#3007: William James Herath

Nothing says ‘paradigm-shattering discovery’ like a book on a scientific topic published by a vanity publisher from an author with no background in the relevant scientific field. There are plenty of these. William James Herath’s WHAT IS EVOLUTION?, published by something called ‘Createspace’, purports to show “how evolution is undefined, unscientific, and unlawful” and outline “why evolution is, in fact, illegal and unfit for the public classroom”, and though we haven’t bothered to actually look at its contents we nevertheless feel confindent about giving the author an entry here. Apparently, Herath presented some of his main findings at the Pensacola Truth Conference in 2018, where he ostensibly demonstrated “how to scientifically and legally shut down the claims of evolution, along with explaining destructive aspects of the false theology of God using evolution to create, aka theistic evolution,” accompanied by “a 4-week discussion guide designed to help youth pastors open a conversation addressing the ‘Faith Cavity’ of biological evolution” entitled HOW DID WE GET HERE?. He also shared “tips, tricks, stories, and secret weapons from his youth pastor experiences.”

 

Apparently, the book shows that teaching evolution in public schools is illegal because “it is only a theory” and because “there is no accepted definition of what evolution actually means”. On reading the latter, we immediately suspected that Herath – given his demonstrated level of scientific wherewithal – had looked at a couple of dictionaries and found discrepancies. And indeed, that’s precisely what he did: “The National Academy of Sciences also claims evolution to be a fact and offers three definitions of the term, and all of which conflict with Webster’s definition of evolution.”

 

According to his bio, Herath is an apologetic speaker with the Ratio Christi Speakers Bureau and has served on the National Vineyard Church Curriculum Team. He is also a filmmaker, though we haven’t had the opportunity to delve into his cinematic oeuvre. Moreover, “in addition to being an author/speaker, Herath has appeared in over forty national television commercials.” So there.

 

Now, Herath modestly admits – in the Kickstarter campaign he used to launch his book project – that “I am not the most qualified person to write this book, just being honest”, but “Like atheist and New York Times Bestselling Author Richard Dawkins not being the most qualified person to to write The God Delusion, I am equally unqualified to write a book about the constitutionality of evolution”. At least there is an inimitable personal style to his prose.

 

Diagnosis: Writing in 2026, his discoveries hasn’t yet quite managed to turn the wheels of science, but that’s presumably because it takes a while for scientists to become aware of what hit them when the impact is as earth-shattering as Herath’s.