Christianity
Bahamian Men Cite Bible as Proof That Husbands Cannot Rape Their Wives
A report on a new Bahamian law which was aimed at stopping marital rape (a law which has not yet been passed) has been making the rounds as outrage grows over the comments made by men cited in the report. Often using the Bible as proof that men cannot rape their own wives, some of the comments are straight out the Stone Age.
Elvis Russell told the Journal that he does not support the bill either because there is no such thing as rape within a marriage.
"Even if a woman says no to her husband it still can't be considered rape because she is his wife. He already paid his dues at the church and she already said 'I do,' so from then on, even if [a man] forces sex on his wife, it isn't rape," he said.
"I disagree with the bill because I disagree that a man can rape his wife. The Bible tells me that a man's body is his wife’s and her body is his. How could he rape her?" asked Ms. Sweeting.
"If a man wants to have sex with his wife he is supposed to [have sex with her] regardless of what the circumstances [are]. I don’t see why he should be charged with raping his own wife, she is never supposed to say no," said Ms. Clarke.
"If I were married and my husband wanted to have sex with me I wouldn't stop him, [because] I'm not supposed to, even if I was tired or feeling sick, I wouldn't tell him no."
There are some rational responses in the article, thankfully, but yet again, the Bible is used as a primary source for institutional evil, in this case belief that a husband cannot rape his wife. Does the Bible provide some people with inspiration for good? No doubt. But it also clearly provides some people with inspiration for evil.
If you look at the map above, you can see the countries which have outlawed marital rape (shaded in pinkish purple). What is striking is just how many places in the world still allow husbands to rape their wives. Many of these nations are undoubtedly religious and use scriptural doctrines to deny that marital rape can even occur. I don't know what China's excuse is, nor why many Eastern European nations have failed to enact laws protecting wives (what's up, Greece?). Regardless, the idea that wives are owned property may not be derived from scriptural sources, but this notion has absolutely been preserved in the literal interpretations of various scriptural passages, leaving millions of women the world over forced to endure marital rape. Welcome back to the Stone Age.
Book Review: Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
(out of 5 stars)
Having read Harris' more substantial work The End of Faith (and given it 4/5 stars despite having some signficant disagreements with some of his points), I finally picked up the much shorter (96 pages) Letter for a quick read. It reads mostly like a condensed, directed version of Faith and offers very little new material for the reader, Christian or atheist.
There really isn't much to discuss about the book. It is a one-sided conversation Harris is having with the anonymous Christian reader (though it is doubtful many actual Christians will read the book). Harris uses many of the same arguments he puts forward in Faith to support his thesis that religion is dangerous and that Christians in the US are no more correct or moral, and make no more positive contributions than any other group of people.
I've read other reviews which trash this book as 'preaching to the choir'. I do agree that, despite the fact that this letter is to a 'Christian', this is largely intended for atheistic audiences. However, 'preaching to the choir' is not really a legitimate knock on this or any work. Until the mid-2000s, most US atheists had no popular voices for their point of view. What Harris (and other vocal atheists) have done is provide a provacative (and antagonist) voice for those of us who have had almost no one speaking on our behalf. While I agree that Harris is confrontational, I argue that that is his point. Atheists have long needed a few loud-mouthed antagonizers to bring our issues into popular discussion, and we certainly could not have done so if Harris et. al. were polite reconcilators.
Overall, this book is just a condensed version of Faith and will largely serve as a booster for atheists who need to find arguments which speak to their own positions. Three and one-half stars.
Book Review: Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom by Barry Lynn
(out of 5 stars)
Reverend Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) and United Church of Christ minister, has long been a leader in the fight to maintain Thomas Jefferson's 'wall of separation' between Church and State. Piety & Politics is Lynn's effort to describe the state of this fight (in 2006) as the Religious Right expands its attacks on the vital separation.
Lynn opens the book with a bit of history of the concept of freedom of religion with a focus on the United States. He firmly establishes that, despite his own belief in a Christian worldview, he is utterly opposed to religious intrusion into public education. Being personally involved in numerous lawsuits (as the director of AUSCS), Lynn has a fascinating perspective of the fight, including that over Ten Commandments displays on public property.
