I've discovered in Dymocks four copies of a new book by Ian Wishart - you know, of Investigate Magazine fame, that more than occasional anti-government muckraker and supporter of crackpot theories (such as the country being run by a cabal of lesbians*). In his spare time Wishart is a born again Christian, and perhaps inevitably his new work attempts to take on the various best-selling atheist tracts of Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, et al, but in a New Zealand stylee.
I bet you think it's lucky such a heavyweight thinker has entered the ring to clear things up... Okay, that was unforgivably snide, but from what little I could stand to scan in the bookshop, that's pretty much the level that at which Wishart's defence of his faith operates. For example, Wishart claims that when he read Hitchens, he fell about the place laughing because Hitch was sooo wrong. That sort of weaselly attack might soothe the anxious faithful but it cuts no ice with me, brother.
Elsewhere I saw a footnote linking to the National Geographic website. Now National Geographic is a most august journal, but I rather think a genuine scholar would probably cite something a little less, shall we say, Fifth Form Geography paper. He also suggests that because (according to a newspaper survey) only a quarter of New Zealanders think evolution is plausible, that evolution might be a crackpot theory. Others of us might more reasonably conclude that this sad state of affairs is more a result of New Zealanders being sadly ignorant** about the natural world and the subtle traits of evolution, but Wishart ignores this possibility.
I confess that my first instinct was to somehow destroy the books (if that sounds unsporting, perhaps you'd like to speculate what Wishart really felt after reading Hitchens - I'm pretty sure it would have been closer to rage than hilarity). But I know, as tiresome libertarian types would naggingly point out, that Wishart has every right to publish, via his vanity press, whatever he likes. But, Dymocks bookshop, take note! I don't think I'll be buying anything from you for a while!
For some more fun, see this blow by blow demolition of some of Wishart's biblical beliefs.
* Which, er, is totally untrue.
** Reading YouTube comments is the best way I've found to truly grasp the level of scientific ignorance in the world. One person commenting on an atheist video I watched (er... I only watch them for the indignant comments) said something along the lines of "I don't get how people can be created out of a big bang, because that's an atomic explosion, right?". Someone who believes that scientists are proposing Adam and Eve were nuked into existence would find Genesis completely commonsense in comparison. In the face of such profound ignorance it seems impossible for rationalism to make any headway, unfortunately.