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The Rise of Creation Science

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American Creationism, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design in the Evangelical Market

Part of the book series: Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World ((CTAW))

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Abstract

Huskinson frames the rise of creation science as the third wave in the series of anti-evolution movements among evangelicals that began in the aftermath of Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859). By examining the intentions of Henry Morris and John Whitcomb, the founders of this third wave of anti-evolution activity, the chapter describes the rise of creation science as a response not to evolutionary theory per se, but to the work of other evangelicals seen as too conciliatory with the establishment scientific consensus. It is this perceived threat to “orthodox” evangelicalism that serves as the catalyst required to create a movement of opposition to mainstream science. This chapter will show that the movement developed several groups that competed with each other to determine which would become the standard-bearer for evangelical orthodoxy, and considers how representatives of the mainstream scientific establishment responded to the movement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (P.L. 85-864; 72 Stat. 1580).

  2. 2.

    Christopher P. Toumey, God’s Own Scientists: Creationists in a Secular World (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 26.

  3. 3.

    See “BSCS History,” BSCS, https://bscs.org/history.

  4. 4.

    Henry M. Morris, “The Anti-creationist,” Acts and Facts 10, no. 7 (1981), http://www.icr.org/article/anti-creationist/.

  5. 5.

    See Walter R. Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1965).

  6. 6.

    Molly Worthen, Apostles of Reason (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 223.

  7. 7.

    Toumey, God’s Own Scientists, 32.

  8. 8.

    Scofield Reference Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1909).

  9. 9.

    Gary Land, Historical Dictionary of Seventh Day Adventists (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005), 112.

  10. 10.

    Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 263.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., 263–264. These positions included a geo-centric model of the universe.

  12. 12.

    See https://creationresearch.org/statement-of-belief/.

  13. 13.

    Numbers, The Creationists, 261–262.

  14. 14.

    Harold S. Slusher and John N. Moore, Biology: A Search for Order in Complexity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970).

  15. 15.

    Toumey, God’s Own Scientists, 103 and Numbers, The Creationists, 266.

  16. 16.

    Toumey, God’s Own Scientists, 38.

  17. 17.

    Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968).

  18. 18.

    Virginia Gray, “Anti-evolution Sentiment and Behavior,” Journal of American History, 57 (1970): 365.

  19. 19.

    See Numbers, The Creationists, 59–60.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 313.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., 314.

  22. 22.

    Segraves v. California, No. 278978 (Super. Ct. Sacramento County 1981).

  23. 23.

    “DEBATE Phil Donahue vs Duane Gish Evolution vs Creation,” YouTube video, 59:05, posted by “Lamela La mela,” March 23, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfDfpkeSSTk, 49:35.

  24. 24.

    Numbers, The Creationists, 317.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 318.

  26. 26.

    “California Colleges and Universities: A Guide to California’s Degree Granting Institutions and Degree, Certificate, and Credential Programs,” California Postsecondary Education Commission, November 2006, 114, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED528224.pdf.

  27. 27.

    Julie J. Ingersoll, Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 134.

  28. 28.

    Michael J. McVicar, Christian Reconstruction: R. J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 165.

  29. 29.

    Rousas J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty (Vallecito: Ross House Books, 1984), 71.

  30. 30.

    McVicar, Christian Reconstruction, 79.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 181.

  32. 32.

    Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum (Vallecito: Ross House Books, 1981), 158.

  33. 33.

    Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Mythology of Science (Nutley: The Craig Press, 1964), 64.

  34. 34.

    Greg L. Bahnsen, “On Worshiping the Creature Rather Than the Creator,” The Journal of Christian Reconstruction 1, no. 1 (1974): 81.

  35. 35.

    Numbers, The Creationists, 224–225.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 500.

  37. 37.

    Henry M. Morris, History of Modern Creationism (Santee: Institute for Creation Research, 1993), 173–174.

  38. 38.

    Charles H. Craig to Rousas J. Rushdoony, c. 1962–1963, Rushdoony Papers, Chalcedon Foundation Archives 1/1.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 3/1–2.

  40. 40.

    Rousas J. Rushdoony to Charles H. Craig, c. 1962–1963, Rushdoony Papers, Chalcedon Foundation Archives, 4/1.