The George W. Bush creation of faith-based initiatives is attacked head on, and hypocrites such as Pat Robertson and the deceased Jerry Falwell are exposed on the issue. Lynn then goes into the Religious Right's war on sex and sex education, and uses the issue to show how divisive and descructive abstinence-only and poor sex education have created worse problems. Finally, censorship is discussed, and Lynn makes it clear that information must be freely available even when many, if not most, people in the affected area disagree with the ideas (Lynn himself argues that books by Falwell, Robertson, and others should be stocked in libraries even though he personally does not agree with many of their views).
Theocracy is a dangerous political system, one which the Christian minister Lynn has no desire to see become reality in this nation. It is clear, though, from Lynn's experience, that Religious Right leaders are focused on bringing theocratic policies and organizations to power in this country, and it is only through exposing and directly challenging these movements can the nation's commitment to freedom of religion be maintained. Highly recommended to anyone interested in how the modern Religious Right strategies are affecting everything from education to politics. Four stars.
An Army Officer Experience That Makes My Blood Boil
What follows in the blockquote is a statement made by an Army Officer concerning his experiences with religion in the military, which was originally posted on Ed Brayton's blog Dispatches (and I first heard of it from a post by Dave G). We've seen a lot lately about the religously-imposing nature of the modern US Military, from the Air Force imposing Christianity to West Point and the Naval Academy being home to similar problems. What this anonymous officer has to say is not new nor is it unique, but it should raise serious red flags for anyone who believes that freedom of religion has any meaning at all. I want to repost the message in entirity since it is important as a whole and because I believe doing so is consistent with the author's intents.
I am a United States Army Captain. On a spring day at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York several years ago, I took a solemn oath to support and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic as an officer in the United States Army. I took a legally altered oath which omitted the words "So Help Me G-d." When I submitted my first signed copy, with those words neatly crossed out and initialed, I was informed that it was not valid. When threatened with the prospect of not graduating and being refused a Commission, I stood by my refusal to sign the Oath as it read. I could not in good conscience do so because I was deeply disturbed by fusion of religion and military service. I could not reconcile the suspicion that the Oath itself was establishing religion in a way which contradicted the spirit of the Constitution with the intensity of my commitment to defend same. I believed, and still believe, that my personal metaphysical experience of the universe must be separate from my role as a military professional. In the passing years, I have come to the unsettling conclusion that the sentiment in the Oath which so disturbed me is a practical reality in my United States Army.
Based on my alteration of The Oath, you may be tempted to label me "non-religious." I find this odd, because religion has broadly influenced my life and values. I was born into a mixed Jewish and Catholic family. The family I belong to now is mixed Buddhist and Agnostic. I attended Catholic high school where I excelled in my religious studies. I was one of a literal fistful of non-Christian students voluntarily attending a religious institution, and I never once felt pressure to conform. In our mandatory religious classes we studied Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Quaker, Mormon, Jewish, Protestant, Wiccan, and other religions and we were taught that mere "tolerance" was abhorrent and basic "acceptance" was the absolute minimum standard. I learned during my second semester as a Plebe (freshman) at West Point that even lowly tolerance is a privilege not to be bestowed on all Soldiers in the United States Army.
During my second year at the West Point, my Squad Leader for summer training expressed disapproval on numerous occasions with my being Jewish, and, during one mission, he grabbed my MRE (a military meal) as we sat down for lunch and handed me another. He ordered me to eat the pork chop and I reminded him that I refrain from pork for religious reasons. He told me that I could eat the pork or eat nothing. One of his peers, a female Jewish cadet, urged me to obey him and not to make him angry; I declined. The next day, my cadet Platoon Leader presented me with a written counseling statement detailing my signs of "anorexia" and a "troubling" refusal to eat which was detrimental to my health and indicative of "incapacity for leadership." I was filled with righteous indignation. I went through the Cadet and Commissioned Chain of Command and my rebuttal culminated with a conversation with the Active Duty Major in command of the summer training. When I explained the events in detail, he told me that my Cadet Chain of Command was right to be concerned, and spoke words I will never forget: "the Army is not in the business of catering to people like you." Those words have haunted me throughout my career as an Officer. They were the turning point for me--when I finally understood the message several of my leaders had been expressing to me all along: the Army has no place for people like me: dissidents who stray from the unofficially mandated military religion; conservative fundamentalist Christianity.
