Jonathan Sarfati

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(Association with Creation Ministries International)
(Self promotion)
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Sarfati is an itinerant speaker and author. His ability to sell books or gain speaking engagements is based on his perceived authority within creationist circles, and his status as a "towering intellect". Thus, much material on CMI's website and in their printed matter is cringe-inducingly laudatory.
 
Sarfati is an itinerant speaker and author. His ability to sell books or gain speaking engagements is based on his perceived authority within creationist circles, and his status as a "towering intellect". Thus, much material on CMI's website and in their printed matter is cringe-inducingly laudatory.
  
One article, ''An Awesome Mind'', incorporates hyperbole like
+
One article, ''An Awesome Mind''<ref>http://creation.com/an-awesome-mind-creation-magazine-jonathan-sarfati-interview</ref>, incorporates hyperbole like
 
* "Very few people interested in creation/evolution issues would not have heard of Jonathan Sarfati. His books have become best-sellers—standard fare for Christians wishing to engage those who hold to evolutionary/long-age ideas. One of the reasons they have become such a powerful tool for Christianity is the amazing flow of his clear, crisp trademark logic, which has ‘skewered’ and silenced many an evolutionary detractor."
 
* "Very few people interested in creation/evolution issues would not have heard of Jonathan Sarfati. His books have become best-sellers—standard fare for Christians wishing to engage those who hold to evolutionary/long-age ideas. One of the reasons they have become such a powerful tool for Christianity is the amazing flow of his clear, crisp trademark logic, which has ‘skewered’ and silenced many an evolutionary detractor."
 
* "Here was someone the Lord had blessed with a brilliant mind like a steel trap"
 
* "Here was someone the Lord had blessed with a brilliant mind like a steel trap"

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Jonathan Sarfati (right) playing chess against multiple players at the Heartland Creation Conference, Wichita, Kansas, 9 July 2011.

Jonathan Sarfati is an angry man who is a vocal proponent of Young Earth Creationism. Despite his own insistence on using logic he often resorts to emotional appeals and name calling.

He is also startlingly ignorant of what the Theory of Evolution is. In Refuting Evolution he writes describes the theory as being "not just about ape-like creatures turning into humans...[but] a philosophy trying to explain everything without God."

Before going full-time into creationist evangelism, Dr Sarfati was a chemist. He is also an expert chess player.

Contents

Scientific qualifications

Sarfati has been a proper scientist, a physical chemist, with a B.Sc with third class honours and a Ph.D,[1] and has published several papers in secular scientific journals, including in Nature.

Association with Creation Ministries International

Sarfati is employed by Creation Ministries International (CMI), the Australian Creationist organisation. He supported CMI in its internecine schism with Ken Ham's US-based Answers in Genesis. CMI and Sarfati suffered in this conflict, as Ham stole CMI's magazine subscriber list and substituted his own publication, denying CMI of much of its income. Sarfati showed poor judgement in supporting CMI's CEO, Carl Wieland, as the vendetta was largely between Ham and Wieland and if Sarfati, as a CMI "luminary", had shown Wieland the door early in the multi-year dispute, CMI's position could have been salvaged. As it is, CMI was dealt a mortal blow.

Finding an insufficient market in Australian churches, Sarfati has been forced to try and crack the U.S market with a speaking tour. CMI's website no longer lists him as a member of its Australian staff but instead as with its "U.S. Office". There is some evidence that lingering animosity from Ham's AiG has AiG sabotaging Sarfati's efforts in the U.S.[2][3]

Self promotion

Sarfati is an itinerant speaker and author. His ability to sell books or gain speaking engagements is based on his perceived authority within creationist circles, and his status as a "towering intellect". Thus, much material on CMI's website and in their printed matter is cringe-inducingly laudatory.

