Ruth Beechick is a veteran author of many books and study courses used for home school curriculum. She also has authored several excellent creation books including Adam and His Kin, and Genesis: Finding our Roots. Her review was sent in December 2002.
Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation by Dennis R. Petersen
---- reviewed by Ruth Beechick
You could set this book on your coffee table for a guest to read a short topic at any page where he happens to open. But the trouble is, he would turn that page and read the next… and the next. Both the text and the pictures would compel him on. And the marvelous colorful layout…
In layman's language, this book explains many creation-science topics as well as eye-opening ancient history topics. In science, you can learn what to really think about the ozone scare, about chemical dating methods, about the shrinking sun and diminishing magnetic field, and other topics, and what each can tell us scientifically about the earth we live on.
Are some dinosaur survivors still alive in our modern world? Petersen shows actual pictures and tells of sightings, which couldn't possibly have happened if dinosaurs lived millions of years before man and are now extinct. In Utah in 1971, a quarry bulldozer uncovered a couple of human skeletons in a rock formation said to be 100 million-year-old sandstone that contained dinosaur bones not far away. Humans and dinosaurs living together? Evolutionists couldn't allow this. The university never analyzed the bones and never released a report to the press. Several such incidents related in this book show how an evolution bias manages to sweep such information out of sight.
What really happened to the dinosaurs, and when? Those questions are answered satisfactorily here for any family member who loves dinosaurs.
As for ancient history, do our textbooks have it wrong too? Was ancient man really “primitive” and simple? Or did he know as much or more than us in many areas? Could we make buildings that last as long as the pyramids of Egypt or the more numerous pyramids of Central America? Modern technology could not cut blocks to razor edge perfection and move their hundred-ton weight over long distances as the ancients did. We may just be beginning to rediscover an ancient method of lifting by sound waves.
The simply engineered air conditioning system in an ancient Mayan building still works after 1000 years. Ancient low-tech irrigation systems are superior to ours in several ways. In Israel's Negev desert, farmers are reviving these long forgotten methods. In ancient sea travel, music, metallurgy, and numerous areas we are uncovering the fact that “there is nothing new under the sun.”
This one-book exploration of Biblical creationist thinking will serve you well if you have time to read only one creationist book. Homeschool families, or any family, can profit from studying these topics one at a time and using the “thinking” questions that accompany many of them. And the coffee table use can draw your family and guests into many memorable conversations.
For more information on Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, contact your local Christian or secular bookstore with ISBN number 0-89051-371, or log-on to www.creationresource.org, or phone toll free (866) 225-5229.
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