Throughout my service, I have been inundated by reminders of the tenacity of this "Army Religion". On a regular basis, I am confronted with being forced/coerced to partake in involuntary prayer. At change of command ceremonies, promotions, retirements, banquets, mandatory Officer/NCO call, the list goes on. What do I do when this happens? I see no reason why I should have to bow my head to participate in this involuntary prayer. But if I stand at attention, I am still showing that I am subject to religion in my professional duties. I have discovered that any other movements or fidgeting are viewed as disrespectful to those who wish to pray. Army leaders send the message out that prayer is voluntary, and that Soldiers do not have to participate. As a Platoon Leader serving in Iraq, my Squad Leaders and I were ordered to attend a mission briefing with the Battalion Command Team's security squad. The briefing concluded with a Soldier being ordered to lead the group in prayer. I was disturbed because I knew that there were Soldiers on this team who did not share the specific, sectarian Christian religious beliefs being expressed. I was standing at the edge of the formation, and chose to quietly walk away. I was later counseled by my Commander and informed that the Battalion Command Team had heard of the incident and recommended I be relieved from my duties as Platoon Leader. My Commander explained that, by not bowing my head in blatantly Christian prayer with the others, I was sending a message that I "want my Soldiers to die." These words penetrated my core. What leader can imagine a worse accusation? Who wouldn't doubt herself or himself when confronted with this message? The threat of being relieved was completely overshadowed and, again, I was an outsider, incapable of leadership because I refused this unconstitutional perversion of Christianity synonymous with the Command.Could I not, would I not be an effective combat ready officer/leader/warrior without first very publicly and repeatedly demonstrating my singular loyalty to Jesus Christ? Could I not lead brave military women and men into combat for my country without being an avowed fundamentalist Christian? I stopped practicing my own religion; I disassociated myself from Soldiers who were similarly persecuted; I lost hope.
Who can you talk to about something like this? Certainly not my Chain of Command- my immediate supervisor/rater and senior supervisor/rater had threatened to relieve me. Obviously my counseling statement wouldn't address mandatory prayer, but what did it matter what it said if both my rater and senior rater agreed I was "unfit" and there were no other Officers who I worked with or around? I later contacted the Equal Opportunity Office to make an official anonymous report about the noxious, compulsive Christian, command climate. Shockingly, the NCO I filed the report with wasted no time in contacting my Battalion Commander directly, in complete violation of the privacy regulations and guarantees of protective anonymity attendant to such hyper-sensitive filings. I later became a member of an Installation Inspector General Team and observed firsthand the impotent, incapacity of the IG to affect any meaningful change. The difference between lower enlisted Soldiers and myself is this: they suspect that they have nowhere to turn in order to escape this unbearable religious persecution--in contrast, as an officer, I do not suspect. I know.
Looking back over all my time in the Army and at the United States Military Academy at West Point, I know that there were so many good memories, so many wonderful opportunities, and so many outstanding leaders of character I met along the way. Yet, the time is painfully tainted for me by a long shadow of bitter religious persecution by zealously righteous Christians essentially universally extant throughout the United States Army command structure.What has most surprised me about this struggle is how utterly powerless I am as a Captain- a Command level Officer- to stand up for my rights and for the Constitution and Country I love. I am a great Soldier, a great leader, and a great person, and I am a victim. It is not comfortable to admit one is a victim; I believe that admitting it takes a certain type of personal strength. The first day I met my current military superior/rater, he was playing Christian gospel music in his office while he called me in to talk. Perhaps it was an innocent oversight on his part, or perhaps it is another hint of the sinister nature of the current "Army Religion". There is no safe way to find out. My experiences have shown that the inundation of invitations for fundamentalist Christian prayer and fellowship, "spiritual growth" and "moral development" that target fellow Soldiers tends to thinly mask an undeniable and comprehensive underlying propensity for aggression, hatred, and ambition to subjugate the United States Army to an official religion; fundamentalist Christianity. The result for the American military is a total destruction of esprit de corps, teamwork, morale, good order and discipline. The result for the fundamentalist Islamic enemies we fight is an immeasurable bonanza of emboldenment for their recruitment, propoganda and insurgency efforts to maim and kill our soldiers down range in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was there. I saw it. I lived it. I am still living it.
When Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation describe this catastrophe of fundamentalist Christian usurpation of the command and control of our armed forces as a "national security threat of the gravest magnitude", they are precisely correct. It is injuring and killing our brave military members, specifically. It is desecrating the magnificent Constitution we swore an oath to, generally. And it is destroying our military's solidarity of purpose and ability to accomplish The Mission, completely.
