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Refuting Evolution #4
The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution
Richard Dawkins is the world's best-known champion of both atheism and its intellectual underpinning, particles-to-people evolution. His latest book, The Greatest Show on the evidence for evolution is touted as an unanswerable challenge to those who believe in divine creation. In the past, he says, he has assumed evolution; this time he lays out in one major book the evidence for evolution (and its corollary, vast geological ages). Now scientist, chess master and logician Jonathan Sarfati Ph.D. FM goes head to head with Dawkins in this full-on rebuttal, The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution. Sarfati is no lightweight opponent; his Refuting Evolution at over 500,000 in print is the biggest-selling creationist book ever. In his crisp, highly readable trademark style, Sarfati's sheer competence relentlessly erodes each of Dawkins' claims and in the process, exposes the logical fallacies and even some of the dubious tactics employed. It's precisely those who feel smug in the belief that all the intellectual firepower is on the side of evolution who most need to read Sarfati's book if only to understand better why it is that there are thousands of scientists and intellectuals today who are convinced that biblical creation outguns evolution in a fair science showdown, stripped bare of rhetoric and ideological 'noise'.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
25 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Sarfati
19 books61 followersDr Jonathan D. Sarfati is a renowned creationist, physical chemist, spectroscopist, and chess master. He is most famous for taking an uncompromising stance on the origins of the universe, the earth, and life, and defending Scripture in a straightforward manner against any attempt to "reconcile" it with "scientific data" that contradict it.
Life and career
Jonathan Sarfati was born in Ararat, Australia in 1964. He moved to New Zealand as a child and received his early education there.[1] He graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry with two physics papers substituted, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry, based on his thesis: A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules. He has also had papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals including co-authoring in the journal Nature on high-temperature superconductors in 1987, when he was 22 [2].
Life and career
Jonathan Sarfati was born in Ararat, Australia in 1964. He moved to New Zealand as a child and received his early education there.[1] He graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry with two physics papers substituted, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry, based on his thesis: A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules. He has also had papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals including co-authoring in the journal Nature on high-temperature superconductors in 1987, when he was 22 [2].
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 13, 2010
Selected Reviews
“I lost my Evolution Faith when I was being taught by London University’s Professor J.Z. Young, FRS, arguably the greatest Darwinian evolutionist of the 20th Century. I have since been waiting for a 21st Century genius to prove that the Darwinian Evolution Emperor has no clothes. Jonathan Sarfati is that genius as you can see from this his latest masterpiece. With an astonishing array of scientific references, Sarfati has demonstrated that he is far and away the better debater than Richard Dawkins, one of those I described elsewhere as ‘whistling in the dark to keep their scientific courage up’. Read it, and re-read it!”
Dr. Felix Konotey-Ahulu (a world authority on sickle cell anemia) is Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Former Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor, Cromwell Hospital, London.
“Any rational debate requires the honest presentation of both sides. But there exists a powerful, self-styled ‘intellectual elite’ which would deny us the right to consider all the evidence. They would have a debate wherein only one side was heard, while the other side was either ignored or grossly misrepresented. It is crucial that all honest truth-seekers who read Dawkins'book The Greatest Show on Earth also read Jonathan Sarfati's book The Greatest Hoax on Earth?.”
John Sanford Ph.D., Courtesy Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Cornell University. (John is a pioneer of genetic engineering and inventor of the ‘gene gun’)
“I have been singularly blessed by Jonathan’s writing. His Refuting Evolution and By Design rank up there with the best of the creationist literature. This work, however, surely tops them all. Sarfati’s crisp, incisive no-holds-barred approach is a fearsome weapon, and Dawkins may rue the day he decided to challenge Christianity to a duel on origins. The Greatest Hoax on Earth? is an excellent rebuttal to the best evolution has to offer. The reader should walk away with the understanding that evolutionary theory is a house of cards and its chief spokesmen are promoting poor, illogical, and false arguments.”
Robert Carter, Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Genetics (University of Miami)
“Dawkins is living in a fantasy world and attributing non-natural power to natural selection to support his case about evolution. Sarfati does a brilliant job of exposing the shallowness in Dawkins’ reasoning and the absurdities of Dawkins’ claims . to demonstrate why evolution is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated in the guise of reason and science.”
John Baumgardner, Ph.D. in Geophysics (UCLA), for many years a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“I lost my Evolution Faith when I was being taught by London University’s Professor J.Z. Young, FRS, arguably the greatest Darwinian evolutionist of the 20th Century. I have since been waiting for a 21st Century genius to prove that the Darwinian Evolution Emperor has no clothes. Jonathan Sarfati is that genius as you can see from this his latest masterpiece. With an astonishing array of scientific references, Sarfati has demonstrated that he is far and away the better debater than Richard Dawkins, one of those I described elsewhere as ‘whistling in the dark to keep their scientific courage up’. Read it, and re-read it!”
