Evolutionary biology has proved a polarizing cultural concept. While acceptance of evolutionary biology and especially the theory of common descent was general and rapid in the scientific community after 1859, resistance and antipathy to evolutionary biology's claims and theories has been pervasive and general in some (but not all) religious sects. The modern anti-evolution movements (and there are many) agree only on one thing: they don't like evolutionary biology, either in whole or in part.
· Viewpoints on Evolution, Creation, and Origins by Wesley R. Elsberry.
How can we classify the stances of the various participants in the evolution controversy? The link above looks at how religious belief interacts with anti-evolutionary stances.
· What Is Creationism?, an essay by Mark Isaak.
Finding online resources on anti-evolutionary stances is easy. One common characteristic is that anti-evolutionary proponents have embraced the technologies of the Internet to broadly distribute their message. As the links below will show, many anti-evolutionary organizations spend considerable effort in presenting web pages and multimedia offerings.
· Young-Earth Creationism (YEC)
The original and still most well-known form of anti-evolutionary activism holds that the earth was created by fiat by God less than 20,000 years ago. There are many different factions and organizations which espouse a YEC stance. These almost invariably invoke the same set of anti-evolutionary arguments. The various factions differ in how much "evolution" they can tolerate, but all of them label the tolerable amount of evolution they can stomach "microevolution".
Proponents of YEC
Go to any search engine and you will find a bewildering number of web sites which argue a YEC stance. There are various places that list a large number of web sites. Here, I am going to list some of the ones that I consider to be most representative of the genre.
o The Institute for Creation Research
With headquarters in Santee, California, this organization goes back more than three decades to a split in the membership of the American Scientific Affiliation. Originally touting their stance as "scientific creationism", they have since modified their preferred terminology to "creation science". The ICR now has a multi-million dollar budget per year, which they use for a number of ongoing efforts, including weekly radio shows and at least three separately titled periodical publications which they distribute at no cost. Originally headed by Henry Madison Morris, the ICR is now run by John Morris. The ICR has over most of its existence been considered to be the single most consistent and vociferous proponent of the YEC stance. However, this may be changing. To outsiders, the makeup of the ICR seems to be graying considerably, and it appears that many younger YEC proponents (and former ICR staff) are choosing to associate with other YEC organizations, such as "Answers In Genesis".
Originally established in Australia, Answers In Genesis has gone multi-national with a site in Kentucky, where they plan to build a theme park. AIG is run by the pair of Ken Ham and Gary E. Parker, both formerly associated with the ICR.
Critics of YEC
o The National Center for Science Education
The NCSE opposes anti-evolutionary activity throughout the United States and Canada. Although operating on a minuscule budget compared to the combined financial might of the anti-evolutionary organizations, the NCSE has efficiently - and often quietly - quelled various outbreaks of anti-evolutionary fervor with a combination of leveraging the effort of local volunteers and providing comprehensive information on anti-evolutionary claims and their rebuttals.
Originally a collection of posts made on the Usenet talk.origins newsgroup, the Talk.Origins Archive has grown into the single most comprehensive collection of rebuttals of YEC arguments available online. Computer scientist Brett Vickers operates the site, which features excellent layouts, efficient search facilities, and a superb feedback system. The site is maintained and expanded on volunteer effort, with authors (this author included) contributing "Frequently Asked Questions" texts on a wide variety of topics.
o Evolution, Anti-Evolution, and SciCre
This is my page on combatting "scientific creationism" or SciCre. I list a number of common SciCre arguments and their rebuttals.
o Mark I. Vuletic's Essays and Criticisms of Creationism
A philosophy doctoral student, Mark I. Vuletic dismantles a number of common anti-evolutionary arguments and a few anti-anti-evolutionary arguments as well.
NAiG supports science and refutes the pseudoscience of creationists. The site contains articles by Australian scientists (and others) that expose the fallacies of creationism. NAiG has an extensive list of links to material supporting biological evolution as well as links to major creationist organizations.
