…and this is a 
Win a copy of Atlas of Creation!
Category: Creationism
Posted on: January 10, 2008 1:10 PM, by PZ Myers
Would you believe someone has received a copy of Harun Yahya's epic tome, Atlas of Creation, and doesn't want it? Weird, huh?
Let's imagine, though, that someone for some bizarre reason wants one. Here's your chance: write a comment here that testifies to your deep and unholy desire to possess a copy, and the current possessor of a copy will judge them and decide to whom he will impart this strange book of lunacy. All you have to do is pay the cost of shipping it to where ever you are.
Here's the way it works. Leave a comment here using a valid email address. The current owner will pick one of you as the lucky recipient, and will contact me; I'll give him your email address (he and I will be the only ones to see that), and then the two of you can negotiate the cost of sending it.
Easy. Just be aware that if you comment in this thread and say anything, you may win a copy of the book. I'll be curious to see if this thread goes instantly dead, or becomes amusingly entertaining.
Comments
I make a measly amount of income, sometimes I can't even afford toilet paper. This would be a great prize for me. I would love to keep this tome of science near the throne for just such occasions!
Posted by: zer0 | January 10, 2008 1:21 PM
P.S. I will document the use of the pages of this book to clean my bum if I win.
Posted by: zer0 | January 10, 2008 1:23 PM
If I receive this book I will place it in book Hell. Book Hell is the part of my book shelf where I keep God is not Great, The God Delusion, Letter to a Christian Nation, God:The Failed Hypothesism, and Why I Am Not a Christian by Russell. The creation atlas will lay on it's side with these books upright on top of it.
Posted by: FutureMD | January 10, 2008 1:23 PM
I'm currently working on my master's thesis, "Fossils and Fish Hooks", in which I explore the comparative morphology and and phylogenetic history of fly fishing lures. Yahya's invaluable contribution to comparative fly fishing palaeontology would be an enormous boost for my research. I also intend to study the overlap between fly fishing palaeontology and the banana and peanut butter proofs of the existence of God.
Posted by: Wes | January 10, 2008 1:25 PM
I want it.
I like to laugh and laugh and laugh.
And I need a reference for keying out my fossil fishing lures.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 10, 2008 1:25 PM
I'm relying upon the professorial tradition of not stiffing poor graduate students with unnecessary bills to not win. At least, when I become a Professor, I'll pay for things like meals and postage and stuff, not expecting poor graduate students to foot the bill for anything they can't afford.
That said, it would end up in the "free books" pile in the department hallway.
Posted by: MAJeff | January 10, 2008 1:26 PM
I would like to win a copy of the Atlas of Creation so, when I feel tired of reading science books or I find a passage particularly difficult and arid I could have a quick look at it and renew my interest in serious knowledge.
I am also very very very poor...
Posted by: Atilio | January 10, 2008 1:27 PM
Is the second prize TWO copies of the Atlas of Creation?
Posted by: Sigmund | January 10, 2008 1:30 PM
I want it 'cuz I needs to knoe teh trooth about evilution.
Posted by: Matt | January 10, 2008 1:33 PM
- text deleted -
Shit, PZ this posted by mistake after I read that I might win that crappy book. Can you delete this too before it gets to the forum 'cos I'd be bloody annoyed if I won it. grrrrrrrr.
Posted by: AllanW | January 10, 2008 1:34 PM
I've seen pictures of the book, and immediately I desperately coveted a copy. It is absolutely the most perfect size to place under a custom music stand I built to raise it to appropriate playing height. And the color of the cover matches the color of my carpet PERFECTLY. It's as if it was intelligently designed for this purpose. I must have it. My precious . . .
Posted by: Peri_P_Laneta | January 10, 2008 1:36 PM
I need it because I want proof that fishing flies were designed, and did not evolve.
After all, isn't Yahya a historic first for creationism in all of its forms, the actual detection of design and proper conclusion that something did not evolve? Sure, it was badly done, but at least it was finally done.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | January 10, 2008 1:36 PM
I might like to have a copy (the one I paged through was beautiful and funny, at least since I knew it was full of crap), but has anyone else actually seen this thing? The postage--even media mail--would make me go broke. No thanks.
Posted by: Sarah | January 10, 2008 1:37 PM
Wow. I don't know what else to say.
Why would I possibly want a copy of "Atlas of Creation?" Oh hell, I don't even know. Probably the same reason that I somehow ended up with a copy of a Hal Lindsey book: why the hell not.
