Review:
Li Cheng’s atheistic world view in China is typical of his
generation of Chinese scholars and the millennial generation who is a little
younger. He says “it would be ludicrous for someone of my caliber who had
received higher education in China and who had also earned a doctoral degree in
the United States to believe and worship God. It would be decidedly
undignified” (Li Cheng, Song
of A Wanderer: Beckoned by Eternity, 2002, p. 387).
He explains the implication of being raised in a communist, naturalistic
world view where the age of antagonism between science and religion has been
deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people. He says, “Following the rise of
modern science, many educated people also begin to accept the worldviews of
humanism and naturalism. They upheld the logic that humans are the masters of
the universe; therefore, God and any other supernatural forces do not exist.
Instead, they…[recognize] science as the only method for knowing truth…and
denied all objective truth beyond the material world… If evolution was the
truth, then the Bible must be false” (pp. 185-186). This book is both his testimony of why he became
a Christian and an apologetic that defends the truths of the Christian faith
from a scientific perspective. It is an invaluable topic for Chinese
intellectuals.
5 stars M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph. D.
Excerpts:
“In the past I had never studied Christianity, yet I had
been so insistent that Christianity was foolish and ignorant. This reflected how arbitrary and naïve I was. I had never read the Bible, not even the table
of contents, yet I was quick to condemn it as unscientific. This could only point to my rational
prejudice, as I had not applied the scientific approach to the Bible” (pp. 389-390).
“Before, I had regarded science as supreme and the
scientific method as infallible. What science could not prove was not
believable. Now I began to understand
that science is not omnipotent and that there are limitations to the scientific
method. Science is merely the means by
which we can understand the material world. It holds no explanation for the
non-material spiritual world” (p. 393).