Christian Non-fiction book review: The Real Origin of the Species by Oscar J. Daniels, Sr.
The Real Origin of the Species: Twelve New and Compelling Reasons to Believe That God Exists is a BookCrash book from the Small Indie Publishers group. They gave me a copy for my unbiased review. This is a subject in which I am really interested (wrote a book on it). Sorry to say it’s a real disappointment. The design level of the book is barely competent [note the underlined Real in the Times Roman title].
Snide for heathen, basic stuff for believers
Oscar has a sarcastic manner (meant to be humorous, I’m sure) toward non-believers. I found myself offended for their sake. No one deserves that level of belittlement. I was in the evolutionist camp from public school in the fifties, through several decades as a hard-core believer, and only came to my senses a few years back. This book would have irritated me then also. (It still does, but I imagine you guessed that.)
My assumption is that Mr. Daniels has a following who love his teachings and that this will do fairly well for him. But it’s a pretty “thin” writing style and a very short book—a couple hours to read or less.
His compelling reasons are solid
I certainly do not remember twelve of them, but the arguments are good and I agree with his reasoning. The book feels more like a transcribed recording of a teaching. He claims his audience is believers looking for arguments to share with people they hope to lead to the Lord (or to at least straighten out their theology). For that type of readership, this book will work fairly well. So, I don’t hate it, love the general subject, and can recommend it as long as you are aware of the issues just mentioned. If my issues don’t bother you, you’ll like the book.