Ken Ham - The New Answers Book Volume 3: Over 35 Questions on Creation/Evolution and the Bible

First printing: February 2010

Fifteenth printing: March 2022

Copyright 2009 by Answers in Genesis. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, copied, broadcast, stored, or shared in any form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. For information write:

Master Books, P.O. Box 726, Green Forest, AR 72638

Master Books is a division of the New Leaf Publishing Group, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-89051-579-2

ISBN: 978-1-61458-108-6 (digital)

Library of Congress Number: 2008903202

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Please consider requesting that a copy of this volume be purchased by your local library system.

Printed in the United States of America

Please visit our website for other great titles:

www.masterbooks.com

For information regarding author interviews,

please contact the publicity department at (870) 438-5288.

Introduction

Evolving Tactics

Ken Ham

O ver the past 30 years of my personal, intimate experience in the biblical creation ministry, I have observed evolving (in the sense of changing) tactics used by prominent secularists to respond to arguments from creationist scholars and researchers. Based on my experience, I would divide the interactions of biblical creationists and outspoken secularists into four basic eras.

The Debate Era of the 1970s

When I first became aware of the U.S. creation movement in the 1970s (while I was a teacher in Australia), I learned that Duane Gish (Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley) of the Institute for Creation Research was actively debating evolutionary scientists from various academic institutions.

At that time, creationist arguments against evolution consisted of arguments against so-called ape-men, and arguments that the Cambrian Explosion and lack of transitional forms illustrated that Darwinian evolution did not happen.

Evolutionists argued back with supposed counters to these arguments. For instance, they claimed that Archaeopteryx was a transitional form between reptiles and birds (since refuted), that the mammal-like reptiles were transitional forms, and so on. However, in the long run, such evidences were just interpreted differently by both sides according to their starting points creation or evolution!

Evolutionists still use this fossil to support the transition of one kind of animal to another. Creationists interpret the same evidence in light of the Bible and come to different conclusions.

The Rise of Creationist Media in the Early 1980s

Although secular educational institutions and secular journals, by and large, taught evolution as fact, I noticed more deliberate attempts to increase public indoctrination about evolution and earth history occurring over millions of years. For this reason, I might also call this the Intensified Evolutionary Indoctrination era.

At the same time, evolutionists increasingly refused to debate creationists. In todays world (early 21st century), such debates are rare.

Nonetheless, the biblical creation movement began publishing more and more books, videos, and other materials; and the creation versus evolution issue rose to greater prominence in the culture and secular media. Secularist opposition to the creation movement intensified, with many articles in print. Although they included some ridicule, many articles tried to outline the supposed scientific reasons why creationists were wrong.

The Public School Controversies of the 1980s and 1990s

Frustrated by how evolutionary teaching had taken over much of the secular education system, and seeing that creation was basically outlawed from the classroom, many Christians tried (unsuccessfully) in the courts to force public school teachers to teach creation in their classes, or at least to allow critiques of evolution.

This era eventually sparked the rise of the non-Christian intelligent design movement which many Christians thought might be the answer to the education problem but soon found it was not.

Secularists fought hard to falsely accuse creationists of being anti-science. They typically labeled belief in the Genesis account of history or even the simple belief that God created as just a religious view, while belief in Darwinian evolution was a scientific view.

The Name-Calling Era of the Early 21st Century

Some secularists have reverted to name-calling in a desperate attempt to discredit biblical creationists. In the early part of the 21st century, articles against the creation movement became more scathing, sarcastic, and mocking, with increasing name-calling. Rather than attempting to use logical arguments to dissuade people, evolutionists mocked not just the Genesis account of creation but also belief in any unnamed intelligence behind the universe.

No longer satisfied to argue that creationists could not be real scientists and that belief in creation is anti-scientific, secularists began accusing creationists of being anti-technology. I began to see the argument appear that people who believe in creation are inconsistent if they use modern technology, such as computers and airplanes, which are products of mans scientific ingenuity.