Customer Reviews

One Blood: The Biblical Answer to Racism

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An abysmal chapter in the history of evolutionary philosophy involves the notion that certain 'races' were not quite as advanced as others.

Consider the complete title of Darwin's famous book: "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" with the subtitle, "The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life".

In the 1800's the scientific community believed that Negroes were lower on the evolutionary chains that Caucasians. Not only were Darwin and Thomas Huxley racists, but virtually all the leading evolutionists and anthropologists - Osborn, Hooton, Hrdlicka, and Haeckel. Consider this quote: "The Negroid stock is even more ancient that the Caucasian and Mongolian, as may be proved by an examination not only of the brain, of the hair, of the body characters, such as teeth, the genitalia, the sense organs, but the instincts, the intelligence. The standard of intelligence of the average adult Negro is similar to that of the eleven-year-old youth of the species Homo Sapiens." (Henry Fairfield Osborn, "The Evolution of Human Races", Natural History Jan/Feb 1926. Reprinted in Natural History 89 (April1980):129)

H. F. Osborn was the most prominent American anthropologist of the first half of the twentieth century and director of the American Museum of National History. These remarks were not based on innate prejudice, but on the "so-called" evolutionary science of the day.

Batten, Wieland & Ham make their point clear. Evolution has fueled Racism and was even the justification for all sorts of racist attitudes, actions and atrocities (including the Nazi Holocaust)! Not only do they identify the problem, they offer the only true and workable solution to racism (BTW, for more Biblical answers to troubling questions: http://www.AnswersInGenesis.org ).

This book, if it gets into the right hands will cause a "REVOLUTION against EVOLUTIONISM!"

This book is deffinetly worth buying. It helps people realize how all the races came togather and where they came from. I would deffinelty recommend this book to anyone it seriously brings down the walls of segregation. I'd like to thank the man who gave me this book it was a blessing.

Thought provoking presentation of facts to refute many of the arguments that defend racism. Helps to establish what a Christian's perspective should be in response to racist attitudes and ignorance. Meaningful historical information, particularly eye-opening with linkages of Darwinism and Nazi racism.

This book covers all the bases as far as a biblical view of race and creation and its misuse over the years in evolutionary thinking. To sum up there is only one race, the human race, and that is what the bible says and the evidence shows.

The book goes into science and genetics, but not enough for my tastes. Nevertheless, the science that is present does make a strong case. It also reaffirms the scientific nature of creationism and that creationists fully embrace that adaptation occurs within species. Both of these ideas are largely hidden from the general public.

There is an interesting chapter on a pygmy being put on display in the Bronx zoo -- a part of history I was unaware of and am surprised has been so well hidden. It does not get into a history of racism showing how Christianity abolished slavery in the Roman empire or was on the forefront in an almost militant form against slavery in our own nation. There are other books for that. If you want to know what the bible says on race, how the evidence supports the bible, and what has happened since evolution was proposed in the 1800's, then this book will touch on those issues.

This book represents a clear and present danger to the evolutionary world view. It presents a consistent and comprehensive account of the real differences between "different races" in a way that takes the Genesis account of creation, fall, global flood, Babel and dispersion seriously.

Modern genetics is also taken seriously. Its teachings reinforce the Biblical model, which may come of a surprise only to those who have not been paying attention to the latest genetics and biblical creationist writings.

This account makes much more sense of the linguistic, cultural and "melanine" differences between different peoples. As the authors say, the Bible never speaks of races. On the contrary, it presents all humans as the descendents of the common ancestors Adam and Eve, and of Noah and his three sons.

The punch line of the book is plain: we are all relatives, and the Gospel of Christ, the Creator, is for all of us, as descendents of the first Adam. The Bible accounts for the origin of the "human family" the Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks of.

The stories of Hitler and the Jews, of the hunted aborigines and of Ota Benga, the Congo pigmy taken to a New York zoo to share a cage with monkeys, speak eloquently of the dangers of forgetting these important Biblical truths. But even the Christian Churches have many times incurred in serious wrong doing because of their own distorted interpretations ("eixegesis") of the Biblical text, starting with Genesis 1-11.