· Old-Earth Creationism
o Hugh Ross' "Reasons To Believe"
· Intelligent Design
Proponents
o The Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture
The political home of "Intelligent Design" anti-evolutionism. The DI CRSC is an extraordinarily well-funded organization, offering fellowships paying ~$40K a year to many anti-evolutionists. Its ties to the religious right, and particularly those elements of the religious right that seek to install a theocratic government in the USA are something the fellows of the CRSC are quick to digress away from. The CRSC is actively pursuing a strategy called the "Wedge", which seeks to displace and eliminate materialism as a philosophical component of Western culture. The "wedge" strategy seeks to attack what the CRSC fellows see as the weakest point in western science, evolutionary biology, and especially Darwinian mechanisms in evolutionary biology. This is not their goal, but merely a stepping-stone to their goal, which is the complete removal of both philosophical naturalism and methodological naturalism from the practice of science.
The ARN site is an online spin-off of the old "Students for Origins Research" group. It presents a less directly political face for ID proponents than the DI CRSC, but features mostly the very same group of activists.
o Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University
The MPC consists of Bruce Gordon and William A. Dembski, both Fellows of the DI CRSC. The MPC represents yet another outworking of the DI CRSC "wedge" strategy, part of which calls for the establishment of ID centers in academic institutions. The MPC has been very controversial at Baylor, and a recent external review committee report initiated a series of events leading to the removal of William Dembski as director of the MPC and the naming of Bruce Gordon as interim director. The same review committee recommended the the Polanyi name not be used in association with the Center or the arguments made by Dembski and Gordon.
Critics of ID
o The Anti-Evolutionists: William A. Dembski
This is my page collecting links to online resources of Dembski's work - and also to criticisms of Dembski's work.
· Other Anti-Evolutionary Approaches
o Post-Modernist Criticism
o Realian Anti-Evolution
· TBD
A controversy without books would be appallingly dull.
Evolutionary Biology by Douglas Futuyma. Futuyma's text is
readable and gives an excellent introduction to the breadth, if not the depth,
of evolutionary research.
Evolutionary Biology by Eli C. Minkoff. I haven't seen this
one, but several other people have recommended it.
Growth of Biological Thought: Evolution and the Diversity of Life
by Ernst Mayr. This is a solid but readable tome written by one of the giants
of the field. Sometimes Mayr is a little too close to the action, but it is
difficult to imagine someone else doing a better job of it.
On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition by
Charles R. Darwin. The book that changed natural history into biology. There is
some argument over which edition the reader should tackle, with most arguing
for either the first or the sixth edition. To me, the first edition is
preferable. By the time of the sixth edition, Darwin had made too many
allowances for various criticisms, which in the future would often prove less
valid than Darwin's original insights. Note that the etext of the first edition
is available online as well.
Evolutionary Biology of Hearingby Douglas B. Webster, Arthur
N. Popper, and Richard R. Fay. I'm into acoustics, so this one has to go into
the list even if it is rather pricey.
What Is Creation Science? by Henry M. Morris and Gary E.
Parker. An interesting little book that never seems to get around to answering
the title question. I have a few comments about it here.
Biotic Message; Evolution Versus Message Theory by Walter
ReMine. Walter says that evolutionists don't want you to know about his book. I
wonder what that makes me...
Trial and Error: The American Controversy over Creation and
Evolution by Edward J. Larson. A good review of the legal skirmishes over
creationism in the schools.
World's Most Famous Court Trial, Tennessee Evolution Case: A
Complete Stenographic Report of the Famous Case. If you ever wanted a
transcript of the Scopes' Trial, here's your chance.
Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson. Johnson plays agent
provocateur with this book. Johnson poses as a skeptic, but lets the cat out of
the bag on p.165: "My primary goal in writing Darwin on Trial was
to legitimate the assertion of a theistic worldview in the secular
universities." I have a commentary in progress here.
Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative by Christian De Duve.
A hot book on the topic of abiogenesis.
Major Transitions in Evolution by John Maynard Smith & E.
Szathmary.
Constructing "the Beginning": DisCourses of Creation
Science by Simon Locke.
Of Pandas & People by P. Davis and Dean Kenyon. A
supplemental "two-model" style textbook hawked by anti-evolutionists
as a way to get their agenda into your high school biology classroom.
These may list more than a single book.
Page created: 2000/06/05 by Wesley R. Elsberry
Page maintained 2000/06/05 to present by Wesley R. Elsberry
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