Telling lies for God: Reason vs creationism [Paperback]

Ian Plimer (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 303 pages
• Publisher: Random House Australia (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 009182852X
• ISBN-13: 978-0091828523
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,787,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, which a previous review has misrepresented, July 18, 2005

By 

J P Camera (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telling lies for God: Reason vs creationism (Paperback)

I read this book years ago and recommend it to people highly as an example of how people use and misuse facts and language, especially by quoting out of context, to push their point of view. I find it bizarre that people are interested in convincing others of a point that the evidence is against, by misrepresenting that evidence. In many cases, as shown in Plimer's book, they themselves do not believe the evidence - their understanding of it can be quite sophisticated - but it is useful for them to make a point, even if it IS wrong. I therefore was surprised to see Taylor Adams' review on this page - I had not noticed these bizarre errors he mentioned - so I dug out my copy and looked them up.

What I found was that Adams has, for whatever reason, misrepresented many of the points in the book in his review.

Plimer does incorrectly state that sulphur is solid up to 444 degrees, but the fact that it is solid at a much lower temperature actually makes his argument even stronger.

He does NOT state that "nuclear reactors are powered by alpha-decay" (p. 25), merely that the physics of alpha decay is the same physics of fission reactions. Nor does he state that the sun is powered by nuclear fission (he refers to it as a giant nuclear reactor - which it is, albeit a fusion reactor).

Plimer did make the claim (p12) that "no item in science or technology has been developed by creationists" and it is true that Raymond Damadian developed the mri. But this scientific development was derived from orthodox science - the point he is making is that no useful technological development has arisen from creationism per se. MRI technology does not arise from creationism - it derives from an internally-consistent scientific understanding of the world - which is incompatible it seems, with creationism's claims.

The criticism re: PI ("Plimer claimed that Pi is 3.14159 (p. 18) when this is still an approximation") is valid, although he does say "even schoolchildren know it is 3.14159" - and I think that any reader with any maths past year 8 at school knows it is an irrational number.

But the irony of his last criticism is just bizarre!

"my all-time favorite blunder continues to be when Plimer stated categorically that the english alphabet contains 23 letters (p. 224)"

This is a complete misreading of the text. Plimer is writing about a sentence: "Methinks it is like a weasel" which has 23 letters in it. His sentence "a random selection of the 23 letters of the alphabet", may well be a typo and should read "26", but perhaps it should read "of the 23 letters _from_ the alphabet". His next sentence does NOT go on to repeat the error as Adams claims, but is specifically about the number of letters in the target sentence which is, as it states, 23.

This is a fascinating book, which causes you to wonder on the true motivations and psychology of people in general, and the absurdities that arise consequent to the creationist arguments are just a delight. One of these is that if the creationist theory were correct that all of continental drift had occurred in the last 4,000 years, that amongst other bizarre effects, there would have been a giant bow wave off the coast of each major continent as it ploughed its way through the oceans.

Certainly the book could have been improved by some tighter editing and proofreading, but the examples given are not evidence of anything more substantial than that. In particular, none of the "errors" actually are with the underlying themes of the book, nor with his representation of creationism.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book, May 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Telling lies for God: Reason vs creationism (Paperback)

This is a great book for anyone interested in facts ! Don't worry about the few fanatical reviewers who are attempting to bring the everage rating of the book down.
This book is brave in the way it calls a spade a spade and demasks the so-called "scientists" who preach Creationism without offering credible evidence.
It's time for intelligent people all over the world to stand up to lies. Remember, silence is usually taken as assent. If we're not careful, we'll be returning to the dark ages and science will be replaced in school by creationism.

42 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful expose of the lies behind creationism, November 12, 1998

By 

Rhianwen Rhuddlan [e-mail] (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telling lies for God: Reason vs creationism (Paperback)

I read this book and found it to be a wonderfully easy to read, yet educated book that dealt admirably with its subject matter.

Plimer skilfully takes apart the arguments used by creation *scientists* and exposes the coverups and lies used by these people, in particular, Duane Gish, who is a renowned creationist who is rather fond of bending the truth and decieving his believing audiences.

This book presents many very good and very credible arguments against creationism, whilst maintain respect for the believer.

I am sure this book will be invaluable in stemming the tide of dogma and untruth flowing from the lips of the creation *scientists* and is a very useful tool for those trying to make head or tails of the whole evolution vs creation debate.

I found it a superb read, very educational, entertaining and thought-provoking.

I would recommend it to all folks who are interested in this matter, regardless of what side of the fence they are on.