The problem of humans is not that they are animals, but they are sinners living in a fallen creation. This is a problem that only the Creator himself can fix. And he has done that.

The present book attempts to deconstruct some of the classical misinterpretations that have been used to justify "Christian racism". The solution for this problem not to abandon the clear and present meaning of the text, followed by an attempt to compromise it to modern or post-modern human "wisdom, but a return to a careful literal interpretation of the Bible, as Jesus has taught us to do.

I decided to read the book One Blood after watching Ken Ham on television and reading several of the Book Reviews on Amazon.com. I was intrigued by the premise of the book which is captured in Acts 17:26 (KJV) "And [God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;..."

The three co-authors dispel the notion of racism from a biblical and genetics standpoint. They carefully show that all humanity came from one divine and genetic source, which is consistent with the dictionary definition of the word race--"Humanity as a whole." Darwinian Theory can't provide a definitive scientific source of mankind since the scientific system of observation and replication isn't possible--there were no scientists there when it happened. So, through post-creation observation they turn to conclusions by speculation, which has led to development of a progressive evolutionary theory.

The authors use simple genetic models to explain why evolution by natural selection isn't rational. They show how change can happen within animal and people groups, yet is impossible beyond those groups. Once this was presented, the feasibility of an evolutionary model simply disappeared. In fact, the authors could have wrapped up the book right there. Instead, they used the second half of the book to explain common objections to the biblical model--How about the Stone Age people? The Aboriginal people?--and additional genetic evidence to refute the Darwinian Theory.

Overall, the book presented very convincing evidence and cited resources after each chapter. However, I felt the style and tone of the writing was sometimes presented at a junior high or high school level. Also, the charts looked dated, though not out of date, if you know what I mean. The information was there; the charts just seemed like they were a number of decades old.

Though religion and religious groups are often blamed for bigotry and social racism, the authors place the blame squarely where it belongs. Darwinian Theory, and specifically Natural Selection--survival of the fittest--is based on a system of superior and inferior animal and people groups. Thus, breeding suspicion, prejudice and hate based on an illusion of evolutionary distinctions. In truth, the only differences are appearance and perception.

"Christians" who are of the opinion that certain "races" or ethnic groups are superior to others are a cancer in the Body of Christ.

An individual who does not have enough revelation to know that all who are true believers are "One in Christ, there is no difference" is not even worth rebutting. They will probably take that error to grave with them.

However to others who have been miseducated into the myth of races, Ken Ham's book may help to bring them out of the darkness. Simple and easy to read. Not overly wordy. Repeats itself but that is good. Repetition is the mother of learning.

The Bible clearly teaches us that God has "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26). If someone does not want to accept that truth, so be it. Unfortunately, attitudes like that taint the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and hinders the evangelism of the world. No worries, those individuals will have to answer to God for that.

I also recommend Dr. Frederick KC Price's series of books on "Race, Religion and Racism" and Tom Skinner's "Black and Free."

This book removes all doubt about the origin of man. It reveals that race is a word which few understand, thinking there to be more than one race. There are many families (ethnic groups) of men, but only one race, the human race. This book strips away the false basis of judging others according to any outward appearance. Discrimination is thereby affirmed on the basis of character, not skin shade.

Christians have been responsible for many stereotypes and other forms of racism. But, I think we should make a distinction between Christians who are responsible and Chrstianity that is responsible. Nowhere in the Bible is their any kind of racism whatsoever. The Bible is colorblind. What One Blood does is show how race is nothing more than cultural identity (and no this book isn't against culture), and how God embraces anybody regardless of their past or the color of their skin. Well, worth the read.

The much discussed problem of race relations is a false problem, since there is only one race - the human race. It's about time someone in the Evangelical leadership said this. This important book presents the science that debunks the "races", surveys the history of Darwinian racism, and points the way to the Christian answer to our foolish tensions about trivial physical differences. Bravo!