Dr. Felix Konotey-Ahulu (a world authority on sickle cell anemia) is Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Former Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor, Cromwell Hospital, London.
“Any rational debate requires the honest presentation of both sides. But there exists a powerful, self-styled ‘intellectual elite’ which would deny us the right to consider all the evidence. They would have a debate wherein only one side was heard, while the other side was either ignored or grossly misrepresented. It is crucial that all honest truth-seekers who read Dawkins'book The Greatest Show on Earth also read Jonathan Sarfati's book The Greatest Hoax on Earth?.”
John Sanford Ph.D., Courtesy Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Cornell University. (John is a pioneer of genetic engineering and inventor of the ‘gene gun’)
“I have been singularly blessed by Jonathan’s writing. His Refuting Evolution and By Design rank up there with the best of the creationist literature. This work, however, surely tops them all. Sarfati’s crisp, incisive no-holds-barred approach is a fearsome weapon, and Dawkins may rue the day he decided to challenge Christianity to a duel on origins. The Greatest Hoax on Earth? is an excellent rebuttal to the best evolution has to offer. The reader should walk away with the understanding that evolutionary theory is a house of cards and its chief spokesmen are promoting poor, illogical, and false arguments.”
Robert Carter, Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Genetics (University of Miami)
“Dawkins is living in a fantasy world and attributing non-natural power to natural selection to support his case about evolution. Sarfati does a brilliant job of exposing the shallowness in Dawkins’ reasoning and the absurdities of Dawkins’ claims . to demonstrate why evolution is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated in the guise of reason and science.”
John Baumgardner, Ph.D. in Geophysics (UCLA), for many years a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
September 25, 2015
A logical and intelligent answer to Richard Dawkins' book. It not only mentions science, but touches on relevant theology that Dawkins had addressed in his own.
I would recommend this to all who are interested in the current popular world views.
I would recommend this to all who are interested in the current popular world views.
August 2, 2016
Having come from a physics background I found this to be refreshingly honest. Modern science has a bad habit of self-aggrandizement which needs books like this to set it straight.
Sarfati begins by explaining the most common straw man argument, the "Creationist grass field" which Dawkins was happy to attack. Then he corrects this for the "Creationist orchard" that is several phyla coming into being fully formed and evolving into different species of the same kind. This is in line with findings such as the Cambrian explosion and the fossil record as a whole.
He then continues on to demonstrate how the mathematics of evolution fall to pieces. This is not surprising, the concept of informational entropy and statistics should show this well enough on their own. However, it seems Sarfati was not happy with simply showing that the addition of information to the already complex cell was nigh impossible he decided to go ahead and invoke the thorn of the evolutionist's side and mathematically show abiogenesis to be near impossible.
It continues to destroy the dating methods used in modern geology which honestly I'm surprised he even has to do. Radiometric dating relies on differential equations the initial conditions of which we do not and cannot know. The fact that geologists consider this a good technique (despite having entire lists full of excuses for when it inevitably fails)shows me that one of 2 things is true, either there are no diff eq classes in the curricula of geology (unlikely) or they are taught to ignore elephants in rooms.
All the way Sarfati cites as many academic sources as he does creationists ones, in particular highlighting the incredible magnitude of the dishonesty in modern natural history. I have read refutations but all of them invoke circular thinking or straw men so they are hardly worth answering. I think this book and Sarfati's others are must reads for any Christian especially in a horribly secularized world.
Sarfati begins by explaining the most common straw man argument, the "Creationist grass field" which Dawkins was happy to attack. Then he corrects this for the "Creationist orchard" that is several phyla coming into being fully formed and evolving into different species of the same kind. This is in line with findings such as the Cambrian explosion and the fossil record as a whole.
He then continues on to demonstrate how the mathematics of evolution fall to pieces. This is not surprising, the concept of informational entropy and statistics should show this well enough on their own. However, it seems Sarfati was not happy with simply showing that the addition of information to the already complex cell was nigh impossible he decided to go ahead and invoke the thorn of the evolutionist's side and mathematically show abiogenesis to be near impossible.
It continues to destroy the dating methods used in modern geology which honestly I'm surprised he even has to do. Radiometric dating relies on differential equations the initial conditions of which we do not and cannot know. The fact that geologists consider this a good technique (despite having entire lists full of excuses for when it inevitably fails)shows me that one of 2 things is true, either there are no diff eq classes in the curricula of geology (unlikely) or they are taught to ignore elephants in rooms.
