Ron Coody’s new book, Almost? Persuaded! Why Three Great Questions Resist Certainty, delivers a wide-ranging discussion and analysis of questions, answers, and arguments keenly relevant to the intelligent design community. His background is far from one-dimensional and he has long been engaging people over issues of worldview, evidence, and belief.

With a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a Master of Divinity followed by a PhD in missiology, Coody is well qualified to address the cutting edges of science, philosophy, and theology. Enhancing his perception of diverse ways of thinking about these questions is his decades-long experience of living and working cross-culturally.

Questions of Consequence

The primary questions addressed here are obviously of deep consequence:  Does God exist? Where did life come from? and Is free will real? A refreshing aspect of Almost? Persuaded! is its objective coverage of the broad range of arguments surrounding these questions. 

As I read Almost? Persuaded!, although I have been studying these questions for many years, I found that Coody’s presentation easily held my attention. Moreover, the breadth of his analysis provides new insights and expanded my understanding of developments in history and philosophy.

A Helpful Compendium

On the first question, “Does God Exist?”, Coody’s analytical summary of key philosophers and intellectuals, from Plato to Aquinas to Dawkins, caught my attention. His highlighting of key ideas from over twenty influential thinkers makes for a helpful compendium.

A familiar-sounding argument for design is Coody’s summary of number five of Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways argument from the 13th century:

Working backwards from human experience of designing and building, Aquinas reasoned that the ordered universe and the creatures inhabiting it exhibit properties of design. Design requires a designer….Aquinas thought that the universe needed an intelligent mind to bring it into order. He believed that physical laws lacked the power to organize complex, functioning systems. 

p. 34

Another unique and somewhat amusing contribution is the author’s contrasting of Richard Dawkins with the Apostle Paul on the evidential weight of nature.

As Coody reviews the standard evidence for the fine-tuning of the physical parameters of the universe to allow life to exist, his presentation is accurate and compelling. The Big Bang, Lawrence Krauss’s attempts to redefine the “nothingness” out which the universe arose, Stephen Hawking’s blithe dismissal of the significance of the beginning with an invocation of gravity, and the counterpoint from Borde, Guth, and Vilenkin’s singularity theorem, are knit together in readable prose.

Encouragement for Curiosity

When it comes to the possibility of life forming itself naturally, again Coody gives an informative and insightful overview. Although, like the rest of us, he has his own convictions, he is willing to acknowledge the tension surrounding differing conclusions among those seeking to evaluate the evidence. He encourages the reader to persist in seeking answers: “Honest people of any faith or no faith should be interested in the truth. ” (p. 164)

The final section provides an enlightening discussion of free will. Coody captures the major issues: “Is free will an illusion created by the brain? In reality do we have any more free will than our computer?….Is the mind the same as the brain or is the mind something spiritual?” (p. 180)

Delving into the implications of materialistic determinism, and even quantum uncertainty, Coody provides a fresh look at the subject. In an illustration that is beguilingly simple, he borrows from the classic fairy tale of Pinocchio. His summary cuts deeply into one of the major shortcomings of materialist thinking: “On their view of the world, there was never any difference between the wooden Pinocchio and the human Pinocchio. Both were simply animated, soulless, material objects.” (p. 191)

Readers of almost any background will find much here that informs, provokes deeper reflection, and provides refreshing and novel illustrations relevant to the discussion of some of life’s most enduring questions.