The book Denying History, by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, deals with holocaust denial. I never thought I’d have to deal with holocaust denial until I met a holocaust denier, influenced by conspiracy theories. So a believing friend let me have a copy of a book he had in his library – Denying History, by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman. After reading it, I’m rather disappointed.
First I can say that right from the onset of the book the author strongly ties denying the fact of the holocaust with denying the “fact” of evolution. He repeats this point a few times during the book, including toward the end of it. By doing so, the author puts all Bible believers in the same category as holocaust deniers and tin-foil-hat wearing conspiracists. He compares the theory of origins to historical science when these are not the same. As a Jewish believer in Jesus, this is disappointing to me, particularly as the book is written by two Jewish people, one of whom claims to be “orthodox”. It’s hard to understand how someone defines himself as an orthodox Jew while denying basic things like the Genesis account of Creation.
Shermer’s writing is rather long drawn. He could have said more with less words. The book could have been punchier had he not repeated sentences like “holocaust deniers don’t play by the rules of historical science”. And so, after reading the book, you come away with the feeling that Shermer is too busy defending consensus, and consensus about consensus, rather than giving more time to the deniers’ claims themselves. He becomes very wordy.
Toward the end of the book the author also speaks of finding meaning through understanding the holocaust. But being a staunch evolutionist himself, one could ask what meaning can possibly be attached to one assembly of particles trying to annihilate another. Honest evolutionists will admit that at the end of the day, from Shermer’s athiest-evolutionist perspective, the holocaust doesn’t have any meaning, since nothing has meaning.
At the end of the day, I’m very disappointed that Shermer uses the book to drive a wedge between creationists and evolutionists when he should have just dealt with the matter at hand. By doing so, he is trying to push all Bible believers out of the debate as ridiculous, irrational people, when it’s mainly them, the creationists, who defend the historicity of the holocaust and have many meaningful things to say about it.
If you’re looking for a book against holocaust denial, it might be better to look elsewhere.