From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Tue Oct 28 2003 - 23:00:24 EST
Donald Nield writes:
> Michael Roberts wrote:
>
> > Ted
> >
> > That is not the question I asked. I want to know of a YEC who has
written an
> > honest YEC book without misinterpretation
> >
> > Michael
>
> How about Sarfarti's book "Refuting Evolution 2"?
> Don
>
I have not seen Sarfati's "Refuting Evolution 2", but if he has not revised
and corrected his statements on pp. 97-98 of the first edition, his book is
not a good choice. On p.97-98 of his first edition, arguing that the Bible
teaches the earth's sphericity, Sarfati writes:
"Isaiah 40:22 refers to "the circle of the earth," or in the Italian
translation, globo. The Hebrew is Khug = sphericity or roundness. Even if
the translation "circle" is adhered to, think about Neil Armstrong in
space--to him the spherical earth would have appeared circular regardless of
which direction he viewed it from."
Note that Sarfati does not cite any English translation, but an unnamed
Italian translation with the word "globo" which the reader would naturally
understand to mean "globe." Then he claims, without any support, that the
Hebrew word "Khug" means "sphericity." It does not, as my article on this
topic shows. "Khug" means "a circle drawn with a compass"; it never means
or implies "sphere" in any biblical text. Any English version Sarfati
would have consulted would have had the translation "circle." So, he refers
to Neil Armstrong and says that the spherical earth would have appeared
circular to him in space. But that is a statement that is designed to
throw the reader off track. It is what Isaiah saw, not Armstrong, that
counts, and the prophet saw the circular horizon.
Then Sarfati plays the Jesus card and claims that Luke 17:34-36 implies that
Jesus knew that the earth is spherical. How he could draw such a conclusion
from this passage is beyond my ken. I think this is a good example of
eisegesis at its worst.
Then Sarfati states that "nearly all Christian scholars [since the fifth
century AD] who have ever discussed the earth's shape have assented to its
roundness," and cites the book by historian Jeffery Russell that debunks the
historical falsehood that medieval thinkers believed in a flat earth.
Unfortunately, I do not have Sarfati's book at hand, so I can't give you the
title of Russell's book. But Jeff is a personal friend, and I ran this
matter by him. His response: the Christian writers of the patristic and
medieval period got their concept of a spherical earth from the Greeks, not
from the Bible. But Sarfati does not let his reader know this, and leaves
his readers to draw the conclusion that these Christian scholars got their
information from the Bible. Now, I did not point this out in the footnote
to my article, but I would have to say that I can think of only two possible
explanations for his failure to provide his readers with this fact. Either
Sarfati did not read Russell's book or read it carefully enough, so that
citing it would be an example of sloppy or even irresponsible scholarship;
or he did read it, knew better and was deliberately deceiving his readers.
You will find my critique of Sarfati and other YECs on this topic in my PSCF
article, "Does the Bible Teach a Spherical Earth?" at
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2001/PSCF9-01Schneider.html. There I also
demonstrate that two other YECs, one of them Henry Morris, Sr., are wrong
when they state flatly that the Hebrew "Khug" means "a sphere."
Donald, if you check this section in Sarfati's second editon and find that
he has revised and corrected the passages I cite, or has removed them from
the text, please let us know. I shall have a better opinion of him if he
has.
Bob Schneider
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