greatest thinkers will be well served by Herbert’s recycled musings.”

The central idea of Rana’s book, according to reviewer Juli Peretó, is that “the human contribution to all the experiments of prebiotic chemistry and the emergent field of synthetic biology shows that nothing could have happened on the early earth under the control of natural forces alone.” Summarizing his reaction, Peretó lamented that “at first sight satisfactory scientific descriptions are followed by strained and implausible arguments for the religiously significant conclusions. ... [T]he arguments will appear compelling only if you are willing to desert the scientific domain."

London: Routledge, 2010; 222 pages

“Writing against both biblical fundamentalists and militant secularists, Goodman hopes to show that religion is no threat to evolution and that Darwinism doesn’t mean that God is dead,” explains reviewer Arthur McCalla. “His grand theme is that proximate and ultimate causes need not be rivals and therefore that evolution and theism are complementary; God works in and through nature.” While appreciating the thoughtful approach Goodman takes in Creation and Evolution, McCalla suspects that it “will fulfill its goal of encouraging readers to develop their own models of reconciling Darwinism and religion only for readers who share its author’s religious interpretation of the world.”

Avise’s book highlights the baroque, redundant, and inefficient features of the human genome: “None of this is easily explained by actions of either a loving and merciful God or of an unnamed but highly competent Designer,” reviewers Arcady Mushegian and Eric Kessler comment. They add, “Avise’s account is concise but rich in historic and medical detail, and the prose is elegant and lucid. The book is a joy to read, and is suitable for anyone who is interested in science and medicine enough to be a casual reader of Scientific American or Discover magazines.”

Reviewer Jeffrey Shallit writes, “The thesis of Why Us? is simple: science has no answers to the questions that really matter—questions like: How did humans come to be bipedal and have large brains? How, precisely, does the human brain work? How does an immaterial mind affect the material body? What is awareness and free will? Science provides no explanations, and furthermore, Le Fanu argues, it is unlikely that it ever will.” Shallit gives a number of examples of incorrect, unsupported, and controversial assertions of Le Fanu’s, adding, “the most unattractive part of Why Us? is the book’s antiintellectualism.”