Oy. Literally.
For anyone interested, a couple of links. First, check out the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (and the list from the maaf of actual Atheists in Foxholes, contrary to the incorrect common wisdom). I had the pleasure of meeting and listening to a talk given by former Army Captain Jason Torpy at the 2009 Secular Student Alliance conference a couple weeks ago and I strongly urge supporting this vital group's efforts. Second, join the Freedom From Religion Foundation which, in 1999, erected the Atheists in Foxholes monument in Lake Hypatia, AL. Co-President of FFRF, former evangelical Christian, and author Dan Barker was also at SSACon09, and his group is strongly supporting efforts to remove religious bullying in the military and politics.
Weird Places Jesus Shows Up: Toilet Seat Sticker!
...while she was cleaning last week, she says an image of Jesus appeared on the bumper sticker on the toilet lid.
Her boyfriend now says he sees the image and it's given them a positive feeling after they almost lost their home to foreclosure. Nelson says she's even willing to let visitors come see it, if it might help them as well.
Religious Spam and the Non-Power of Prayer
(this post should probably be titled after the image caption at the end: Prayer: How To Do Nothing And Still Think You're Helping)
Anyone who has spent more than a few seconds on this site knows where I stand on religion. My anti-theist stance is quite clearly proclaimed everywhere here, from the scarlet A and Random Evil Scripture block to the various books I've read, even those of faith have no trouble figuring out my views.
I have my email address easily accessible in the footer, available for anyone to contact me if desired, and I do get some genuine and interesting emails from time to time.
I also get signed up for religious mailing lists and newsletters. Most are reasonable enough to require an email confirmation, but a large number appear to let someone use my email address to sign me up without my confirmation or consent.
Not really a big deal, but as a result, I get to see some interesting emails. Religious spam is often disguised as traditional theistic solicitations, but I cannot help but recognize how many features of spam some of these possess.
One arrived today from Open Doors, a Christian group which focuses on helping persecuted Christians worldwide (side note -- notice how these US Christian groups are only ever interested in two things outside of the US: converting unbelievers (missionary work) and helping persecuted Christians -- why not anyone being persecuted? Why not concentrated on bringing help to anyone being tortured, starved, killed, or imprisoned for any reason? Why do they have to be Christian?). Here's a look at the email:
Simple enough, right? Ignoring the fact that I never signed up for anything from Open Doors, the email features an innocent child with a text stating that "over 100 million Christians around the world face physical violence, imprisonment, and even death because they choose to stand firm in their belief in Jesus Christ". Again, ignoring whether this is actually true or not, the email suggests that I offer my prayers. Please, will you pray for me? it whimpers.
Below the image is text that includes a mission statement:
It takes less than 1 minute to log your prayer support. Your participation will help Open Doors meet the goal of mobilizing 100,000 Christians to remember their persecuted brothers and sisters in prayer this year.
Seriously? The goal is to mobilize 100,000 Christians to pray? How exactly will that help? Christians have been praying for the selfish protection of their own for two thousand years, and yet 100 million Christians are still facing violence due to their beliefs according to the email. What does that say about the power of prayer? How about mobilizing 100,000 people of any belief or non-belief to help anyone who is facing violence, not by asking for prayer, but asking for money, volunteers, education, real help?
Worse, just above that statement is an outright lie:
The number one request from these persecuted Christians is for your prayers
Bullshit.
I don't even need to look into it to be certain this is an utter lie. It's nonsense. The number one request these miserable people have from those of us reading the email is prayer? Again, bullshit.
So, anyway, I visited the site to see exactly what they had to say, and what do I find but a signup for another newsletter.
And again, all I'm doing is affirming that 'Yes, I will Pray' and signing up for the "Free Frontline Faith" email or snail mail newsletter, which is "filled with news and inspiring true stories of faith from the front lines of Christianity today." Not stories of people helping people (although these may be so, they aren't emphasizing it here), but of 'faith'. Just like the fact that Open Doors only asks me to pray for these poor Christians, not to actually do something to help them out.
Prayer has been shown repeatedly to offer no help for healing the sick, how could it possibly stop an innocent child from being beheaded or tortured? How does my praying help these persecuted Christians? Why o why can't I just pray for everyone the world over to be safe from harm? Why must it be only for Christians? How exactly does my prayer help this innocent child splashed on my screen? At least the Christian Children's Fund (renamed Child Fund International in April, 2009) asks for money, volunteers, actual assistance!.
