Customer Reviews

The Answers Book: The 20 Most-Asked Questions About Creation, Evolution & the Book of Genesis Answered! Revised & Expanded Edition

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The author attempts to answer twenty questions from a young earth perspective. Several of the questions are irrelevent to the creationist debate. The rest are full of young earth creationist arguments which are easy to rebut. Overall, no evidence is presented to indicate that the earth is young. For a full review, see www.answersincreation.org/bookreview.htm.

It's unfortunate that so many of the negative reviews I'm reading are coming from those who profess a belief in the Bible!

The "Answers Book" authors reveal clearly and conclusively, that, among other things, those who adhere to some form of theistic evolution (God used evolution to create everything) or progressive creation (God intervened at various points in the process of evolution) are holding to a position that violates clear concepts revealed in the Bible--indeed much that is foundational to the very Gospel itself.

For instance..

Concept violated: the goodness of God

The Bible says 'God is good' and in Genesis 1:31 God described his just finished creation as 'very good'. How do you understand the goodness of God if He used evolution, 'nature red in tooth and claw', to 'create' everything?

Concept violated: Adam's sin brought death and decay, the basis of the Gospel

According to the evolutionist's (and progressive creationist's) understanding, fossils (which show death, disease and bloodshed) were formed before people appeared on earth. Doesn't that mean that you can't believe the Bible when it says that everything is in 'bondage to decay' because of Adam's sin (Romans 8)? In the evolutionary view, hasn't the 'bondage to decay' always been there? And if death and suffering did not arise with Adam's sin and the resulting curse, how can Jesus' suffering and physical death pay the penalty for sin and give us eternal life, as the Bible clearly says (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive")?

Concept violated: the divine inspiration of the whole Bible

If the Genesis accounts of Creation, the Fall, the origin of nations, the Flood and the Tower of Babel - the first 11 chapters - are not historical, although they are written as historical narrative and understood by Jesus to be so, what other unfashionable parts of the Bible do you discard? The biblical account of creation in Genesis seems very specific with six days of creative activity, each having an evening and a morning. According to the evolutionary sequence, the biblical order of creation is all wrong. Do you think God should have inspired an account more in keeping with the evolutionary order, the truth as you see it, if indeed He did use evolution or followed the evolutionary pattern in creating everything?

Concept violated: the straightforward understanding of the Word of God

If the Genesis account does not mean what it plainly says, but must be 'interpreted' to fit an evolutionary world, how are we to understand the rest of the Bible? How are we to know that the historical accounts of Jesus' life, death and resurrection should not also be 'reinterpreted'? Indeed, can we know anything for sure if the Bible can be so flexible?

Concept violated: the creation is supposed to show the hand of God clearly

Dr Niles Eldredge, well-known evolutionist, said:

'Darwin . . . taught us that we can understand life's history in purely naturalistic terms, without recourse to the supernatural or divine.' [Niles Eldredge, "Time Frames - the Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium", 1986, Heinemann, London, p. 13.]

Is it not philosophically inconsistent to marry God (theism) with evolution (naturalism)? If God 'created' using evolution which makes Him unnecessary, how can God's 'eternal power and divine nature' be 'clearly seen' in creation, as Romans 1:20 says? Evolution has no purpose, no direction, no goal. The God of the Bible is all about purpose. How do you reconcile the purposelessness of evolution with the purposes of God? What does God have to do in an evolutionary world? Is not God an 'unnecessary hypothesis'?

Concept violated: the need of restoration for the creation

If God created over millions of years involving death, the existing earth is not ruined by sin, but is as it always has been - as God supposedly intended it to be. So why then should He want to destroy it and create a new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3 and other places)?

Starting to get the picture of where compromising theology leads?

See the Answers in Genesis website for volumes of eye-opening information.

