Jonathan Sarfati
Jonathan D. Sarfati, Ph.D. (born October 1 1964) is a young earth creationist author and speaker who currently works for Answers in Genesis (AiG), a Christian apologetics ministry. He has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Sarfati, a FIDE Master, was the 1987/88 New Zealand national chess champion. He represented New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads. His continued interest in chess includes giving blindfold chess exhibits at AiG conferences and at chess clubs in Australia and New Zealand.
Biography
Born in Ararat, Victoria, Sarfati moved to New Zealand as a child, where he became a dual national. He attended Wellington College (New Zealand), and later he graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry, based on his thesis: A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules.
From 1988 to 1995, Sarfati published several papers on spectroscopy of condensed matter samples in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Abstracts are available on ScienceDirect.com. He also co-authored a paper on high-temperature superconductors that was published in the journal Nature when he was 22 ("Letters to Nature" section, 1987)[1]
Ethnically Jewish, Sarfati converted to Christianity in 1984. He describes himself both as a Messianic Jew and Hebrew Christian, which he uses interchangeably (there are distinctions as well as overlap between the two movements).
In 1996, he returned to Brisbane, Australia to work for the Creation Science Foundation (now Answers in Genesis) as co-editor of their magazine, Creation, and TJ (Technical Journal). Sarfati is married with one stepson.
Scientist
Critics and supporters of Sarfati often disagree whether he should be considered a scientist. Young Earth Creationism is considered a pseudoscience by almost all scientists. Supporters argue that his doctorate in physical chemistry qualifies him as a scientist. The creationist website Answers in Genesis to which Sarfati contributes lists many creationists who are active in science (though for work unconnected to creationism), and advises readers that many of the founders of modern science, such as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell had a general belief in the creator God of the Bible and opposed evolution; [2] a point critics reject as invalid since evolutionary theory was not developed until after many of those listed had died. Sarfati suggests that evolutionary ideas date back at least to Greek philosophers, and these scientists were well aware of them [3]. His view is not widely shared in the scientific community. and these earlier evolutionary ideas were very different from the modern theory.
Sarfati's doctorate is in physical chemistry. Some critics question his knowledge in apparently unrelated fields- namely biology and astronomy. Sarfati himself has questioned the credentionals of others along similar lines, saying of one such writer "(He's) An anthropologist, so anything he says about radiometric dating should be taken with a large grain of salt." [4]
About such appeals to authority Sarfati has written:
- "We have always tried to avoid saying or implying 'believe me because I'm a scientist trained in such and such a field', therefore we were not guilty of this fallacy. Rather, we try to rely on the strengths of our arguments, the soundness or unsoundness of which are independent of who is making them. Hopefully, the only time we appeal to our qualifications is defensively, to refute the charge that 'no intelligent person/no real scientist believes creation/doubts goo-to-you evolution, or to point out to 'professional biologists' resorting to that fallacy that we also have 'professional biologists' on staff. [5]"
Sarfati outlined the reason for the exception to this admonishment in the critique's introduction:
- "As some astute signatories to his guestbook have pointed out, John Stear’s “No Answers in Genesis” is short on substance but long on rhetoric against creationists ... Now, unlike Stear’s scurrilous little site, the Answers in Genesis site majors in issues, not personalities. But I can certainly play Stear’s little game of ad hominems ...".[6]
Writings
Sarfati has written numerous publications, including three books. His first two books Refuting Evolution (1999) and Refuting Evolution 2 (2002) are rebuttals to the National Academy of Sciences' publication Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science and the PBS/Nova series "Evolution," respectively.
His latest book, Refuting Compromise is a rebuttal of the day-age creationist teachings of Dr. Hugh Ross, who attempts to harmonize the Genesis account of creation with the belief that the earth is billions of years old, a position which Sarfati rejects.
Sarfati has contributed to other publications, and authored articles on the Answers in Genesis website. He also speaks at churches and conferences on the issue of creation versus evolution.
Chess
He gives frequent "blindfold" chess exhibits at AiG conferences,(PDF) as well as chess clubs [7] and has been known to play twelve such games simultaneously. [8] His previous best was winning 11/11 at the Kapiti Chess Club in New Zealand (Roberts, E., New Zealand Chess 29(3):23, June 2003).