All the way Sarfati cites as many academic sources as he does creationists ones, in particular highlighting the incredible magnitude of the dishonesty in modern natural history. I have read refutations but all of them invoke circular thinking or straw men so they are hardly worth answering. I think this book and Sarfati's others are must reads for any Christian especially in a horribly secularized world.
April 11, 2013
Very good book. I took time reading this one as Dr Sarfati does a great job at presenting Dawkins arguments without caricature but at the same time debunking them.
April 28, 2012
thus far, the worst piece of indoctrinated propaganda and lies I have read on the topic for ages, woeful and pathetic
March 31, 2015
Sarfati has done it again, another great defense of Young Earth Creationism.
December 29, 2013
Very good, Dr Sarfati is very intelligent and he provides a wealth of arguments about the problems with evolution. The impressive amount of information given is organized by topics, ie each chapter covers an aspect in a well laid-out sequential exposition.
February 13, 2014
The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution by Jonathan Sarfati, PH.D. F.M. is fabulous. It has been a while since I have read a book dealing with the issues surrounding the evolution vs. creation conflict. In fact if anyone had read this prior to the Ken Ham—Bill Nye debate they would have booed him off the stage. Everything he brought up has been scientifically refuted by science.
This book is well written, easy to follow (though at times a little slow to plough through because of the deluge of scientific information) & well organized. Dr. Sarfati’s primary objective with this book is the refuting of Richard Dawkins' book entitled, "The Greatest Show on Earth", which was supposed to provide a great deal of evidence for evolution.
We should want to be well informed creationist & this book will help you to be well informed. Sarfati does a great job in explaining the difference between a poor creation model & a well informed creation model. He then goes on to give a very helpful explanation about “kinds” & “species”.
Basically Sarfati refutes the suppositions of Dawkins, point-by-point. Evolution is not a proven fact & Sarfati points out that Dawkins even acknowledges that evolution does not have any plausible answer to many of what Dawkins calls "unsolved mysteries" such as what started life, what is the origin of sex, what is the origin of consciousness, where did morality come from. Sarfati shows scientific evidence that natural selection works by altering genes by removing information from the gene & that there is no evidence at all of genes mutating so as to add information to the genome. This itself scientifically establishes that the human race can't be very old, otherwise humans would have suffered genetic mutation that would result in enough loss of information from the human genome to lead to its extinction.
This is simply well done, once again it is demonstrated that our faith in God & the Bible is a rational, logical faith with substance, not blind and/or irrational.
This book is well written, easy to follow (though at times a little slow to plough through because of the deluge of scientific information) & well organized. Dr. Sarfati’s primary objective with this book is the refuting of Richard Dawkins' book entitled, "The Greatest Show on Earth", which was supposed to provide a great deal of evidence for evolution.
We should want to be well informed creationist & this book will help you to be well informed. Sarfati does a great job in explaining the difference between a poor creation model & a well informed creation model. He then goes on to give a very helpful explanation about “kinds” & “species”.
Basically Sarfati refutes the suppositions of Dawkins, point-by-point. Evolution is not a proven fact & Sarfati points out that Dawkins even acknowledges that evolution does not have any plausible answer to many of what Dawkins calls "unsolved mysteries" such as what started life, what is the origin of sex, what is the origin of consciousness, where did morality come from. Sarfati shows scientific evidence that natural selection works by altering genes by removing information from the gene & that there is no evidence at all of genes mutating so as to add information to the genome. This itself scientifically establishes that the human race can't be very old, otherwise humans would have suffered genetic mutation that would result in enough loss of information from the human genome to lead to its extinction.
This is simply well done, once again it is demonstrated that our faith in God & the Bible is a rational, logical faith with substance, not blind and/or irrational.
January 4, 2014
Brilliant! Darwin is dead... along with his theories.
January 5, 2014
Nonsense
December 24, 2015
I give it two stars because it is the best YEC book I have read. I need to reserve one star for Ken Ham. One star means. Yes it is a book and I read it.
Including his PhD on the front cover, Sarfati's tactic seems to be to overwhelm the average reader with details. He is familiar with his material. However, his argument amounts to evolutionary theory is incomplete and has made some inaccurate predictions. Therefore it has been falsified. He inserts possible "biblical creation models" that could possibly fit.
He asserts that creationists could have made similar predictions but of course they didn't but they could have.
It is Ken Ham on steroids. Or as I understand it Ken Ham is a more media savvy version of Sarfati's work.
Ironically, Sarfati engages in many of the rhetorical strategies that he criticizes Dawkins for using. But then again, they are having a propaganda war not a scientific or theological argument.