Besides, it'll offer a fun contrast to all the books I have on actual science, actual history, philosophy, etc.
Finally, best case scenario: a good laugh. Worst case scenario: a good excuse to drink.
Posted by: Kevin L. | January 10, 2008 1:38 PM
Oh no, not the comfy chair......
Posted by: Kim | January 10, 2008 1:39 PM
A couple of weeks ago at an auction, I purchased a cute little piano bench. Unfortunately, a coaster is missing from one of the legs. From the picture of Atlas of Creation I found at Yahya's website (you actually have to link on "BuyNow" to see it), it seems as if the book is the perfect thickness to make my piano bench sit level on the floor.
With that, all I need is the piano.
Posted by: Pablo | January 10, 2008 1:39 PM
I would comment here to enter the contest, but I don't want to pay the shipping fee. In fact, I think the owner should pay the shipping fee, in effect paying someone to take it off his/her hands.
Aw crap, did I just enter the contest? ;)
Posted by: Ric | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
"anything"
There. Now at last I can learn the truth you godless experts don't want me to know. And see some pretty pictures of fossils and fishing flies. Can't wait.
AnthonyK
Posted by: Anthony Kerr | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
If elected, I promise to cut taxes while increasing social services, reduce the number of patronage appointments to key positions in government while making sure the poorest and most deserving members of our society are taken care of.
And bacon. I promise a BLT in every sandwich maker and a bacon placemat for each to eat them off of (including tofu-bacon for my vegan and vegetarian constituents).
Seriously though, the main reason I want that book is, well, it's full of pretty pictures and I can't read.
Every commenter here can attest to that latter fact.
Thank you and good night.
Posted by: Brownian, OM | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
I would like to win a copy, because if I get it, it will be cut to shreds. My colleague likes to give out little goodies as rewards in her bio classes, and some of those pictures would be awesome. (The text will have been carefully excised, of course.) Plus, I'm in a depressingly industrial-looking office, so I need something to put on my wall. Oh, and once the contents are eviscerated I could amuse myself by using the cover as a fake over The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, reading it in public, and then zapping any creationist sympathizers who notice the title with actual Real Science!
Posted by: Carlie | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
I would like a copy of the "Atlas of Creation" because my copy of the Holy Bible is lonely and needs a friend.
Posted by: Matt | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
I would like to own the book to show to my offspring, because it is every fathers responsibility to spin tales, fantastic tales, that disillusion children.
Please.
Posted by: terry | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
For those not familiar with Monty Python, it is from the The Spanish Inquisition http://people.csail.mit.edu/paulfitz/spanish/script.html
Posted by: Kim | January 10, 2008 1:41 PM
There's a draught under my kitchen door and I don't have one of those stuffed snake things to block it.
An atlas of creation'd be the very thing.
Posted by: palau | January 10, 2008 1:42 PM
Oh well, I really would like a copy. First rule of winning an intellectual (with non-intellectual people) battle is to know thy enemy. I always want to read books by dunces like Yahya, Behe, Coulter, etc., but I don't want them to make money off of my actual curiosity into their inane "arguments". Now I can get my hands on one of those books without them making a single dime.
Besides, I'm just angry that our dept. at Tulane never received a bunch of copies. I know we're all the way down south, but we still count as godless evilutionists! (a few creotard colleagues excepted).
Posted by: Rienk | January 10, 2008 1:42 PM
Warning! The pages of this book are on very thick, high gloss, non-absorbent paper, making them completely unsuitable for bathroom use!
Posted by: PZ Myers | January 10, 2008 1:42 PM
Holy moly! Anthony K's comment freaked me out since I'm an Anthony K too.
Dude, that was totally trippy.
Posted by: Brownian, OM | January 10, 2008 1:43 PM
Heh. Given as I live in Las Vegas, my money is on 'goes instantly dead'.
Sure it would be great to own a lump of paper which used to be a lovely tree but now is creationist claptrap -- otherwise known as a creationist book. But here's the thing: everything that could possibly be contained within the pages of said book can already be found in neat indexed form online at Answers in Genesis. So what is the point?
Alas, the damage is already done, that tree is already pulped and the book pressed.. Why not put it in a good home alonside my collection of other books which destroyed our environment just to propagate Christian silliness..