A former New Zealand national chess champion (1987/88), he represented New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads: the 27th in Dubai (1986), the 28th in Thessaloniki (1988), and the 30th in Manila (1992). He also tied Rey Casse in the Australian Junior Championship (1981), but his (then) New Zealand residency made him ineligible to share the title.
In a 1988 tournament in Wellington, Sarfati achieved a draw against former World Champion Boris Spassky.[9]
Sarfati is curretly the club captain/director-of-play for the Logan City Chess Club, Australia.
Moral issues
Sarfati has strongly defended the pro-life cause. Thus he opposes abortion for any reason [10][11][12] except to save the life of the mother [13] and opposes embryonic stem cell research, while supporting adult stem cell research. [14] He has also argued that the Bible contradicts slavery and apartheid [15][16], and argued that Nazism owed much to evolutionary ideas.[17][18][19]
He defends marriage as one man and one woman, while opposing polygamy.[20] Similarly, he opposes homosexual behaviour, while advocating "love the sinner, hate the sin,"[21] condemning the "vile murder of the homosexual Matthew Shepard by young thugs," and denounced gay-hater Fred Phelps as "on the lunatic fringe of Christendom, with virtually no support from conservative Christians."[22]
Sarfati has endorsed Bernard Goldberg's suggestion that Roman Catholic priests who molest teenage boys should be called "gay priests" rather than "pedophile priests", since (as according to this position), the latter usually involves little girls. In the same article, he also referred to homosexuals who advocate the imprisonment of pastors who preach on the traditional teaching that homosexual acts are sinful as "homonazis" and "sodomofascists."
- "Homosexuals are now a politically protected victim group, about which it is verboten to say anything negative. And certain homonazis want Christians punished if they quote from the Bible against homosexual behavior. Indeed, 63-year-old Pastor Åke Green[23] was jailed in Sweden for just that, because they have such a sodomofascist law restricting Christian freedom. Fortunately his conviction was overturned on appeal, to the ire of homosexual activists, by a higher court because it was such an egregious violation of Sweden’s free speech laws" [24]
Education
- B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry (with condensed matter and nuclear physics papers substituted)
- Ph.D. in Spectroscopy (Chemistry)
Honors/Awards/Associations
- 1988, FIDE Master title, Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation
Bibliography
Books by Sarfati
- Rescuing the Bible from John Shelby Spong (ISBN 0890514178) (to be released)
- Refuting Compromise (ISBN 0-890514-11-9) 2004
- The Revised & Expanded Answers Book (ISBN: 0890513953) 2003; with Carl Wieland, Ph.D and Ken Ham (edited by Don Batten, Ph.D.)
- Refuting Evolution 2 (ISBN 0-890513-87-2) 2002
- Refuting Evolution (ISBN 0-890512-58-2) 1999
Articles by Sarfati
- Uncut chapter from In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation, ed. John F. Ashton, ISBN 0890513414, 2001
- Loving God with all your mind: logic and creation, TJ 12(2):142–151, 1998
- Biblical chronogenealogies, TJ 17(3):14–18, 2003 (defends Masoretic chronology of Gen. 5 & 11, and rejects gaps)
- Book review: Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins, TJ 12(1):29–34, 1998
- Stem cells and Genesis, TJ 15(3):19–26, 2001 (opposes embryonic stem cell research; supports somatic/adult stem cell research)
- Olfactory design: smell and spectroscopy, TJ 12(2):137–138, 1998
- What’s Wrong With Bishop Spong? Laymen Rethink the Scholarship of John Shelby Spong Apologia 4(1):3–27, 1995
- Presuppositionalism vs evidentialism, and is the human genome simple? (6 June 2005 reply to AiG feedback)
- Defending vital doctrines and the deity of Christ (23 May 2005 reply to AiG feedback)
External links
- AiG's introductory chapter of Refuting Compromise and some reviews
- AiG's The Revised & Expanded Answers Book online version
- AiG's Refuting Evolution 2
- AiG's Refuting Evolution forward and introduction
- AiG's' biography of Sarfati and list of his publications
- Interview in Creation magazine, Creation 26(3):36–41, June 2004