So why is Open Doors sending me spam requesting only that I pray and sign up for more spam? Let me rephrase the question with a different spam subject: Why is Big Cock Pills, Inc sending me spam requesting only that I want a bigger cock and sign up for more big cock spam? The latter, of course, would not expect you to just want a big cock, it would also offer to sell you the big cock pills, the tangible things (they claim) actually do the trick. Paying for the pills is the tangible action that leads to a bigger cock (praying for a bigger cock has never worked, ask any guy).
Open Doors doesn't even go that far. They just want a prayer... for now. Like all good, long-lasting spam, the money part comes later after it has gotten under your skin or softened your resistence. For now, they just need you to trust them and do something simple which costs you nothing. Big Cock Pills, Inc hasn't got that luxury. Either you'll buy Big Cock Pills or you won't, so they aren't wasting time on you. Open Doors, though, baits the hook with the easy-but-worthless 'Send your Prayer' route, valuable to those of faith and utterly worthless as real action, but I guarantee that down the line, requests for money will come pouring in. They'll know that I've already invested my prayers, my emotions properly tugged, this poor child with one foot inside the jail cell, so throwing a few hundred dollars in will be the least I can do.
I signed up for the email newsletter, just to see what sort of second-level spam and propaganda get sent by Open Door. The prayer bait sure feels like a 'try it free' sort of proposition, so I fully expect to start getting donation requests any moment now.
Reminds me of this excellent pic that has been around for quite some time:
Book Review: Fighting Words: The Origins Of Religious Violence by Hector Avalos
(out of 5 stars)
Religious scholar Hector Avalos, better known for his book The End of Religious Studies, tackles a contentious subject in Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence. Avalos argues his theory that religions create scare resources (regardless of whether real or imaginary) which lead to various levels of violence in order to defend, gain, or promote them. He posits that there are four main areas where scarce resources are created, namely through divine revelation (inscripturation), sacred space (such as Jerusalem), group privileging, and salvation. While Avalos is clearly a dedicated, detailed, and highly intelligent researcher, Fighting Words offers a dense format that often slowed and obfuscated his argument to the reader.
From the beginning, Avalos makes it clear that the book will serve as a direct rebuttal of arguments (of other writers and researchers) which determined that religions are largely peaceful and that violence is an aberration of the nature of religion. The interpretations of these 'pacifist'-leaning researchers are deemed 'essentialist' and found to be no more reasonable than the fundamentalist interpretations. Large parts of each chapter are dedicated to describing the arguments Avalos seeks to counter, and at times, the narrative bogs down in explaining them.
Avalos explores the three main Abrahamic religions and how each has created scarce resources which inspired violence. The strongest part of the book for me involved a long discussion of Hitler and Nazism and how the anti-Jewish violence was largely rooted in Biblical scarce resource creation. The comparison of Mein Kampf and the Bible (as inspirational sources of value) is fantastic and compelling.
The last few chapters were weak (to me). The discussion of secular states and Avalos's solutions left much to be desired as the author admits frequently that the solutions he offers are unlikely and possibly ineffective.
Fighting Words offers a dense history of some aspects of religious violence and is clearly aimed at scholarly readers familiar with the materials. I felt that there were many examples of the author missing obvious events worthy of consideration and instead concentrating on incidents that (perhaps) were not the best available to address (and I admit this was likely determined by specific arguments within the scholarly circles and not as much by popular non-scholarly debate subjects). While much of the book was clearly written for Avalos's fellow researchers, a lot of history and argument were within my grasp as an intermediate non-professional religious reader. Strong scholarship, solid-but-not-concise argument, and decent attention to the subject await the reader therein. Three and one-half stars.
Book Review: Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment by Phil Zuckerman
(out of 5 stars)
Phil Zuckerman explores an oft-ignored segment of the world: non-religious societies. In this sociological exploration of individual perceptions, belief, and contentment, Zuckerman conducted hundreds of interviews with people in Denmark and Sweden, two of the least religious nations on earth, seeking to discover if these heathen places really do fall into chaos, immorality, hopelessness, and violence as is often claimed by religious fanatics.
What Zuckerman discovers is just the opposite of what Christian leaders often proclaim. Not only is violence markedly lower in these places, but the atheistic leanings of the majority of the inhabitants leaves a largely content, hopeful, and moral population, one in which religion plays a largely ceremonial, cultural role.