Books I would strongly encourage one to read in addition to this: "Icons of Evolution" by Jonathan Wells, "Bones of Contention" by Marvin Lubenow, "Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!" by Duane Gish, "In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation" by John F. Aston, "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis" by Michael Denton, "Astronomy and the Bible" by Donald B. DeYoung, "Refuting Evolution" by Jonathan Sarfati, "The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods" by John Woodmorappe, and "The Young Earth" by John Morris.

This book offers common-sense answers, from Scripture and science, to oft-asked questions. Nothing is more farcical than some of the negative reviewers who are known to be atheists, yet have the temerity of accusing this book of limiting God. I take that back--the claim about there being 3 literal interpretations of Genesis is ludicrous in the extreme. A little illustration, in fact, will show the absurdity of those who argue for the Days in Genesis being long periods of time: Use this Day-Age illogic elsewhere: Did the Lord spend 40 actual days or 40 long periods of time fasting? Did Jonah spend 3 days and nights in the big fish, or did Jonah spend 3 long periods of time in the big fish? Was our Lord 3 days and nights in the tomb, or was He physically dead for 3 long periods of time? Get the drift?

The AiG brain trust (such as it is) plays a game of twenty questions and manages to come up answer-free. I could easily add twenty of my own but in the interests of brevity I'll stick with two:

Q. Why does this book resort to ridicule instead of reason?

A. Because taking cheap shots at opposing points of view is the only option available when the facts are against you.

Q. Why do Ken Ham and his supporting cast of characters deliberately lie for Jesus?

A. Because they are so desperate to prop up their fact-free faith with pseudo-scientific fantasies that they are willing to ignore ethical boundries.

Carl Sagan correctly observed that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." Only threadbare assertions and just so stories are offered.

The claims made in this book would overthrow cosmology, physics, chemistry, geology, and biology. The only proof offered is an "appeal to authority" argument based on a highly suspect creation myth known as Genesis.

Bronze age dogma is a poor substitute for contemporary science.

Before any fundamentalists start to howl with outrage consider the following: the computer you are using to read this review, along with the internet, are the direct result of physics, particularly solid state physics and quantum mechanics. Genesis has nothing to do with it.

The medications that are lowering your cholesterol, curing a friends cancer, or mitigating your child's asthma, are all results of evidence-based medicine that depend on chemistry and biological insights derived from the theory of evolution. The alternative offered by creationism, and this book, the "snapping fingers and poofing into existance theory" offers nothing of value to any of the points noted above. Genesis, again, has nothing to do with it.

If you love dogma more than your dog, value uninformed anti-intellectual bigotry over hard won knowledge, and want to put your brain on cruse control as you hurtle down the mindless freeway of evangelical fundamentalist life, you'll love the pablum that substitutes for reasoned discourse in this book.

Please note that the level of ridicule reflected in this review is similar to that employed in the book, which is a complete waste of trees and time.

Ken Ham has done a remarkable job in the revised edition, giving intelligent, thought-provoking explanations to 20 of the most asked questions posed by non-believers. As one with a science background, I find it fascinating and eye-opening to read a book that logically defends what many scientists have long dared believe in silence: that there is indeed a Designer behind the design. Here are answers both for Christians to defend their faith and for non-believers to dismiss the stumbling blocks that have for so long been in the way.

Nice to see an undated version which is also greatly expanded to include eight more questions and answers. The previous editions didn't deal with "Is there really a God?", while this book has a whole chapter, answering the common question "Who made God?".

There are also additional chapters on fitting all the animals on the Ark; how saltwater and freshwater fish survived a global flood; claims of life in outer space; and refuting the most common arguments for evolution, e.g. homologies, vestigial organs. The chapter on explaining defence and attack structures in living creatures has been handily updated, e.g. with new information about possible pre-Fall functions of viruses as a means of transferring genetic material.

The chapter on continental drift has been completely re-written to take account of the work of the creationist geophysicist, Dr John Baumgardner. Even secular scientists recognise his supercomputer model of plate tectonics as a world leader. the new Answers Book, following Dr Baumgardner, advocates catastrophic plate tectonics. Thus anyone claiming that the book denies plate tectonics either can't have read it or is careless or even dishonest after having read the clear statements.