Oh and to shamelessly blogwhore, visit my blog. I have Pat Robertson's NEW! IMPROVED!! 2008 prophecies laid bare and ready to mock...
Posted by: jeffperado | January 10, 2008 1:43 PM
I actually want to read this book. I have been wanting to since I first heard of it. I'm a Ph.D. student in evolutionary biology with a strong side interest in the impact of evolutionary theory on society, and it's struggle with intelligent design and creationism(s). Apart from looking forward to see the fishing lures compared to fossils with my own eyes, it is necessary to be familiar with the exact arguments made, in order to argue back. Several times have I been told by creationists to shut up, if I hadn't read the book (Darwin's Black Box (read it), Edge of Evolution (got a copy - for free), Darwin Strikes Back (read about half - zzzzzzzz)), so with "the Atlas" in hand, it will be a piece if cake to expose opponents whenever they mention it.
It will have its place at a prominent position in my office for all to see, along with ibn Warraq, Russell, Dawkins, Harris, and Behe.
P.S. This semester, Michael Shermer will give a course at Claremont Graduate University (CA) called "Evolution & Society" Mondays 7-10pm. If you are in the neighborhood, I highly recommend attending. Info is here:
http://www.cgu.edu/print/1159.asp?instrm=0920&insubject=MATH&Submit=Search
(scroll to TNDY 402D)
Posted by: Bjørn Østman | January 10, 2008 1:44 PM
I hope to win a copy because I am the only non-creationist in my immediate family. Being able to poke holes in this book, literally and figuratively, will be a huge boost in our discussions.
Posted by: Traffic Demon | January 10, 2008 1:44 PM
Obviously this would be shelved in between The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin and Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay.
You can't be too careful.
Posted by: BT Murtagh | January 10, 2008 1:45 PM
Brownian - I am you. Silly me!
AnthonyK
Posted by: Anthony Kerr | January 10, 2008 1:47 PM
I would love to put it on my bookshelf with the rest of my books. It serves as an excellent example of how a person can manipulate data to fit a preconceived answer. In addition, it would look wonderful sitting next to Origin of Species.
Posted by: dtsh | January 10, 2008 1:47 PM
I love Creationist propaganda but I shudder at having to pay for it. So winning the Atlas of Creation would be a dream come true. So much simpler than sending a check to the ACLU to offset the price of admission for my visit to the Creation Museum last week. Hell, I'll even tack the face value of the book onto my ACLU donation if I win.
By the way, here are my photos and comments from the visit: http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116776&l=ccd49&id=15620983
Posted by: Mark | January 10, 2008 1:48 PM
I would love to have this book, which says a lot about my masochistic tendencies. I will either take a red pen and go to town correcting it, or I'll hollow it out with an X-Acto knife , place a copy of A Brief History of Time inside, and gift it to a deserving theist.
Posted by: Master Mahan | January 10, 2008 1:51 PM
Get out of my head! Get out of my head!
Posted by: Brownian, OM | January 10, 2008 1:53 PM
Like others, the chance to publicly mock a creationist work without giving money to the benighted cause is too good to miss.
Posted by: John Remy | January 10, 2008 1:53 PM
Do NOT give me this book.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | January 10, 2008 1:54 PM
As much as I'd like to have a copy of this exceptionally arrogant work of vanity publishing, I'd like to suggest that commenter #3 above should be the winner. Book Hell is an excellent idea; I have some good candidates for bottoms in my collection.
Posted by: Richard | January 10, 2008 1:54 PM
I WANT to winz Teh Book becuz I are is good a Sientist and its impotant teht I considder Allturnativ Theeries. Also I stopt taking drogs so I needs sumthing to Punish my Brayn so teh Voiciz will stop telling me to DO THINGS.
Thanx you.
Posted by: Mike O'Risal | January 10, 2008 1:54 PM
I'm a fend shui disciple.
If I had the Atlas, I'd have something for the coffee table that visitors to my home could leaf through for the pictures, which can counterbalance my Playboy magazines, which visitors leaf through for the articles.
Posted by: me | January 10, 2008 1:56 PM
P.S. if I dont get teh Book, Baby Jesus will beet up yer mama.
Posted by: Mike O'Risal | January 10, 2008 1:56 PM
Ok, fuck all you whiny bitches! I don't want the damned book because it isn't fit to be taken past my house let alone into it. As for wiping my ordure dripping, pink, puckering anus with material so vile, I would sooner be sodomised by a series of sexually starved sperm whales than allow that book's atrocious, asinine asshattery near my sacred little sphincter.