  41. 41.

    Charles H. Craig to Rousas J. Rushdoony, c. 1962–1963, Rushdoony Papers, Chalcedon Foundation Archives, 2/1.

  42. 42.

    McVicar, Christian Reconstruction, 6.

  43. 43.

    Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley: The Craig Press, 1973), 586–588.

  44. 44.

    Brian J. Auten, “Narrating Christian Transformationalism: Rousas J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism in Current Histories of American Religion and Politics,” in For the Healing of the Nations: Essays on Creation, Redemption, and Neo-Calvinism, eds. Peter Escalante and W. Bradford Littlejohn (Burford: The Davenant Press, 2014), 209. See also Max Blumenthal, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party (New York: Nation Books, 2009), 17–27.

  45. 45.

    John Whitehead, Slaying Dragons: The Truth Behind the Man Who Defended Paula Jones (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 197.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., 198.

  47. 47.

    Numbers, The Creationists, 235.

  48. 48.

    Toumey, God’s Own Scientists, 32.

  49. 49.

    Henry P. Zuidema, “Genetics and Genesis: The New Biology Textbooks that Include Creationism,” Creation Evolution Journal 2, no. 3 (1981): 18, https://ncse.com/cej/2/3/genetics-genesis-new-biology-textbooks-that-include-creation.

  50. 50.

    Willoughby v. Stever, 504 F.2d 271 (D. C. Cir. 1974).

  51. 51.

    William J. Bennetta, “Creationism in Schoolbooks,” NCSE 19, no. 1 (1999): 21, https://ncse.com/library-resource/creationism-schoolbooks.

  52. 52.

    Toumay, God’s Own Scientists, 21. This is a common trope in creationist materials. Intelligent Design proponents at the Discovery Institute have also attempted to capitalise on the social distaste for Nazi-era philosophies of evolution and social Darwinism—see https://darwintohitler.com/.

  53. 53.

    Evidenced by the CRS textbook initiative, the CSRC legislative efforts to include creationist materials in public schools, and ICR’s degree programs to train teachers in creation science.

  54. 54.

    McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education 529 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Ark. 1982).

  55. 55.

    See Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1984). Text available from “National Academy of Sciences (1984),” NCSE, https://ncse.com/library-resource/national-academy-sciences-1984.

  56. 56.

    Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987).

  57. 57.

    Webster v. New Lenox School District, 917 F.2d 1004 (7th Cir. 1990).

  58. 58.

    See Jack Haas and Richard Wright, “What Christian Colleges Teach about Creation,” Christianity Today 21, no. 17 (June 1977): 8–11, Tom Bethell, “Darwin’s Mistake,” Christianity Today 21, no. 17 (June 1977): 12–15, and Harold Lindsell, “Where Did I Come From?” Christianity Today 21, no. 17 (June 1977): 16–18.

  59. 59.

    Edwin A. Olson, “Hidden Agenda Behind the Evolutionist/Creationist Debate,” Christianity Today 26 (April 1982): 26–27.

  60. 60.

    Toumey, God’s Own Scientists, 65.

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 59.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 41.

  63. 63.

    See https://creationresearch.org/vacrc-home/.

  64. 64.

    See http://grisda.org/.

  65. 65.

    For historic polling on American subscription to evolutionary theory, see “Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design,” Gallup News, May 22, 2017, http://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx. Polling beginning in 1982 shows nearly half of Americans accepted evolutionary theory, theistic, or otherwise.

  66. 66.

    “About the Creation-Science Research Center,” The Parent Company, http://www.parentcompany.com:80/csrc/, accessed using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20040806154241/http://www.parentcompany.com:80/csrc/.

  67. 67.

    See http://parentcompany.com/.

  68. 68.

    See Kelly L. Segraves, Sons of God Return (San Diego: Pyramid Books, 1975).

  69. 69.

    Carl Wieland, “Congratulations from Down Under!” Prayer News by Creation Science Ministries 1, no. 1 (April/May 1994): 1.

  70. 70.

    See https://answersingenesis.org/about/history/.

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    Benjamin L. Huskinson

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Huskinson, B.L. (2020). The Rise of Creation Science. In: American Creationism, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design in the Evangelical Market. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45435-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45435-7_2

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