My oldest son, Josiah, is fascinated with science and will likely study biology in college. My husband and I are thankful that God has given him direction, but we worry that we are sending him into a den of lions, so to speak. How can we send our beloved, bright, quick-witted, and passionately Christian son to study in a field that is unabashedly and unashamedly atheistic? The field of biology allows much debate, discussion, and divergent research--as long as it all promotes Darwinian evolution as fact and rejects any forces beyond the natural world. Since God has clearly been leading Josiah into this field and, hence, clearly has a purpose for him in this field, it behooves us to prepare him for what he will face. We have found so many wonderful resources (through Answers in Genesis, Lee Strobel, and others) that allow us to understand the legitimate challenges to the theory of evolution and the incredible scientific work refuting it. Illustra Media has given us another tool in the battle: the DVD Where Does the Evidence Lead? This fascinating DVD ($14.95) presents some of the most salient scientific evidence against evolution, much of it coming from microbiology as we learn how amazingly complex life truly is, even at the "lowest" cellular levels. 

Where Does the Evidence Lead? contains six 10-minute segments: "Life: The Big Questions," "What Darwin Didn't Know," "Molecules & Mousetraps," "How Did Life Begin?" "The Language of DNA," and "The Design Inference." The idea is that science should always follow where the evidence leads, which in the case of the origin of life is an intelligent designer. There is some discussion on the DVD about the theory of Intelligent Design, although that is not really the focus of movie. This is not a specifically Christian product, although it certainly presents amazing evidence that life could only have arisen through an intelligent source. It features many expert scientists we have seen in other similar materials, such as Phillip Johnson, Paul Nelson, Jonathan Wells, Michael Behe, Scott Minnich, and Stephen Meyer. While, on the one hand, I would love for this amazing DVD to take the final leap and proclaim that the intelligent designer was Christ, there is some value in only presenting the evidence and acknowledging that there had to be an intelligent designer. I think this film might be much more effective in persuading unbelievers who have been swayed by evolutionary thought than something that is overtly Christian (which they might dismiss as religious propaganda). 

My family enjoyed the stunning photography, including some amazing graphics showing things such as the replication of DNA and molecular machines. The evidence was very compelling, and it was presented in an interesting and easy-to-understand manner. This DVD would be well suited for junior high students to adults. Our kids will be exposed to evolutionary thinking; what a wonderful gift to provide them with evidence that clearly reveals life came from something much more spectacular than primordial goo! 

Product review by Dr. Anne Margaret Wright, Senior Product Reviewer, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March 2010