One article, An Awesome Mind[4], incorporates hyperbole like

  • "Very few people interested in creation/evolution issues would not have heard of Jonathan Sarfati. His books have become best-sellers—standard fare for Christians wishing to engage those who hold to evolutionary/long-age ideas. One of the reasons they have become such a powerful tool for Christianity is the amazing flow of his clear, crisp trademark logic, which has ‘skewered’ and silenced many an evolutionary detractor."
  • "Here was someone the Lord had blessed with a brilliant mind like a steel trap"
  • "Jonathan’s response systematically demolished their arguments."
  • "The value of having a formidable talent who can quickly provide such solid answers—especially to Christians who feel intimidated by a barrage of the so-called ‘facts’ of evolution—cannot be overestimated"

If such fanfare fails to drive home the point, the article goes on with a section titled Audiences in awe, describing Sarfati's unsurpassed abilities. In relation to an exhibition of his chess skills,

  • an observer conveniently stating "This is astounding. World-class. The world’s media should be here"
  • "It is truly astonishing to watch... For most ‘mere mortals’ like me, this kind of ‘brain power’ is an almost unimaginable gift."

The article then concludes that Sarfati is "A privilege to know".

The problem with the objectivity of such testimonies is that Sarfati is himself the editor of this material. This piece (one example of many) carries the byline of Gary Bates, Sarfati's colleague, and who works "one desk over" from Sarfati. But it is not disputed that Sarfati is identified as an editor of CMI's materials, and was chief editor in the Ex Nihilo magazine in which this piece appeared. Although this kind of self-promotion is not unusual for creationists, since they have no credibility outside the narrow confines of fundamentalism, Sarfati's self promotion has reached such giddy heights it would make a North Korean dictator blush.

Use of personal abuse in arguments

Sarfati's debating technique is infamous for a "take no prisoners" approach that is so offensive, it regularly brings the reproach of other, more irenically-minded Christians. A Christian review of Sarfati's Refuting Evolution says Sarfati is "blinded by his own ideology and has probably never honestly and open-mindedly faced the main issue about which he writes", noting that Sarfati attacks Old-earth creationist Hugh Ross as a false teacher in need of Biblical rebuke. This is typical. Sarfati frequently retreats to "X calls himself a Christian, but..." succumbing to the classic "No True Scotsman" logical fallacy. Sarfati repeatedly and clearly implies non-Young Earth Creationists are barely saved, and are otherwise misguided, apostate, ineffective or tools of Satan for failing to take a literalist, presuppositionalist approach to scripture. This approach is typical of the more histrionic Creationist organisations, but Sarfati is its exemplar: Giving lip service to the idea that other Christians can sincerely disagree about doctrine without heresy, but taking the gloves off in personal argument, conducting desperate ad hominem rejoinders, and casting aspersion on any adversary's salvation or motivations.

Comments on fora where Sarfati has editorial control reveal repeated instances of Sarfati removing comments from those who rebut him and him then crowing over his "speechless" opponents. Sarfati also regularly retreats to name calling, referring to "celebutards" or "Commissar Obamov".

Sarfati has been known to employ the nom-de-guerre "Socrates" in online forums, even when commenting on himself. This is sufficiently well known that it is unlikely he still uses it when aiming for anonymity.

Publications

  • The Answers Book: The 20 Most-Asked Questions About Creation, Evolution & the Book of Genesis Answered! (with Don Batten, Ken Ham, and Carl Wieland) (1990)
  • Refuting Evolution (1999)
  • Refuting Compromise: A Biblical and Scientific Refutation of "Progressive Creationism" (Billions of Years) As Popularized by Astronomer Hugh Ross (2004)
  • 15 Reasons to Take Genesis as History (with Don Batten) (2006)
  • By Design: Evidence for nature’s Intelligent Designer—the God of the Bible (2008)
  • The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution (2010)
  • Refuting Evolution 2 (2011)

Seminars

Sarfati gave two at the 2007 Seattle Creation Conference:

See also

External Links

Footnotes

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