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I've been reading a fascinating book by Douglas Erwin called Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago. Erwin describes an event known as the Permian extinction, when plants and animals on land "came closer to complete elimination than at any point since they first evolved," when "biodiversity plunged from hundreds or even thousands of species at a single locality, with thousands of individuals, to perhaps only a dozen species."

Some Christians will reject such a narrative out of hand, believing that it rests on false assumptions about the geological evidence. Some will say it is irreconcilable with the Genesis account of creation; others will disagree.

I find Erwin's account worth entertaining. I don't know for certain that it is true, even in its most general outlines, let alone in the details that only another expert would be competent to judge. But it coheres plausibly with other histories of Deep Time. And it pushes me to confront yet again the strangeness of creation and of the history of life. There is a scale and complexity to it, a profligacy if you will, that can't be contained by the finite human imagination.

And yet isn't it extraordinary that in God's unfolding design, men and women today—drawing on centuries of scholarship—are able to consider events that took place 250 million years ago? The thought of it is at once staggering and exhilarating, prompting humility and even (for me, at least) fear and also wonder.

I close the book and turn off the light and settle under the covers against the warmth of my sleeping wife. Mass extinctions and the single, utterly individual death of a stillborn baby—how are they connected? Is creation groaning? A voice assures me: All will be well.

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also posted today is:

The Other ID Opponents | Traditional creationists see Intelligent Design as an attack on the Bible.

In 2004, John Wilson wrote:

Unintelligent Debate | It's time to cool the rhetoric in the Intelligent Design dispute. (Sept. 03, 2004)

Christianity Today coverage of science, evolution, and Intelligent Design includes:

God by the Numbers | Coincidence and random mutation are not the most likely explanations for some things. (March 10, 2006)

Intelligent Design Is Too Religious For Schools, Judge Rules | "Abundantly clear" that it's updated creationism, he says. (Dec. 21, 2005)

Design Film Sparks Angst | Under fire, Smithsonian disavows presentation on Intelligent Design. (July 6, 2005)

Science that Backs Up Faith | There is overwhelming evidence for a creator, says Lee Strobel. (June 1, 2005)

Verdict that Demands Evidence | It is Darwinists, not Christians, who are stonewalling the facts. (March 28, 2005)

Were the Darwinists Wrong? | National Geographic stacks the deck. (Nov. 23, 2004)

The Art of Debating Darwin | How to intelligently design a winning case for God's role in creation. (Sept. 08, 2004)

The Dick Staub Interview: William Dembski's Revolution | The author of Intelligent Design set out to answer the toughest questions about the movement he helped promote. (March 30, 2004)

'A Nuclear Bomb' For Evolution? | Critics of Darwinism say skull's discovery isn't all it's cracked up to be. (Aug. 14, 2002)

Your Darwin Is Too Large | Evolution's significance for theology has been greatly exaggerated. (May 25, 2000)

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April 2006, Vol. 50, No. 4