Book Review: “The Works of His Hands” by Sy Garte–How science started an atheist from a Communist upbringing on the journey to Christianity

A couple of months ago, Sy Garte, a biochemist and the current editor-in-chief of God and Nature Magazine, came out with a semi-autobiography entitled, The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith. I’ve known Sy via a few Facebook groups that discuss issues of faith and science and a few months ago I write a short article for God and Nature Magazine. Recently, I’ve been able to sit down and read his new book and found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. Not only does Garte convey his love of science and the sheer wonder of scientific inquiry, but he also shares his own personal story regarding how his study of science played a major role in his coming to the Christian faith.

We are currently living during a time in America where both militant atheists and biblical literalists in the young earth creationism movement are telling people that modern science and the Christian faith are at war and thus utterly incompatible with each other. Although in polar opposite camps, atheists like Richard Dawkins and YECists like Ken Ham often spout the same mantra that evolution is joined at the hip with atheism and is therefore a threat to the Bible and the Christian faith. In The Works of His Hands, Sy Garte basically says to both men, “Well then, if that’s true, then how do you explain my story? I grew up in a rabidly atheistic home, my parents were literal communists, and yet over the years in my career as a scientist, it was my scientific study of the natural world that started me on a journey to the Christian faith.”

If that story sounds intriguing, then The Works of His Hands is a must read. For the rest of this book review, I simply want to provide a brief overview of Garte’s book.

An Overview of the Book as a Whole
The Works of His Hands is divided into two major parts. Part 1 is entitled, “Getting There,” and it focuses on the various scientific issues that Garte has studied and researched in his career as a scientist and how they led him to ask certain questions about the nature of reality itself. Or to put it more simply, chapters 1-9 detail how his study of science eventually brought him to the Christian faith.

Part 2 is entitled, “Issues and Questions,” and it focuses (as the title suggests) on the typical issues and questions that often come up in discussions regarding how science and faith relate to each other. Put them together, and what Garte basically says in the course of his book is this: “Here’s is how science led me to becoming a Christian, and this is what I have to say about the most common questions regarding science and faith.”

With that, let’s give a bird’s eye view of the chapters.

Part 1: Chapter by Chapter
In Part 1, beginning with chapter 2, Garte starts every chapter with a question regarding the philosophical implications of the science that is discussed in that chapter. In Chapter 1, though, entitled, “The Importance of Questions,” Garte lays out a brief biography in which he tells us of his life growing up in an atheistic and communist household and how it was his study of science that led to him asking the questions that would eventually lead him to the Christian faith.

Chapter 2 is entitled, “The Irrational World of Modern Physics,” and the question Garte poses at the beginning of the chapter is, “Is our world a purely logical and rational place that is fully understandable by the application of reason?” The short answer to that question turns out to be a resounding “No!” A study of quantum physics and quantum mechanics shows that at a most submicroscopic level of our material world, everything seems to be random and uncertain. Everything seems to be beyond the grasp of human reason. The reason why that is so important to realize is that the constant atheist refrain that science and reason is all one needs to make sense of reality proves to be false.

Chapter 3 is entitled, “Science Surprises,” and the question that kicks off the chapter is, “Why does every answer we get from research into any branch of science always lead to more questions? Why is complexity the rule in nature?” In this chapter, Garte discusses, among other things, Chaos and Complexity Theory, and he shows that the “simple solution” of the materialistic worldview of nature simply doesn’t do justice to the reality of the complex universe in which we live. Stephen Hawking hoped to come up with a “theory of everything,” and some scientists have played with the idea of the “multiverse theory,” but Garte points out that even though those two theories are completely theoretical and unproven, scientists don’t entertain the third possibility that there is a God who created the universe. Yes, from a scientific standpoint it is theoretical and unproven, but so is the “theory of everything” and the “multiverse theory.”

Chapter 4 is entitled, “Wonderful Life,” and its foundational question is, “Why is biological life so complex?” This chapter focuses on the study of chemistry, specifically the topics of catalysts, proteins, genetics and DNA. Garte emphasizes that what he came to learn about the complexity of the biological world was there was “a deep principle buried somewhere in the natural universe that must be the source for the wondrous nature of life” (63).

Chapter 5 is entitled, “There is Grandeur—Darwin’s Evolution,” and it begins with the question, “Is evolution by natural selection the best theory to explain how life became so diverse and complex?” Now, obviously, this chapter deals with evolution. But Garte points out from the start that although evolution does indeed explain biological diversity, it does not explain, nor does it even address, the question of the origin of life itself. In any case, the bulk of the chapter is devoted to explaining the basics of just how evolution works. If you’ve wondered about it, Garte does a great job explaining it within the course of just one chapter.

