Explore Life’s Big Questions Through Natural Science and Theology

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by P.D. Botha

What’s it About?

Botha examines the clash between natural science and theology by taking a granular approach to uncover the big questions, including how the earth came into being, how life originated on earth, and what determines our humanity.

We are going to try and find answers to everything.

As strange as it may seem, that might be the most accurate way to describe author P.D. Botha’s extraordinarily ambitious, scholarly, well-researched and meticulously written Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow — a story of evolution and our origins.

So what answers in particular? Well, pretty much anything that helps describe and understand the simple course of life of all living beings on earth, such as: What are we as a species doing here in the first place? How did we arrive here? And where are we going? How do Darwin’s five points of competition, adaptation, variation, overpopulation and specialization factor in?

Botha literally leaves no stone unturned, covering everything from development of the galaxies, stars and planets to development of various life forms.

Natural Science, Theology & the Noosphere

The author breaks down three time periods in the evolutionary process, reflected in the book’s title: yesterday, the evolution from the beginning to where we are today; today, delving into humans’ current position and where we fit into the overall equation; and tomorrow, which glimpses into the future to understand potential consequences of that present.

To tackle such an endeavor, Botha takes a granular approach to, among other things, understanding how the earth came into being; how life originated on earth; what determines our humanity; and examining the clash between natural sciences and theology. Did it take several billion years for the earth to develop, for example, or, as the Bible tells us, was it a matter of six days?

The book also suggests that to attain a higher level of evolutionary development, “there must be a supernatural higher energy source to provide the spiritual power to uplift our mental capabilities to a required level.” This so-called Noosphere is a postulated stage of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships, frequently referenced by Botha in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Catholic priest and a trained geologist and palaeontologist.

We Are Not Alone in Our Challanges

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is such an all-encompassing work that it is hard to pinpoint specific concepts and principles. For such a vast undertaking, Botha has written clearly, concisely and convincingly, laying out his topics so that readers can easily grasp them, as complex as they may be.

As for tomorrow, he doesn’t shy away from negativity initially warned of as far back as the Bible (scarcity, famine, suppression) right up to our present-day challenges from the effects of Covid-19 to the Ukrainian war.

Yet Botha explains that we as humans are not alone in our challenges. “God is always there whether we believe it or not,” he writes. “Regardless of what we think, he carries out His plan.”

Through the Noospheric working of His Spirit, we will be carried through the dark times to the light shining on our paths.

That is at the heart of Botha’s thinking, which carries consistently through our own yesterdays, todays and tomorrows. For an intelligent, engaging and comprehensive study of our world and its origins —  from both scientific- and faith-based perspectives — this is a book of much merit.

About P.D. Botha:

Piet Botha is a retired veterinarian from Pretoria. After five years of study at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science at Onderstepoort, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon. In 1969, a pastor in Kroondal sentenced him and Karin Muhl to “life without parole.” They have four children and ten grandchildren and are still, with the mercy and help from Above, happily serving out their sentence. His professional career began in Bethal as a private practitioner under the guidance of his mentor, Dr. Justus Bosch. Ten years later, he returned to the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria, where he lectured for eleven years. Thereafter he returned to private practice and, together with three colleagues, created The Charles Street Veterinary Group, where he concentrated on the pig industry. His interests stretch wider than animal health — from astronomy to geology, including nature (especially trees and birds) to the complex aspects of the human being. Although he is interested in all types of sport, his favorite is rugby.

Publish Date: 12/16/2021

Genre: Nonfiction

Author: P.D. Botha

Page Count: 285 pages

Publisher: Sanet du Plessis Art & Design

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