Darrel R. Falk – författare

The Fool and the Heretic is a deeply personal story told by two respected scientists who hold opposing views on the topic of origins, share a common faith in Jesus Christ, and began a sometimes-painful journey to explore how they can remain in Christian fellowship when each thinks the other is harming the church. To some in the church, anyone who accepts the theory of evolution has rejected biblical teaching and is therefore thought of as a heretic. To many outside the church as well as a growing number of evangelicals, anyone who accepts the view that God created the earth in six days a few thousand years ago must be poorly educated and ignorant--a fool. Todd Wood and Darrel Falk know what it's like to be thought of, respectively, as a fool and a heretic. This book shares their pain in wearing those labels, but more important, provides a model for how faithful Christians can hold opposing views on deeply divisive issues yet grow deeper in their relationship to each other and to God.

The Bible''s opening chapter includes these words: "So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." We are created beings, with a unique status in creation. Nothing is more fundamental to Christian faith. Yet biologists present extensive data and provide a picture of how our species came to be, but there is no Creator in the intricate details of the painting they provide. If the scientific evidence for the evolution picture is reasonable--and, in general, it is--and if humans were indeed created from a common ancestor of the great apes, then what can be said about the Artist who Christians believe was at work? Vague answers are not satisfactory anymore--not in this scientific age. Recent mainstream data from paleoanthropology and genetics suggest that the basis of our species'' success was not that they were superior fighters. Rather, the reason our ancestors thrived was likely their ability to function cooperatively in groups--to respect each other and to get along. This reframes the question about the nature of the hovering Spirit''s activity in bringing our species into being. And that is the subject of this book.