The chapter on creation in six days firmly refutes the "day-age" or "progressive Creationist" views. Another chapter refutes the "gap theory", another form of Scripture-twisting invented to fit uniformitarian geology into the bible, and another one refutes all local flood compromises. The biblical teaching that human death and death of the higher animals is due to Adam's Fall is an insuperable difficulty for all millions-of-years views.

The book helpfully closes with general advice for creation-centred apologetics and evangelism, and a Gospel message for any unsaved readers.

So even if you have the old book, definitely get the new one!

The rationalists, in all their intellectual arrogance, would like you to believe that they own a monopoly on scientific and rational thinking. If you doubt this, go on and read the silly and self-serving negative reviews of this excellent book. On the other hand, if you are open-minded to answers which are consistent with Scripture and all that it teaches, then this book is for you.

I am 16 years old and have found this book very practical in answering questions about how the world began and Creation vs. Evolution. Many of my friends now take the Bible to be the most trustworthy and infallible source for many issues (eg how the world began, how languages and races arose, marriage etc).I encourage anyone to read this book who wants biblical answers on how the world really began. It is easy to read and understand.

This book has been helpful to me and thousands of others. It is very faith-strengthening, giving rational answers for 12 common questions. And it shows that the Bible can withstand the strongest attacks of the Sceptics.

Christians also need to realise that consistent Christianity requires belief in a creator who created the world 'very good' (Gen. 1:31), and that disease and suffering is the result of sin. Failure to take Genesis at its plain meaning will put death, 'the last enemy' (1 Cor. 15:26) into a 'very good' creation.

The six-day creation is not a mere 'side-issue', but a watershed one for the key doctrines of the authority and perspicuity of Scripture. As shown by Dr Douglas Kelly's book _Creation and Change_ (also available from Amazon), if the days of Genesis are not ordinary days as is plainly stated, then how can we understand anything else in the Bible? Billions of years/evolution can only be 'consistent' with Genesis if the text is emptied of all meaning.

_The Answers Book_ does an excellent job demolishing compromise views like the 'Day-Age' theory and 'Gap' theory, thoroughly answers the old 'Where did Cain get his wife' chestnut, and shows that all different 'races' could come from a single human couple -- just the sort of message that our society needs to combat the virulent racism in some circles.

The Flood is also well covered, except that a future edition would greatly benefit from an expanded section on fitting all the animals in. This is well-covered by John Woodmorappe's book _Noah's Ark: A Feasiblity Study_ (available from Amazon). He points out that only about 16,000 kinds of land vertebrate animals needed to be on board; plants, invertebrates and marine creatures are not included in the Hebrew words for the Ark's cargo, and could have survived off the Ark. He also points out that the there are many cases where animals of different species and even in different genera can actually interbreed, showing that they are really just one biological species. Thus the number of pairs is much smaller than sceptics assert.

This book provides a wealth of information relevant to basic questions about science, the Bible, the imagined fact of organic evolution, etc. Some of the negative reactions against it tell us far more about the abysmal ignorance of its critics than they tell us about this book. Thus, neither Ken Ham nor any of the AIG leaders is a Seventh-Day Adventist, nor is this book patterned after Adventist theology. I have yet to see a single reference to Ellen White in any AIG publication! Furthermore, the young-earth Creation-Flood view espoused by this book was in fact the mainstream Christian view in past centuries, not some sort of recent aberration of theology. The notions about a literal Biblical reading requiring acceptance of a metal-domed sky and a flat earth are totally ludicrous. Such notions are not required by the Hebrew text at all, but were dreamed up by 19th-century rationalists bent on discrediting the Bible. Nor can scientific issues be avoided in favor of ones dealing with morality, etc. Jesus Christ taught that if we cannot believe Him when He speaks of earthly things, how can we believe Him when He speaks of heavenly things. This book gives us a balanced introduction to both.