Chapter 6 is entitled, “People,” and it begins with the question, “Are human beings special, and, if so, how did we get that way?” In this chapter, Garte takes on the view of what he calls “modern anti-humanism” that attempts to argue that there is nothing special about human beings at all, and that we are just another biological life form, nothing more. To refute that notion, right before giving a brief explanation of the scientific understanding of the evolution of humans, Garte observes what should be obvious: although we are obviously biologically related to the rest of the natural world, there really is something significantly different about humans. To suggest that “human genius and talent are totally explained by a few hundred years of natural selection is a very hard case to make” (87)

Chapter 7 is entitled, “Origins,” and it begins with the question, “How did the universe, life, and human consciousness arise?” In this chapter, Garte discusses the Big Bang Theory, the mystery of the origin of life, as well as the origin and uniqueness of modern humans. In that discussion, Garte comments on something else that sets human beings apart from the rest of the natural world: “The way we live today is completely different from the way human being lived forty thousand years ago. It is different from the way human beings lived four hundred years ago, and even four years ago. For all other species, this is never true. Chimpanzees today live in the wild very much like they did four million years ago” (110).

Chapter 8 is entitled, “The Limits of Science,” and it begins with the question, “How do we go beyond the limits to the scientific approach to understanding and knowledge?” In this chapter, Garte emphasizes that what we call “natural laws” really are just descriptions of things we can observe and figure out. He also warns against “scientism”—the belief that science can explain everything regarding reality. He emphasizes that science and knowledge are not synonymous, and that science cannot answer the “Why?” questions or value questions that are important to human beings. Simply put, as great as science is, it still is limited—there are things to reality that science cannot address.

Chapter 9 is entitled, “The Call of Faith.” There is no leading question to this chapter, because this is the chapter that Garte goes back to his biographical story about the events that led him to become a Christian. I don’t want to give anything away.

Part 2: Chapter by Chapter
As I said before, Part 2 is devoted to addressing some of the more common questions regarding science and faith. Here is what the cover, chapter by chapter.

Chapter 10 is entitled, “But What About?” and in it, Garte address nine questions that often come up when people discuss issues of science and faith. Here they are:

1. Haven’t Christianity and other religions been responsible for most wars, cruelty, and oppression throughout history?
2. Science is naturally atheistic—do any productive scientists believe in God?
3. There are so many different religions and so many gods. They can’t all be right, so why do you think yours is the only one that is true?
4. But science is free and open, while religion is dogmatic and rigid. How can you stand to obey religious commandments and rules with no chance of challenging them?
5. How can you reconcile science based on clear facts with faith based on nothing?
6. But what about the Bible? You can’t believe in both the Bible and in the scientific version of reality. They contradict each other continuously!
7. But don’t most Christians believe that everything in the Bible is literally true, and therefore evolution and a lot of other science is wrong?
8. Christianity is based on miracles, while science is based on reason and evidence. How can a scientist believe in miracles?
9. The Gospel accounts are not consistent and can even contradict each other, so how can we know that the story of Jesus Christ is real?

If those questions sound intriguing, let me encourage you to buy Garte’s book. I won’t steal his thunder in this review!

Chapter 11 is entitled, “Love and Freedom, Chance and Free Will.” In it, Garte discusses questions like, “Why would God create a world with predation?” along with the usual questions regarding God’s sovereignty and human free will. For me, the most interesting observation Garte makes is that human beings are not predictable—and since they exercise free will, it makes for quite an interesting world, unlike one that would be completely deterministic, which would be utterly predictable and utterly boring.

Chapter 12 is entitled, “Evolution and Christianity.” Garte begins the chapter by emphasizing what evolution is not. The following four statements are ones that Garte takes issue with: (1) Evolution holds that animals change into other animals; (2) Evolution is synonymous with atheism; (3) Neo-Darwinism is the way evolution works; and (4) Mutations are always harmful and cannot provide new genetic information. Also in the chapter, Garte addresses Young Earth Creationism, Intelligent Design, the theory of “the selfish gene,” as well as Evolutionary Creationism.

Chapter 13 is entitled, “Science and Faith Together.” In this chapter, Garte provides a brief overview of the development of science in Western civilization and points out that some of the most influential scientists in history have been men of faith. He also points out that one of the most dangerous stumbling blocks when it comes to understanding the relationship between science and faith is the deliberate distortion of both science and Christian theology that often comes from certain people “with agendas that have little to do with good science or good theology” (212).

Chapter 14 is entitled, “Alleluia,” and is simply a concluding chapter in which Garte tells of his baptism and his joining the United Methodist Church and where he articulates his reason for writing the book.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Anyone who knows my story knows that I got into the whole “science vs. faith” discussion rather by accident. After these past five years, thanks to a lot of reading, writing, and interacting with numerous Christians online who also accept modern science, I have come a long way in my understanding of these issues. Sy Garte’s work, as well as that of so many others, is going to prove to be incredibly important in the upcoming years. I think, in time, people are going to see the folly of the overt dogmatism of both the New Atheist Movement as well as that of Young Earth Creationism, and hopefully they will turn away from both. When they do, it will be books like Garte’s The Works of His Hands that are going to help them see that one can indeed be a Christian and accept the findings of modern science without fearing that basic scientific truth about God’s creation can somehow threaten the Christian faith or undermine the Bible.