Evolution vs. Creationism ... Local author explores theories of life's beginning

Sayre Evening Times/March 4, 2005
By Lisa R. Howeler

Ulster -- As a student studying Wildlife and Fishery Science at Penn State University 10 years ago, Brad Cummings pondered how life really began.

His professors told him life had begun by chance and evolved over time, that the earth was formed in the midst of something called the Big Bang, and that God, well, he might be there, but he had little do with it all. Everything he was told in his courses was convincing, but went against everything he had been taught growing up in a Christian home and attending church.

As a teenager, Cummings had his doubts about the whole Christianity thing. Through high school he had strayed from the ideals his parents had instilled in him. He wasn't sure what he believed. Then, there he was in college, being told life was nothing more than cosmic coincidences, which meant he was a coincidence, too.

He knew this wasn't what he believed.

"The concept really got under my skin," he says of the theories of evolution his professors explained. "I realized that it totally destroys the Genesis account in the Bible, which is the foundation of what I believe. And being a new Christian at that time I really didn't know how to defeat that."

Cummings began to write down his thoughts about life and the theory of evolution. He wanted to prove evolution was wrong and Creationism was right, but he wanted to do it scientifically.

The fruit of his 10-year labor has been collected in a book he has aptly titled: "The Fingerprints of God: Exciting Evidence that God Exists, Jesus is Alive, and the Bible Can Be Trusted." The book isn't about religion, it is about life and truth, said Cummings.

The book is controversial and not only because his aim is to disprove the idea of evolution, which he says he believes the world has been "brainwashed" with. The book is controversial, Cummings said, because he believes there is a divine design of the world, that the God of the Bible is the one true God and the one true creator above all other gods, and that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a real event.

Cummings writes about wildlife, plants and animals to provide evidence for his beliefs. He pulled his information from both Christian and secular resources, he said. Compiling the information took years of grabbing writing time here and there between life with his wife Ann and his job as a conservation technician with the Bradford County Conservation District.

The most tedious process, besides editing and organizing the book, was gaining permission to quote certain sources. He expected exponents of evolution he wrote to deny him permission to quote their work, but they didn't. He attributes the trials he was able to overcome to the support of his friends and family, but especially to God who answered his prayers.

Cummings book, published is now available at the Mather Memorial Library in Ulster, on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and will soon be available on Christianbook.com. He will hold a book signing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 12, at the Canton New Life Bookstore, in Canton; from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 19 at the Bible Lighthouse in South Waverly; and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., March 26 at the Kingdom Glory Gift Shop and Bookstore in Towanda.

He said he welcomes those who have questions about the book to visit him at the book signings or stop in to visit him at the Bradford County Conservation office in the Stohl Building in Wysox.