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Dr Jonathan D. Sarfati, B.Sc. (Hons.), Ph.D., F.M. Creationist Physical Chemist and Spectroscopist AiG (Australia)

Biography Dr Jonathan Sarfati was born in Ararat, Australia in 1964. He moved to New Zealand as a child and later studied science at Victoria University of Wellington. He obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry with two physics papers substituted (nuclear and condensed matter physics). His Ph.D. in Chemistry was awarded for a thesis entitled ‘A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules’. He has co-authored papers in mainstream scientific journals on high temperature superconductors and selenium-containing ring and cage-shaped molecules.

Dr Sarfati has been a Christian since 1984. He has long been interested in apologetics, the defense of the faith, and was a co-founder of the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (New Zealand).1 Creation vs evolution is of course a vital area, because of the ramifications for the doctrines of Creation, the Fall which brought death into the world, and their links to the doctrines of the Incarnation, Atonement and Bodily Resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ.

In August 1996, he returned to the country of his birth to take up a position as a research scientist and editorial consultant for the Creation Science Foundation in Brisbane. In this capacity, he is co-editor of Creation magazine, and also writes and reviews articles for TJ, the in-depth journal of creation, as well as contributing to the Answers in Genesis website.

In 1999, his first book was published — Refuting Evolution, which countered a teachers guidebook by the National Academy of Sciences, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science, which had been widely circulated and publicized. Refuting Evolution now has 350,000 copies in print. Later that year he was a co-author of the updated and expanded Answers Book, answering 20 of the most-asked questions about creation/evolution. He later wrote Refuting Evolution 2, countering the PBS Evolution series and an anticreationist article in Scientific American. In 2004, he wrote Refuting Compromise, defending a straightforward biblical creation timeline and a global flood, and answering biblical and scientific objections, concentrating on the errant teachings of day-age/local flood advocate Hugh Ross.

Dr Sarfati is also a keen chess player. He is a former New Zealand Chess Champion, and represented New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads, and drew with Boris Spassky, world champion 1969–1972, in a tournament game. In 1988, F.I.D.E., the International Chess Federation, awarded him the title of F.I.D.E. Master (FM). Dr Sarfati regularly accepts challenges from multiple players where he plays ‘blindfold’, i.e. from memory without sight or any physical contact with the board, so moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation (12 is the most played simultaneously to date—see photo, right).

Education B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry (with condensed matter and nuclear physics papers substituted) Ph.D. in Spectroscopy (Physical Chemistry) Honors/Awards/Associations 1988, F.I.D.E. Master title, The International Chess Federation

Publications:

Books; Refuting Evolution (available in Russian)

Refuting Evolution 2 (with Michael Matthews)

Refuting Compromise

Answers Book (edited by Don Batten) with Ken Ham and Carl Wieland (available in

Albanian, German, Hungarian, Russian and Spanish)

Answers to the 4 Big Questions (edited by Don Batten) with Ken Ham and Carl Wieland (available in Spanish )

Mammoth: Riddle of the Ice Age (Booklet) (available in Spanish)

Why is there Death & Suffering? (Booklet) with Ken Ham (Italian translation in article form)

Exposé of Hugh Ross’s The Genesis Question (Booklet)

The Genesis Files: Meet 22 Modern-Day Scientists Who Believe in a Six-Day Recent

Creation (One of the interviews is with Dr Sarfati)

In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation (Dr Sarfati contributed one of the articles)

External Links

• Answers in Genesis Website