Frankly, begging to be given a book banned as a Weapon of Mass Stupid under the Geneva Convention, a book written by one of the most deludedly vile, anti-Semitic, shit-gobbling little semi-humans to disgrace the face of this fair globe, is beneath me. Hey it's beneath you, Bob Dole and even Ann Coulter (may she burn in the metaphorical fires of eternal mockery).
If anyone recieves this tome of turdalicious tard, take it from its dust jacket and beat yourself stoutly around the head with it (remembering to post the video to YouTube of course). The damage you will cause your brain will be vastly less than that incurred by reading the vapid volume of vacuous veracity-vilifying vituperation.
Louis
P.S. Humour, people, humour. Don't make me come over there with a disclaimer.
Posted by: Louis | January 10, 2008 1:58 PM
DO NOT WANT! As proof I am supplying a fake email address and a name not my own.
Posted by: Gilipollas Caraculo | January 10, 2008 1:58 PM
This book would go well in my collection. I currently have half a dozen Gideon Bibles, a copy of The Neo-Tech Bible, all the SubGenius books (PRABOB), High Wierdness by Mail, Everything In This Book is False But Is Exactly The Way Things Are (the source of the Tool song "46 and 2"), and may other horrid/funny books.
Posted by: J. John Johnstown | January 10, 2008 2:00 PM
I already have one, and it's more than enough to pop a few of my neurons.
Another one? No thanks.
Posted by: Shalini | January 10, 2008 2:00 PM
Sounds perfect for building my own paper urinal though!
Posted by: zer0 | January 10, 2008 2:00 PM
"Warning! The pages of this book are on very thick, high gloss, non-absorbent paper, making them completely unsuitable for bathroom use!"
Damn! So I guess using the all the pages to roll joints will be out of the question. Oh well, luckily I have my Gideon Bible handy to fulfill that task.
Posted by: Steve P | January 10, 2008 2:01 PM
I need a copy so that I can pray over it to make everything inside become true.
uh, nevermind. Mosquitoes would really suck if they had metal barbed hooks protruding from their abdomens.
Posted by: Bourgeois_Rage | January 10, 2008 2:01 PM
I would honestly like to have the book in order to see what form Islamic creationism takes. I have some notion of it, since Yahya actually did send out requests for comments on the book to forum denizens (and I responded, demonstrating one of the particularly bad sorts of "arguments"), but I'm sure that the book would fill me in further.
After all, American creationism is not the only kind of creationism out there.
That said, I would not be willing to read much in it, primarily keeping it around for reference. And I certainly would not pay the postage (obviously a very reasonable requirement), since it would cut into my desire to buy bits and pieces of various types of meteorites (like one from Vesta, and perhaps even a tiny piece of lunar rock).
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | January 10, 2008 2:01 PM
Well, I'll take the gamble. Think I could try doing a little armchair comparison if I find particularly egregious examples of two very different critters being described as identical.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | January 10, 2008 2:02 PM
I want it because I want to reaffirm my already strongly-held stance that Darwin was materialistic and didn't base his findings on science. Even though I also have a strongly-held stance that science is materialistic (the bad kind), I am unable to see a contradiction when I smugly criticize scientists.
Posted by: Ryan F Stello | January 10, 2008 2:03 PM
Do NOT send me this book. I don't want it and won't read it. If I did lose and end up getting this book, I would be in quite a conundrum because I couldn't bring myself to through it away or destroy it because that would group me in with the book burners I despise so much. The Atlas of Creation would sit on the shelf, not wanted, not giftable, and not read. I would be forced to lock my home office so that no one would ever know that such a piece of crap was on the premises.
Or I could put it next to my Onion books and claim it's a parody.
Posted by: Salad Is Slaughter | January 10, 2008 2:04 PM
I have a centipede in my house that seemes to have evolved the ability to survive the impact of my full weight channeled (at near-relativistic speed) through my size-11 doc maarten boots.
It needs killin' before it reproduces. This book could be my only chance.
Posted by: jeremy | January 10, 2008 2:06 PM
I DO NOT WANT THIS DAMN BOOK, AND IF I WIN IT I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT. However, there is a poor starving Graduate Student named Abbie in OK that has taken on both Dembski and Behe and won in the past year, and I think SHE deserves to recieve the book.
