Book Review: Tornado In A Junkyard

Several years ago when Kent Hovind was in town I purchased the book Tornado In A Junkyard by James Perloff. Although Perloff is not a scientist, he did an excellent job presenting the argument for creation. He used to be an atheist and is not a born again Christian so he knows firsthand the importance of this subject to ones overall worldview. An interview with him is found on youtube and is also embedded at the bottom of this post. Because he is a really good writer, this is one of the main books I recommend to people who don't know much about the topic and who are not scientists. I've purchased a handful of copies in the past few years to give to some folks who would benefit from what this book says that I no

longer have the original copy I bought but rather, a more recent edition.

A condensed version of his book can be found on scribd, although the book is much better as it contains tons of references on what he wrote. The wealth of references he provides in each chapter is quite well balanced between creationist and evolutionist sources. Moreover he covers, various aspects regarding creation such as the flood stories found in various cultures as well as the level of accuracy as compared to the Genesis account. He also discusses creation dates from different ancient cultures and how they correlate to the creation date according to Biblical chronology. 

This book also discusses how dinosaurs became extinct after the flood. Legends of knights slaying dragons to become heroes of their town is one of these reasons. Polonium halos are also discussed as well as the ice age. At the time I originally read this book there were a couple of questions that remained regarding the creationist perspective on the ice age that I eventually purchased and read the book An Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood by Michael Oard.

In addition to scientific refutations to evolution, he discusses how the concept of evolution reduces the value of human life in the minds of men–giving rise to events like the Holocaust. Hitlers quest to purify the German nation for the "Master Race" was inspired by his evolutionary beliefs. It is kind of ironic however because the Arian race is not really blond hair and blue eyed folks but rather, the Iranians. Persia was renamed Iran, meaning "Land of the Arians".

In the chapter titled: "Trial By Hollywood" Perloff discusses how peoples views tend to get swayed by fiction versus factual information and uses the example of the movie: Inherit The Wind which depicts the Scopes Monkey Trials although misrepresents a lot of facts concerning the trial. I lost respect for Harry Morgan after finding out that he is in that 1960 movie.

All in all, this book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the topic as it does an excellent job presenting the topic of creation as well as arguing for it.