Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Genesis and the Decay of the Nations (Ken Ham)


In Genesis and the Decay of the NationsKen Ham argues that "Genesis is the foundation book of the Bible and, therefore, of all Christian faith and life."  He believes in taking Genesis literally; therefore, he is a young-earth creationist and gives evolution no credence.  Further, he claims that evolution is the basis of humanism and creation the basis of Christianity.  The book explores this concept further and discusses related events (like the worldwide flood) or doctrines (like marriage) found in Genesis.

Though I agree with some of what Ham says, this is not a great book.  First, his tone is unnecessarily abrasive and condescending throughout (indeed, he's been criticized for things like this from others).  Second, some things he claims are obvious in Scripture don't always appear to be so.  His reasoning can be a little off, and some of his claims (about history and the current state of the church) overly generalized or even false.

I agree with him that science always requires a framework; there's no such thing as straight data- it always requires interpretation.  And he makes an occasional good point.  But there are much better treatments of this topic out there (like The Soul of Science or God's Undertaker).

Rating: C

No comments:

Post a Comment