Since I have enjoyed this tremendously, and still laugh out loud just thinking about her Pwning them, I would pay for the shipping. Maybe if Dembski and Behe are dumb enough to demand a rematch, with this book in hand, she can smack them both literally and figuratively upside the head next time.
Please keep in mind that I have NOT talked to Abbie about this, so she might not want it either. She might not like to read fiction.
Posted by: J-Dog | January 10, 2008 2:08 PM
Already 35 requests are listed. There is some heavy competition out there.
I would like to have a copy of the book, because I can't believe that it really exists. It must be the figment of the imagination of some wild evolutionist, who invented this story just to make fun of creationism.
Please, make a believer out of me!
Posted by: Werner | January 10, 2008 2:09 PM
I was thinking about wallpapering my bathroom, and this would be perfect. I could read excrement while I excrete myself!
Posted by: Jon Strong | January 10, 2008 2:09 PM
I choose to believe that this book will come to me. It is precisely because I have put no thought into my entry in this great contest that I will be favored above all of you. Even if I do not win a physical copy of the book, I have won because I BELIEVE.
Posted by: Heather | January 10, 2008 2:09 PM
I could use it to prop open one of my doors. Keeps the cats from shutting themselves in a room.
Posted by: katsu | January 10, 2008 2:10 PM
I really feel like I need this book because my frame of reference in life has changed greatly since understanding evolutionary theory and biology. I would like to experience vastly different "theories" as to our origins, and can't wait to share these wonderful "theories" with all of my educated friends. Perhaps this book will provide me and hundreds of others with a scrumptiously wonderful perspective.
Posted by: helioprogenus | January 10, 2008 2:15 PM
Heather said,
GACK! The accursed power of personal conviction!
Can...not...fight!
Posted by: Ryan F Stello | January 10, 2008 2:15 PM
As a philosopher of science, I've long been interested in quacks who reject overwhelming scientific evidence. I started collecting some books once I noticed the similarities between creationists and the deniers of relativity theory. I usually get my copies of quackery for free (I see on my shelf such self-published works as The Intersections of Reality: Paradigms of Ontological Structures: Praecipe, Ultimate Exista, Eigenstates and The Sun rounds the Earth! The Age of Complementarity between Science and Religion: Innaechon and the Neo-Copernican Theory).
I certainly wouldn't want to support Harun Yahya or any creationist, and so won't pay money for the volume, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a free copy yet. I'd be very grateful to win this one.
As a plus, I can guarantee that it would be loaned out to many students who would likewise benefit from the lesson in creationism.
Thank you for your consideration.
Posted by: Physicalist | January 10, 2008 2:15 PM
Had to stop reading before the noun. Please refrain from sharing in the future. Kthx.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | January 10, 2008 2:20 PM
Who needs Atlas of Creation?
# cat /dev/random
You'll get more useful information that way.
Posted by: ShavenYak | January 10, 2008 2:20 PM
Is it volume 2? I have volume one, and i love it. It is a surreal reading experience. Thousands of beautiful pictures with bizarre and even hilarious captions. How could people not like this book? I keep it in my office and other graduate students are free to waste some time turning the pages and laughing at the insanity. We have a slightly creationist grad student here, and so this tends to be a great conversation piece (she is a Christian creationist that hates Muslims and so when she agrees with the content... yes, i know scary enough... we make a point of highlighting the fact that this is a "muslim" creationist book)... me and a few of the others in the department have it as our secret mission (and sometimes not so secret) turn her.
Posted by: b shepard | January 10, 2008 2:21 PM
I NEED this book. It will serve as the primary - indeed, only - reference for the article I plan to submit to Answers Research Journal, thus making me eligible for yet another great prize.
Posted by: Mike | January 10, 2008 2:21 PM
I think ERV was disappointed she didn't receive a copy, and since she's posted the best t-shirt picture evah, I think she deserves it.
Posted by: minusRusty | January 10, 2008 2:21 PM
This book would look great on my shelf as part of my collection of other woo books. Maybe nestled in between "The Devil's Web" and the complete set of "Mysteries of the Unknown".
Posted by: Skippy | January 10, 2008 2:24 PM
If I were to win this book, I would prefer that the current owner lives in Houston, so that I could just drop by and pick it up. Failing that, ship that brick and I will pay the freight.
