(2000, Master Books). Ham, for those who don't know, is the President/CEO of Answers in Genesis, the young-Earth creationist organization that runs the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.Young-Earth creationists (YECs) believe that God created the world around 6,000 years ago exactly as described in the book of Genesis. Since creation took place in six 24-hour days (on the 7th day, God rested), they are forced to conclude that dinosaurs were roaming around with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
They are also forced to conclude, since the world was perfect with no pain, suffering, and death before the Fall, that dinosaurs like T. rex ate coconuts or something with those long, serrated teeth. They also debate whether or not Noah took dinosaurs on the ark (yes, it is surreal, some seriously propose they only took baby dinosaurs since space was at a premium).By the way, I saw Ken Ham speak once, a long time ago now, when I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Everything he said about geology in that talk (which was given in a church) was a complete lie (I'm not going to be charitable and assume he was just ignorant, because he's not a dumb man - he's a lying sack of shit who lives better than I off the donations of others and outright slanders science and scientists).
Anyhow, here are the pictures I saw posted from his book:
Those large claws on Deinonychus were presumably very useful for pulling branches down so he could eat oranges. And look, Adam has a pet monkey and Eve is feeding a pterosaur (Anurognathus). For an archetypical woman, Eve's a little homely, don't you think?
This next one's just silly.
I guess Ham believes dinosaurs did take a ride on Noah's ark since the text is talking about the time between Noah (Genesis 6) and the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Very clever of people at the time to domesticate the dinosaurs and use them as beasts of burden (quite the accomplishment - can you think of any domesticated reptiles today?).
It would be pretty neat to have a tame Gallimimus to saddle up and ride on - like a real live Dinotopia. Unfortunately, since the word "dinosaur" wasn't invented until the 1800s, the ancient Hebrews didn't know what to call them so they got left out of the Bible (maybe the word "camels" is a mistranslation - Jesus may really have said "Again I tell you, it is easier for an Tyrannosaurus to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Why not? Makes about as much sense as anything Ken Ham has claimed.
Great review! LMAO I want to read this book!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of ostrich races. They never work out well. How would it be different on a raptor or small rex?
ReplyDeleteWow this is just bisarre. Most normal adults understand that you have to study and read in order to learn. Here we have adults (like Kevin Ham), who are too lazy to learn facts and instead make up their own. That's a very strange behavior.
ReplyDeleteThis ridiculous charlatan needs to be treated with contempt and ridicule as long as decent,rational people have breath in their bodies. Fuck Ken Ham and all those stupid enough to be duped by this sack of inane,horseshit.
ReplyDeleteHow dogmatic and moronic to blast one's views when you likely have no knowledge or next to no knowledge of the bible which is where Mr Ham draws his views. He believes scripture is truth.....pretty easy to blast an unpopular belief, but it also makes you look like an idiot when you have zero accurate knowledge of that belief
ReplyDeleteClosest mention of dinosaurs in the Bible would be in the Book of Job, where the terms "Behemoth" and "Leviathan" are used. Some translations equate a behemoth to an elephant, and a leviathan to a crocodile, but the way they're described, it leans toward a *possibility* that they were dinosaurs, most likely a very rare creature which eventually became extinct somehow...
ReplyDeleteI'm a Christian and I've read a significant amount of the Bible (can't say I've read the whole book yet), and I like to believe in the possibility that dinosaurs lived the same time as humans in the biblical times, but I have yet to find evidence of that notion. My notion is guided by faith. Call it foolish, have respect for it, what have you. That's just me, and I'm just one person.
Definitely not looking for a heated debate or any animosity. Just thought I would give my 21 cents to this, primarily with my first paragraph.