Genesis and the Decay of the Nations

by Ken Ham

The book emphasis is on the relevance and authority of the book of Genesis and how compromise on Genesis has opened a dangerous door regarding how the culture and church view biblical authority

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction

81 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Dr. Ken Ham is the president of Answers in Genesis USA and is a well-known speaker and author on the subject of Young-Earth Creationism. He received a bachelor degree in applied science (emphasis on environmental biology) from the Queensland Institute of Technology, and a Diploma of Education from the University of Queensland. He has also received two honorary doctorates: a Doctor of Divinity from Temple Baptist College, and a Doctor of Literature from Baptist Liberty University.

He was a director of Creation Science Foundation (CSF) in Australia, an organization which he jointly founded with John Mackay. In 1987 he moved to the United States, still maintaining his links with CSF.

From 1987 to 1993, Ham worked for the Institute for Creation Research, and in 1994 set up what in 1995 became Answers in Genesis (AiG), a creation ministry dedicated to "upholding the authority of the Bible from the very first verse."

In 2008 Ham was described by well known atheist and evolutionary biologist PZ Myers as a "Wackaloon" for carrying out a prayer session with members of the Pentagon. Ham responded regarding the validity of that prayer breakfastand that PZ Myers and other critics were intolerant of his position.

Reviews

[Marcelo Gonzalez · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to know everything that is in this book without reading more than a paragraph, here it is:

"Neither can they prove scientifically the belief that hundreds of millions of years shaped the earth, since by their own philosophy no human observers were present during these supposed millions of years. However, the Bible records that God has always existed, and that He has given us a written record of exactly what did happen in the past, so that we may come to right conclusions about history. Simply put, then, BIBLICAL REVELATION IS THE KEY TO THE PAST - particularly the past in regard to origins (Genesis, Chapters 1-11). Furthermore, the PAST IS ACTUALLY THE KEY TO THE PRESENT." (emphasis is the authors, bolded)

1) That's not what the Scientific Method says.
2) Argument from Ignorance (shifting the burden of proof)
3) Begging the Question

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Books/"arguments" like this that cause people to believe Christians are idiots for believing in Creation. While I don't personally believe in a literal 6 day creation, I wouldn't necessarily fault someone for believing it. I WOULD fault someone for believing it for the reasons given by Ken Ham.

I'll summarize this quickly so you can get on with your life: a literal reading of the Bible/Genesis is the only thing that can save us from the collapse of society because God says so in the Bible, which you'd know is true if you'd just read it literally.

This entire work (if I can be liberal with the term) is 80 pages of begging the question. "We have to believe the Bible is literally true in it's entirety because it says so and it is God's Word."

Some of the major problems I had with this book follow.
- "Doubt can lead to unbelief" (pg 3): This is a slippery slope argument, a logical fallacy. Also, this begs the question, assuming that 'unbelief' in a literal reading of Genesis is inherently bad.
- "... the Bible tells us over 3000 times that all Scripture is the Word of God" (pg. 8): There are 23,145 verses in the Bible. The Bible would have to make that claim an average of once ever 7 verses for this claim to be true and that's absolutely not the case.
- He claims that Christianity rests upon Genesis, largely due to Original Sin. The doctrine of Original Sin is based on Romans 5. It was not a belief in the early church and didn't come around until 100 years later with Iraeneus. Original Sin as a doctrine doesn't has never in Judaism, either Ancient or Modern. People used Genesis as a sacred text for centuries without believing this. Paul using it as a stepping stone analogy to develop his theology in Romans doesn't mean that is the best reading of Genesis.
_ "[Evolution] is an anti-God religion." (pg. 15): By no academic definition of "religion" (and there are as many as there are scholars) is evolution a "religion." To call Evolution a religion can be likened to calling Creationism a religion. Furthermore, many people have believed in both. It can work without God in theory and it can work with God in theory. Nothing about Evolution is inherently anti-God.
- "Martin Luther was a man concerned about foundations. He pleaded with the church of his day to return to the basic Scriptural truths - to God's Word as a basis for life." (pg.23): It's curious that in a book about how we should take the entire Bible as the Word of God and read it literally, he'd invoke the name of Martin Luther since Luther wanted Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation removed from the canon, famously referring to James as "the Epistle of Straw." Luther based his theology around 1 Peter, Galatians, and Romans, a theology that didn't jive with the aforementioned books so he just wanted them out. Does that sound like someone who was "concerned about foundations"?
- He actually blames AIDS on gay people. That was disproven about 5 minutes after it was suggested in 1982 by the CDC.
- Ham spends two chapters (6 and 7) on the French and British "Revolutions". According to Ham, led by on Jean-Jaques Rousseau's "Du Contrat Social", the French Revolution was waged in which man decided to revolt against God's laws in favor of his own. He goes on to praise England for being the model of Christian decency thanks to it's own "revolution" of the soul led by George Whitfield and John Wesley, saying that Britain didn't have any revolutions like France had because of this faith in God's Laws. I don't even have time to go over the errors in this, though from my summaries of his statements, you can probably surmise some of them.

The entire thing reads like an organized plot to take down Christianity, as though hundreds of scientists are all working together to rip down "the Foundation of Christianity" out of spite. For the last 20 pages, Ham says Creationists have a different way of looking at the evidence and reverts to "Since they weren't there to observe the Flood, they can't say it didn't happen and since nothing like it has happened since, they can't say geological formations like the Grand Canyon couldn't be created catastrophic events like a worldwide Flood." Of course, this misplaces the burden of proof which is, again, a logical fallacy. A scientist can show you how geological formations can be created by long periods of wear by water. You cannot show how the same occurs with with a worldwide flood as you cannot replicate that in a lab.

This book is wrought with misunderstandings of history and logical fallacies. There are significantly better books on the subject and I wouldn't suggest anyone pick this up, let alone read it.

[Hulda Gilca · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Popularizarea evolutionismului darwinist este astazi una dintre cele mai puternice forte care distruge familii si natiuni. [...] Temeliile tuturor doctrinelor crestine sunt puse in cartea Genezei . Deci, logic, structura crestinismului (ca si doctrinele sale) poate ramane in picoare numai atunci cand exista temelia." - Ken Ham


"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My Words?” John 5:46-47

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

For such a thin book, it has so much information and truth inside its covers! Highly recommended to all who wonder why the fabric of society is threadbare, and what can be done about it.

I've heard the author speaking in person and read some of his other books - I cannot recommend him enough.