[Creation ministry] strikes a nerve

by Ken Ham

3 August 2002

I want to share a recent example with you of how the secular world is closely watching [our ministry] and is trying to suppress our Biblical message.

But as you read, don’t be discouraged—instead, be excited to learn that [creationist ministry] is seen as a serious threat by the ‘world.’

Earlier this month, [CMI] scientist Dr Jonathan Sarfati wrote a comprehensive point-by-point rebuttal of a recent anti-creationist article in the prestigious magazine Scientific American. He reproduced the text of the SA article in full, and responded to each argument with a rebuttal—carefully showing the SA text in a different color (to avoid being accused of misquoting/misrepresenting).

This is all perfectly permissible under the copyright doctrine of what’s called ‘fair use,’ since we were commenting on the item we were reproducing. And, as always, we consulted an attorney specializing in copyright law about this.

Very soon, Scientific American sent an e-mail to Dr Sarfati and accused him and [our ministry] of infringing their copyright for reproducing the text of its article and also for allegedly illegally reproducing an illustration from their magazine. They said they were prepared to ‘settle the matter amicably,’ provided that we immediately removed the article and Dr Sarfati’s rebuttal from our Web site. (The only illustration we can think of that they’re referring to is of a bacterial flagellum produced by [a CMI] staff person many years ago—it was not ‘lifted.’)

I can only presume that this reaction was the result of the wind being taken out of the magazine’s sails by Dr Sarfati’s devastating rebuttal. The speed at which [we were] able to post a hard-hitting critique of what was supposed to be the latest and greatest attack on Biblical authority was probably not expected by evolutionists at SA.

Our copyright attorney has written to Scientific American, informing them of the legitimate nature of what we did, and that we will NOT be removing the article. (As we compose this e-mail, we have not heard back from SA.)

I am thrilled to report that through the cooperation between the US and Australian [ministry] offices, we were able to produce a high-tech, fully formatted and highly detailed Web response available to the world within about 72 hours of the first appearance of the attack! And it appears to have struck a nerve!

I must admit that I get tired of the secular world’s attacks on Christianity—and in particular against the creation movement, which is fighting this battle at a foundational level.

And the more effective [we are] becoming at countering evolutionary propaganda, the more we will see the secular world trying any means to attempt to suppress us.

With your financial and prayer support, you will be in the front-line trenches in an enormous spiritual battle for the minds of people everywhere.