Several of the chapters are large excerpts from the author's interviews, detailing specific people Zuckerman feels are particularly representative of the sorts of reactions and opinions he recorded in his months researching this project.
Zuckerman uses this book to directly counter arguments made about the need for Christian society in order to have morality and hope and all sorts of other feel-good descriptors. Fear of death and meaning of life get a whole chapter as the author shows that the people he talked with were greatly indifferent to the topics which cause great anxiety in the US (and other highly-religious states). Zuckerman even encounters a significant number of respondents who had clearly never really thought about religion (and had to pause to consider whether they even believed in God!).
Zuckerman is clearly to point out in several spots that this book does not serve as an actual set of data which can be used to generalize across all of Denmark, Sweden, or any other largely-secular society. His methods and sampling have serious problems, and he is upfront about applying his data to any other group.
However, it is clear from this book that secular society is not the chaotic, violent, hopeless and helpless state that is so often described by fanatical Christians who seek to Christianize all society. Religion plays no big role in the people Zuckerman interviews, and yet their lives are clearly no less meaningful and reasonable than anyone in the US (and in many instances, appear to be happier and more meaningful). This short book is a quick read, and a strong argument for more scientific studies of secular societies and the claims of cultural degeneration made in modern religious socieities. Four stars.
Book Review: The Lie: Evolution by Ken Ham
(out of 5 stars)
In preparation for my upcoming trip with folks from the Secular Student Alliance to the Creation "Museum", I picked up a thrift store copy of Ken Ham's book which laid the foundation for the "museum's" "science". I expected to, at minimum, read about evidence which appeared to contradict evolution, scientific arguments in favor of creationism, or some sort of rational reason to ignore or 'interpret differently' the mountains of evidence available which support evolution. I found none of this, and worse, this entire book could have been contained in the following sentence: "Genesis says God did it, fossils are explained by Noah's flood, and anyone who says otherwise is clearly God's enemy." Seriously, that is all this book has to say.
No science, no arguments, no rational reason to ignore the overwhelming evidence for evolution provided by dozens of scientific disciplines. God did it. Noah's flood explains fossils. You're evil if you say otherwise.
Ham himself sums up the entire rationale for creationism on the first page of the Introduction: "If Genesis was not literally true, then what part of the Bible could I trust?" Here, Ken and I are completely in agreement. He spends the rest of the book relating anecdotes from his ministering, chiding anyone who believes the Bible is not to be interpreted literally, and demonstrating his profound ignorance of evolutionary theory. He clearly has no clue what he is arguing against.
Repeatedly, Ham uses straw men to show that he knows more than those mealy-mouthed scientists when it comes to logic. Everyone Ham talks to storms off, leaving Ham to conclude that he alone was the rational, logical one. No sources, no names, no specific details of these alleged encounters, Ham expects the reader to just accept his stories as utterly true. Given that the vast majority of his readers will accept the literal historical 'truth' of Genesis on blind faith alone, there isn't much surprise that he doesn't bother to source his material.
The worst part of this whole reading experience is that I really thought Ham, who has a college education, would offer the smallest bit of evidence in favor of his interpretation. There are holes in the knowledge of evolutionary processes which would, at minimum, allow Ham to argue some version of the God of the Gaps theory, but even that fallback is destroyed by Ham's own 'logic'. There is nothing, and I mean 'literally' nothing in this book to support Ham's creationist arguments outside of the Bible itself, which Ham repeatedly reminds us claims itself to be the perfect word of God which we must believe literally.
Disgusting. I'm really sad for folks who read this garbage and are convinced. How do these readers get out of bed each morning? How do they ever make reasonable decisions? How could anyone who believes Ken Ham ever have a dime to spend after all the fraud and scams they undoubtedly fall for? I'm glad I read this book only because it makes it clear that creationism is a vapid, hollow, and utterly disingenous religious monstrosity which has not one shred of evidence for its claims (whatever those actually are, outside of 'God did it'). The fact that half the US population believes some form of this bullshit is not only sad, it is downright frightening. If so many people cannot tell how utterly empty of evidence this propaganda is, how on earth can we solve the terribly harsh problems that face us everyday. One-half star. I wish I could give it less. Utter trash, unscientific, anti-rational, illogical, and irresponsible manifestation from the mind of a clearly-deranged and mentally ill Ken Ham.
