The following is a review of The Lie, by Ken Ham (Master Book, 2024), and a comparison of the 1987, 2012, and 2024 editions. A longer article appeared here in 3 Quarks Daily.
Let me first remind you of the scale of Ken Ham’s political significance. He has among his friends Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, whose law firm has represented AiG pro bono. And among the contributors to its magazine is Calvin Beisner, director of the Cornwall Alliance, whose entire purpose is to deny the importance of human-caused climate change. Cornwall in turn has direct links to the Heartland Institute and to the Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025.
Readers here will be familiar with the destructive and anti-scientific approach of the modern creationist movement in the US. But that’s only half the story. It is not only about the beginning of the world, but about its ending. Genesis is pivotal, but so is Revelation. So are the many hints of the end of the world that are explicit in the New Testament, and can be discovered with sufficient ingenuity in the Old.
Such thinking underlines the apocalyptic tone, repeatedly echoed in AiG’s material, that underlies current US right-wing politics. If the Earth does not have a deep past, we cannot expect it to have a prolonged future. We should not be concerning ourselves with conservation, but with righteousness. This perspective has political implications, and comparing the 1987 and 2024 versions of The Lie shows the political aspect becoming increasingly explicit. Otherwise, there is not much difference between the two editions, though The third edition is more repetitious and, where direct comparison is possible, less vigorous in its use of language, and more hectoring, than the original.
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