As for the ultimate use, I can see this being a gag gift that gets regifted time and again. I count amoung my friends and relatives at least 15 in the biosciences. Plenty to choose from. Perhaps it could be placed on the gutted piano down at the Rice University graduate student pub, for proper derision.
Posted by: Matt M | January 10, 2008 2:24 PM
Gilipollas Caraculo!? Holy cow! That's MY name!
Weird.
Posted by: inkadu | January 10, 2008 2:24 PM
....Mosquitoes would really suck if they had metal barbed hooks protruding from their abdomens.
News, dude: 'skitters do really suck. Literally. But with their mouths.
Oh, and I DO NOT WANT the book. I've already got Wilder-Smith's Man's Origin, Man's Destiny, Harold Hill's How Did It All Begin, Harry Rimmer's The Harmony of Science and Scripture (source of the "Joshua's Long Day" UL), and some kid's book from the ICR. I'm afraid adding one more piece of stupid to the library might make all our other books leave in disgust. Not to mention the incremental risk of neurological damage.
I'm serious, PZ: if you send me this book, I'll drive all the way back to Morris and....and....say mean things to your face! I'll tell the world the truth about the Cephalopod Throne! I'll tell everyone you're actually a polite, mild-mannered small-town college professor who barely swats mosquitoes, let alone eats kittens! You have been warned!
(And I note that the donor is remaining carefully anonymous to avoid revenge from the recipient.)
Posted by: Eamon Knight | January 10, 2008 2:24 PM
I have a wobbly table.
Posted by: henryb | January 10, 2008 2:25 PM
i need this book to learn about how flies evolved from fishing hooks.
Posted by: cleek | January 10, 2008 2:27 PM
I use a huge leatherbound bible as the right bookend for the "Humor" section of my library. This ridiculous tome would be the perfect compliment.
Posted by: hausen | January 10, 2008 2:27 PM
This book is crap. Everyone knows Atlas holds up the Creation. He didn't, like, Create it. Sheesh. The author is a moron.
Posted by: Kseniya | January 10, 2008 2:28 PM
I have been rather depressed lately (the vote in Florida ) and as I can not live in a world where "science" is the result of the vote of the believer class, I have considered various methods of suicide. I am certain that the act of reading this book will become a preferred methodology for suicide for masochists, as it will result in the slow but progressive destruction of neural tissue beginning in the cerebral cortex.
Therefore, I humbly request in the name of the great pasta being in the sky (whose name should never be mentioned as you will then be subject to being meatballed to death and not admitted to the great pasta plate in the sky upon death - where it is I am hoping to go.) the offered copy. - forthwith.
(P.S., I will include the sender in my insurance to cover postage.)
Evan
Posted by: evan garber | January 10, 2008 2:29 PM
Harry Rimmer's
This sounds like someone worth meeting.
Posted by: MAJeff | January 10, 2008 2:29 PM
I need a good doorstop, or maybe some nice kindling. And if I'm bored it would be good for a few laughs.
Posted by: Stuart Coleman | January 10, 2008 2:30 PM
Since I live in Floor-ee-duh, I think I need a copy of this tome. It would make an excellent resource, allowing me to think like a creationist and thus giving me an stroke.
Posted by: firemancarl | January 10, 2008 2:31 PM
I would like it because I enjoy pretty, pretty pictures of naked dinosaurs and such. It's a fetish that was first realized when I took a trip to the Creation Museum. I sported enough wood that day to build a freakin' ark.
By receiving this book, I can keep my fetish in private and away from the beady, judgmental eyes of the really crazy people who flock to the Creation Museum for anything other than raw, sexual arousal.
Will that work?
Posted by: Dan | January 10, 2008 2:32 PM
By awarding me this book, you will actually be saving the life of another book.
Let me explain.
In October of last year, I was fortunate enough to find a free (and functional!) jukebox while curbshopping in my town. Knowing that such opportunities do not come often, I risked life and limb to haul this 300+ pound beast home atop the trunk of my Buick, with me riding on the roof to steady it.
Upon returning home, I discovered the jukebox had lost two of its legs somehow. It was with reluctance that I allowed my Romanian/English dictionary to be used as a temporary leveling replacement for these legs.
Had I known at the time that winning your book might depend on you developing sympathy for my Romanian/English dictionary, I would have kissed it lightly, while making a solemn promise to someday free it from the tyranny of being trapped under a jukebox.
It is with great dramatic flair that I now ask you-- who better to support a terrible burden upon itself than Atlas?