Including his PhD on the front cover, Sarfati's tactic seems to be to overwhelm the average reader with details. He is familiar with his material. However, his argument amounts to evolutionary theory is incomplete and has made some inaccurate predictions. Therefore it has been falsified. He inserts possible "biblical creation models" that could possibly fit.
He asserts that creationists could have made similar predictions but of course they didn't but they could have.
It is Ken Ham on steroids. Or as I understand it Ken Ham is a more media savvy version of Sarfati's work.
Ironically, Sarfati engages in many of the rhetorical strategies that he criticizes Dawkins for using. But then again, they are having a propaganda war not a scientific or theological argument.
December 19, 2016
I had the privilege of attending the Creation Conference in 2015 where I heard this author speak a couple of times. His extreme intelligence is obvious, but he also has a keen sense of humor. For those interested in reading sound arguments against what Dr. Sarfati calls the "goo-to-you" beliefs of evolutionists, you should enjoy this book as I did. Yes, it got a bit too "science-y" for me at times (not my best subject), but for the most part, it is readable and very persuasive. It is not light reading, however, and you might want to take your time with it as I did.
May 10, 2024
Evolutionary Slight-Of-Hand Exposed!
In this book, the author exposes the equivocation used by evolutionary apologists to “prove” evolution is true. That is, evolutionists conflate natural selection, whereby living organisms adapt to changes in their environment (but remain the same type of animal (e.g. finches remain finches)), with all living things being derived from a common ancestor (e.g. microbes eventually became humans). The evolutionary reasoning is that since there are countless examples of natural selection being observed in living things, it stands to reason that all living things are derived from a common ancestor. The author shows this is an unsupported logical leap. Natural selection is predominantly a loss of genetic information not a gain of information which would be required if there was a common ancestor. This is illustrated by natural selection observation (i.e. all adaption is maintained within kinds of life forms… whale adaptions are still whales), the consideration of the degree of information complexity required to be gained to transition to more complex life forms, the paucity of transitional forms in the fossil record (e.g. there have been few, if any, cases of so-called transitional forms that have not been either recanted, exposed as hoaxes, or a subject of controversy), and no credible origin-of-life explanation. This book is a detailed analysis of the evolutionary argument and exposes its truth claims to be logically unsustainable.
In this book, the author exposes the equivocation used by evolutionary apologists to “prove” evolution is true. That is, evolutionists conflate natural selection, whereby living organisms adapt to changes in their environment (but remain the same type of animal (e.g. finches remain finches)), with all living things being derived from a common ancestor (e.g. microbes eventually became humans). The evolutionary reasoning is that since there are countless examples of natural selection being observed in living things, it stands to reason that all living things are derived from a common ancestor. The author shows this is an unsupported logical leap. Natural selection is predominantly a loss of genetic information not a gain of information which would be required if there was a common ancestor. This is illustrated by natural selection observation (i.e. all adaption is maintained within kinds of life forms… whale adaptions are still whales), the consideration of the degree of information complexity required to be gained to transition to more complex life forms, the paucity of transitional forms in the fossil record (e.g. there have been few, if any, cases of so-called transitional forms that have not been either recanted, exposed as hoaxes, or a subject of controversy), and no credible origin-of-life explanation. This book is a detailed analysis of the evolutionary argument and exposes its truth claims to be logically unsustainable.
August 12, 2018
Pretty good scientific rebuttal to Dawkins' Greatest Show on Earth. The book occasionally slipped into "you-too" argumentation (e.g. "Dawkins points out this problem for creationists, but instead of responding to it, let's bring up a different problem that evolutionists need to rebut!"), which annoyed me since this isn't a legitimate form of argumentation. However, this sort of argumentation was relatively-rare, and most of the other arguments were well-articulated and reasoned.
Rating: 4 Stars (Very Good).
Rating: 4 Stars (Very Good).
March 24, 2018
A bit overwhelming for the average reader who may not be familiar with most of the science, but I was glad for the detail. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the eye. I appreciated the summaries at the end of the chapters.
February 11, 2017
Amazing book. Christians aren't simply burying their heads in the sand and ignoring facts.
February 2, 2026
In many ways Richard Dawkins is an easy target. He is loud. He is arrogant. He makes sweeping statements that earn the disapproval of even scientists in his own camp. And he has hitched his wagon to the absolute train wreck that is evolutionary ideology. However since he is seen as one of the senior saints and high priests of the movement his claims need to be addressed and responded to. Jonathan Sarfati executes this response with skill and precision. A chain saw meets a fallen log. Sarfati offers summary points at the end of most chapters and these provide a great recap of the key arguments made. This is more than just a defense of creationism. It is a demolition of one of evolutionist’s key apologists.
February 8, 2019
Better then I thought it would be...some interesting points and anecdotes....
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews