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Fine-Tuned for Life

by Kenny Barfield, Lambert Book House, © 2020,
306 pages $15.95 (paperback), ISBN-13: 978-0-89315-996-2

Wendell Ford is an electrical engineer with degrees from Oklahoma State, the University of Southern California, and the University of New Mexico. He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. As I read the book, I was amazed to find it had a unique approach to science and Genesis while being respectful of God's Word.

Ford approaches Genesis from the perspective of the people living at the time it was written. He wrote: “Genesis was not written to inform us of the details of how everything came into existence, but it is written to tell us who did it, what our relationship is to him, and what our responsibility is.” He begs his readers to avoid making claims and assumptions the Bible does not make and to understand that science deals with material things while theology deals with the realm that science cannot reach.

The book emphasizes what the Hebrew actually says, how many times words are used, and in what ways. An example is that the Hebrew word sometimes translated “rib” actually means “side.” Ford feels that Adam and Eve may not have been the first humans, but they were the starting point for God’s sending of his Son. He does not deal with the age of the Earth and says the question of time is irrelevant.

The book does not misrepresent science or use it in careless ways. Ford wrote, “What I had hoped to show in this book was that science and religion are two separate areas with two different methodologies. Therefore one cannot make claims about the other.”

This is a challenging book and well worth reading. You may not agree with the author, but he does not try to force his understanding on the reader. Some of his approaches will challenge whatever you believe, but you will grow and be encouraged by reading it.