My book is called Amazing Animals by Design, from which the title of this blog came. In a nutshell, its purpose is to introduce young children to the theory of Intelligent Design.
If you are not familiar with the theory of Intelligent Design, it basically says that if you were walking in the woods and you found a wristwatch laying on a stump, you probably would not say, "Would you look at that? The rocks and twigs in the woods around here somehow managed to form into the pieces of a clock mechanism, and fell into place to perfectly make this functioning wristwatch." Instead, you would probably observe, "Hmm, someone has been in this part of the woods before me." You would rightly assume that the timepiece was made by a clock designer, and that the designer had the intelligence to deliberately design and build the mechanism. In the same way, when I look at the world around me, I do not believe that the intricacies of nature, which are far more complicated than a wristwatch, could have happened by accident. I believe that they were put into place by an Intelligent Designer, who designed them and set them into motion willfully and purposefully.
I was teaching my children about the theory of Intelligent Design, but I found much of the material to be over their heads. (There is a list of resources at the bottom of this post.) The scientific research behind this theory is staggering, and someday I hope my children will understand it all. For that matter, I hope that someday I will understand it all! For the time being, though, I wanted a storybook. We have books for children about Creation and about Evolution. We have books that say we believe God created the animals. I wanted a book that explained, on a child's level, that specific characteristics of animals that they can see at a zoo indicate the presence of a Designer of the animals.
That is how my book came about. The animals in it are animals we had learned about over multiple trips to several different zoos. Some are familiar and some are not so familiar. It is really a very small, simple storybook with one purpose: to explain what "Design" is and to point to examples of it in Nature. I hope to write more storybooks on the theory of Intelligent Design in the future.
Today, I received an actual hard copy of the book in the mail! This is another one of those exciting moments that I just can't describe - to hold an actual copy of my published book in my hands! What I have now is the final proof. I will check it for errors, send it back, and then it will go to print! I cannot wait to share it with you!
If you are interested in learning more about the theory of Intelligent Design, here are some resources:
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel - book or DVD
The Case for a Creator, Student Edition by Lee Strobel & Jane Vogel
The Case for a Creator for Kids by Lee Strobel
The Privileged Planet DVD by Illustra Media
Unlocking the Mystery of Life DVD by Illustra Media
Where Does the Evidence Lead DVD by Illustra Media
Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution DVDs, Volumes I, II, & III, featuring Dr. Jobe Martin
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Documentary with Ben Stein
The Discovery Institute: Center for Science & Culture - This think tank website contains many articles and references.
No comments:
Post a Comment