--DaveX
Posted by: DaveX | January 10, 2008 2:34 PM
I'm considering taking some time off to go fly-fishing for coelacanths this coming April, and I desperately need this book so I'll know which lures to bring.
Posted by: Roadtripper | January 10, 2008 2:34 PM
I feel inadequate in the face of all the excellent posts above. To tell the truth I think I'd be happier if I were a bit more stupid, and this book seems to be the ticket to that goal.
Luck to all entrants. I bet you'll have to pay postage.
Posted by: Bert Chadick | January 10, 2008 2:34 PM
You could go with a King Solomon-type solution: send one page to every contestant.
Posted by: Mike Fox | January 10, 2008 2:35 PM
Oh, the fish-hook pictures and stolen fossil photos are *only the beginning*. Did you know that Volume One has these winners?:
-- a CGI "transitional" fossil with several arms and legs (of the chimp and human variety) which is apparently what Mr. Oktar thinks a transitional fossil would look like.
See it here
-- a similar skull within a skull, with accompanying text. See it here
And, yes, I actually have a copy of this book and would also like to get rid of it. But I would send it only to serious debunkers of nonsense/researchers of strange pseudoscience.
I've been looking for a good scientific/skeptical library to send it to. Someone at the JREF suggested I offer it to the National Center for Science Education, or to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Does anyone have any other suggestions (besides yourselves)?
Posted by: GK4 | January 10, 2008 2:35 PM
The Atlas of Creation,
looking for a new abode.
The Atlas of Creation,
Southern Baptist, Allah mode.
The Atlas of Creation,
owner's willing to unload,
butt the Atlas of Creation,
is unfit for the commode.
The Atlas of Creation,
a mighty tome to see.
The Atlas of Creation?
Atlas shrugged, or did he pee.
The Atlas of Creation,
mine for just a senders' fee,
The Atlas of Creation,
(rubs hands [Satanic glee])
The Atlas of Creation,
a sore sight to behold.
The Atlas of Creation:
'we'll just follow what we're told.'
The Atlas of Creation,
over marketed, undersold.
The Atlas of Creation,
is pure pyrite, who needs gold?
Posted by: mothra | January 10, 2008 2:35 PM
I want to submit it to the South Carolina state board of education as an alternative text for students and parents who cannot stomach the one-sided neo-Darwinist textbook by Miller and Levine.
Posted by: Ben | January 10, 2008 2:38 PM
I have a book on my shelf called "Life: How Did it Get Here? By Evolution or by Creation?" This book has provided me countless hours of laughter as well as being a handy reference when religious people attempt to claim that real creationist arguments aren't that stupid.
This atlas sounds like it would make a good companion volume... ;)
Posted by: C. L. Hanson | January 10, 2008 2:39 PM
As I am on the academic job market, my significant-other is currently rampaging through the house, discarding things not needed so as to make the move easier.
Unfortunately, the SO's efforts are jinxing the enterprise, for I am an avid disbeliever in "The Secret." Therefore, preparing to move will guarantee that none of my application packets are even received, much less positively reviewed.
My professorial aims will only be realized upon the completely unnecessary and pointless acquisition of about fifteen kilos of utter horseshit and codswallop.
Posted by: madder | January 10, 2008 2:40 PM
My mama took my book off of me cos I weren't coloring it in proper. I needs a new one.
Posted by: Tom | January 10, 2008 2:40 PM
I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do with the book. If it's as heavy as they say it is, I'll never be able to convict the heathen of witchcraft by balancing them against it. I'll have to go on using my free pocket copy of the New Testament.
On the other hand, I wouldn't want a false positive when divining a witch by her ability to float, so I could use it as a weight when throwing the alleged witch into a pond for that added measure of diagnostic security.
Posted by: Dustin | January 10, 2008 2:43 PM
I would make a video for YouTube mocking the book. If the book is as ridiculous as you have made it out to be, the video should be hilarious.
Maybe I'm a little weird, but I have been dying to get my hands on a copy of this book. The curiosity is killing me.
Posted by: Dinzer | January 10, 2008 2:43 PM
It will be great to add this book to my collection of pseudo-scientific junk!
Posted by: Alex Besogonov | January 10, 2008 2:44 PM
Top Ten Reason Why I Damned Sure Don't Want This Book
1) When I was 21, and a non-drinker, my brother gave me a bottle of Black Velvet for my birthday, and it was one of the ha