God's Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe

Case Closed!

This review can be found in its entirety at “Evidence Unseen.” I must join many others in endorsing J. Warner Wallace’s recent book God’s Crime Scene (2015). Wallace covers a number of different topics regarding the evidence for theism, divvying up each topic into eight chapters: (1) the cosmological evidence, (2) fine-tuning, (3) origin of life, (4) irreducible complexity, (5) consciousness, (6) free will, (7) morality, and (8) evil. While much has been written on the rational basis for Christian theism, three unique contributions make Wallace’s book stand out: (1) his credentials as cop, (2) his clear communication, and (3) his creative comparisons. (1) Credentials as a cop J. Warner Wallace (not to be confused with Jim Wallace of Sojourners) served as a cold-case homicide detective for two decades. Cold-case detectives have one of the toughest jobs on Earth. When a crime scene goes “cold,” this means that the detectives have given up the case due to insufficient leads. This is when “cold-case detectives” enter the scene—sometimes decades after the crime occurred. As a cold-case detective, Wallace had a perfect conviction record. That is, every one of his cases that went to trial resulted in a conviction of guilt. In one particular case which was over three decades old, Robert Shapiro (O.J. Simpson’s notorious attorney) represented the defendant. Yet Wallace’s meticulous presentation of the evidence resulted in finding the suspect guilty. As a credentialed detective, Wallace appeared on Dateline over the years to explain several of his cases. Though Keith Morrison of Dateline doesn’t agree with Jim’s Christian beliefs, he still endorsed his book by writing, Around Dateline, we had a phrase to describe J Warner Wallace: ‘The Evidence Whisperer.’ He would come up with some unlikely bit of long neglected flotsam, realize it was key evidence, and work it until he’d wrung out every possible lead. Jim helped bring cases to court, and our stories to life. And when I d...