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Dr Jonathan Sarfati (born 1 October 1964) is a New Zealander/Australian author, editor, chess master. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and currently works for the Christian apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG). He is well-known for his defence of Biblical creation.
Biography
Born in Ararat, Victoria, Sarfati moved to New Zealand as a child, where he became a dual national. He attended Wellington College (New Zealand), and later he graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry, based on his thesis: A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules. He has also had papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals including co-authoring in the journal Nature on high-temperature superconductors in 1987, when he was 22 .
Ethnically Jewish, Sarfati converted to Christianity in 1984. He describes himself as a Messianic Jew and Hebrew Christian, which he uses interchangeably (there are distinctions as well as overlap between the two movements).
In 1996 he returned to Brisbane, Australia to work for the Creation Science Foundation (now Answers in Genesis) as co-editor of their magazine, Creation, and the peer-reviewed TJ (Technical Journal).
Sarfati is married, with one stepson.
Writings
Sarfati has written numerous publications, including three books, with a fourth soon to be released. Refuting Evolution, his first book, was published in 1999, a rebuttal to the National Academy of Sciences' teachers' guidebook Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. It has since sold more than 450,000 copies. This was followed by a sequel, Refuting Evolution 2, a response to a major PBS/Nova 7-part series and a Scientific American article.
His latest book, Refuting Compromise is a rebuttal of the day-age creationist teachings of Dr Hugh Ross, who attempts to harmonize the Genesis account of creation with the belief that the earth is billions of years old, a position which Sarfati rejects. Sarfati has also authored a number of booklets, besides contributing chapters and articles to numerous books and magazines, as well as many of the articles on the Answers in Genesis website. He is a popular speaker at churches and conferences on the issue of creation versus evolution.
Chess
Sarfati also maintains a keen interest in chess. A former New Zealand national chess champion (1987/88), he represented New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads (27th: Dubai 1986, 28th: Thessaloniki 1988, 30th: Manila 1992] ). He also tied Rey Casse in the Australian Junior Championship (1981), but was declared ineligible because of his New Zealand residency (yet Casse was born in England). He was three times New Zealand junior champion. In a tournament in Wellington in 1988, he drew with former World Champion Boris Spassky. His FIDE ELO rating is 2310.
He enjoys playing chess "blindfold", and has been known to play twelve such games simultaneously (see some games and photos).
Sarfati was one of the top 1000 reviewers at Amazon.com. In addition to chess-related books, his reviews also cover religious and scientific books.
Scientist?
Critics assert that Sarfati can no longer be considered a scientist, basing this criticism on his writings and arguments for young Earth creationism. They also state that scientific methodology is not prominent in Sarfati's recent work, because his most notable conclusions, related to young Earth creationism, are not hypotheses that have been postulated under the principles of the scientific method or that have been tested by experiment and data gathered in the field. Rather than allowing any acceptable explaination for observed phenomena, Safarti believes anything - observation, physical theory, historical record - that contradicts the Bible can't be true:
- By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record. Of primary importance is the fact that evidence is always subject to interpretation by fallible people who do not possess all information.
- (Answers in Genesis Statement of Faith, Section D.6 as signed by Sarfati as a precondition for working for Answers in Genesis)
Supporters counter that personal beliefs, writings, and arguing in favour of controversial topics have no bearing on education, experience, and job description, and that the appellation of scientist is in fact accurate, being one who uses scientific methodology in research. Otherwise Isaac Newton and other science greats could not have been true scientists, because they believed the same thing even though they never signed a statement. In Sarfati's case, one primary researcher, Dr Luca Turin, commended Sarfati's article on Turin's research as a "lucid and accurate description" of the theory (even though not necessarily agreeing with Sarfati's creationist conclusion).
So supporters argue that the criticism is merely because his conclusions pertaining to the origin of life and the age of the Earth are in favour of creation as described in Genesis, rather than an 'a priori adherence to material causes' (Professor Richard Lewontin, quoted in "Amazing Admission"). I.e. the last statement is equivalent to a Statement of Faith that says:
- By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts materialism.
Even though there is no explicit statement signed, it is still held to implicitly.
Education
- B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry (with condensed matter and nuclear physics papers substituted)
- Ph.D. in Spectroscopy (Chemistry)
Honors/Awards/Associations
- 1988, FIDE Master title, The International Chess Federation
Bibliography
Official Biography and Interview
- Answers in Genesis' biography of Sarfati and list of his articles
- Interview in Creation magazine, Creation 26(3):36–41, June 2004
Books by Sarfati
- Rescuing the Bible from John Shelby Spong (ISBN 0890514178) (to be released)
- Refuting Compromise (ISBN 0-890514-11-9) 2004
- Refuting Evolution 2 (ISBN 0-890513-87-2) 2002
- Refuting Evolution (ISBN 0-890512-58-2) 1999
Articles by Sarfati
- Uncut chapter from In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation, ed. John F. Ashton, ISBN 0890513414, 2001
- Loving God with all your mind: logic and creation, TJ 12(2):142–151, 1998
- Biblical chronogenealogies, TJ 17(3):14–18, 2003 (defends Masoretic chronology of Gen. 5 & 11, and rejects gaps)
- Book review: Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins, TJ 12(1):29–34, 1998
- Stem cells and Genesis, TJ 15(3):19–26, 2001 (opposes embryonic stem cell research; supports somatic/adult stem cell research)
- Olfactory design: smell and spectroscopy, TJ 12(2):137–138, 1998
- What’s Wrong With Bishop Spong? Laymen Rethink the Scholarship of John Shelby Spong Apologia 4(1):3–27, 1995
- Presuppositionalism vs evidentialism, and is the human genome simple? (6 June 2005 reply to AiG feedback)
- Defending vital doctrines and the deity of Christ (23 May 2005 reply to AiG feedback)