I did NOT like this book. And I suspected that I was going to strongly dislike it quite early in my reading. The Selfless Gene is poorly researched and incredibly inflammatory towards people who take God’s Word literally. Foster’s attempt at marrying science and the Word is poor scholarship at best, literary treason at its worst.
Foster starts off his book with several provocative statements, directed at both creationists and Darwinists. It seems as if his goal is to alienate both sides of the issue as quickly as possible, and to satisfy neither side.
In hopes that this trend would change, I continued to read, looking for solid research and intriguing dialogue in the next few chapters. Sadly, I never found it. Foster slaps first one viewpoint and then the other, looking for a compromise that just doesn’t exist. He can’t have his cake and eat it too. Either God created, or random evolutionary mutations account for all that we see. There is no combining the two.
It saddens me greatly that we keep attempting to marry the idea of science “that we know to be true” to the Word of the One who is the Truth. And Foster’s attempt to wed the two fails just a greatly as every previous attempt.
To be perfectly frank, I almost felt dirty after reading The Selfless Gene, it disgusted me that much.
In my opinion, do not waste your time reading this. It’s not worth the time to wade though all the deception to find… nothing.
This is a worthless book, and I can’t recommend it to anyone whatsoever.
Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”