Return to 4th Quarter 2024 articles.

The Priviledged Planet

by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards,
20th Anniversary Edition, Gateway, © 2024,
$35.00 (paperback), 472 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1684517022

This book was written by two Ph.D. scientists with widely published scientific articles and books on science and faith. It has three sections plus two appendices, one dealing with the Drake equation and the other with panspermia. One chapter deals with objections to the book’s message, and 75 pages document the material. The scientific information is accurate and well-explained but relatively technical. The content reflects the authors’ academic ability and knowledge and can be a helpful study for academically well-trained students.

The book's first section, titled “Our Local Environment,” contains 103 pages of facts about Earth and its place in space. The second section, “The Broader Universe,” discusses what we know about stars and galaxies. It contains 12 color prints of pictures and spectrographs and 91 pages explaining how we know the composition of the cosmos beyond our solar system. The third section deals with the implications of the first two sections, including the meaning and history of the Copernican principle, the anthropic principle, and how we should read the book of nature.

The last section is the one skeptics complain about because it destroys their view that creation is a big accident. It shows the designed structure of the cosmos to support life forms like us. We highly recommend this book, especially for college students or people swept up in media attacks on the credibility of the Bible and God’s role in creation.