Jonathan received his B.Sc. (hons) in Chemistry and his Ph.D. (Physical Chemistry) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has co-authored papers in mainstream scientific journals including one on high-temperature superconductors published in Nature when he was 22 years old.
He has long been interested in apologetics, and was a co-founder of the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (New Zealand). His first book Refuting Evolution (1999, 2008) was written to counter a teachers guidebook by the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science. It now has over 400,000 copies in print. He later wrote Refuting Evolution 2 (2002, 2010) and the highly acclaimed Refuting Compromise (2004, 2010), both as responses to attacks on the biblical view of history, plus the booklet Mammoth: Riddle of the Ice Age. Jonathan is co-author of the updated Creation Answers Book and 15 Reasons to Take Genesis as History (2006).
In 2008, he finished By Design: Evidence for nature’s Intelligent Designer–the God of the Bible. And in 2010, Dr Sarfati wrote The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on evolution, a response to leading atheopath Richard Dawkins’ latest book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
He works full-time for Creation Ministries International in Atlanta GA as author, speaker, apologist, and scientist, having relocated there in April 2010 from the Brisbane, Australia office. Jonathan is a co-editor of Creation magazine and also writes and reviews articles for the in-depth, peer-reviewed Journal of Creation (formerly TJ), as well as being active in speaking ministry.
Jonathan is also an accomplished chess player and is a former New Zealand Chess Champion, representing New Zealand in three Chess Olympiads (and drew with Boris Spassky, world champion 1969-1972). In 1988, the International Chess Federation awarded him the title of F.I.D.E. Master (FM). For the fun of it, he regularly accepts challenges from multiple players while he is blindfolded. He then plays from memory with up to 12 players simultaneously.
