The Flood of Antievolutionism 
Where is the science in “ scientific creationism”? 
by Laurie R. Godfrey 
In 1963, American historian Rich- 
ard Hofstadter wrote that “today the 
evolutionary controversy seems as re- 
mote as the Homeric era.” The Bio- 
logical Sciences Curriculum Study 
Project, supported in part by federal 
funds, was preparing secondary school 
texts that openly presented evolution 
as the foundation of biology. And 
George McCready Price, an outspo- 
ken leader of the protest against evo- 
lution in the days of the Scopes “mon- 
key trial” and author of numerous 
antievolutionary tomes, including The 
Phantom of Organic Evolution 
(1924), A History of Some Scientific 
Blunders (1930), The Modern Flood 
Theory of Geology (1935), and Gen- 
esis Vindicated (1941), died at the 
age of 92. But 1963 was also the year 
that the Creation Research Society — 
and with it, organized “scientific cre- 
ationism” — was born. 
The Creation Research Society was 
founded by a group of ten men led 
by Walter E. Lammerts and William 
J. Tinkle. Many of these men were 
disaffected members of the American 
Scientific Affiliation, a theistic orga- 
nization founded in 1941 and devoted 
to the reconciliation of science and 
evangelical Christianity. The increas- 
ing domination of the organization by 
evolutionists disturbed those who 
wanted it to oppose evolutionism. The 
“team of ten” vowed to work, through 
what they" regarded as scientific en- 
deavors, for a revival of belief in spe- 
cial creation as described in the King 
James version of the Bible. While they 
held populist William Jennings Bryan, 
the Scopes prosecutor, in high esteem, 
the new activists were creationists of 
a different ilk. 
Bryan had mocked his scientific op- 
ponents: “You believe in the age of 
rocks; 1 believe in the Rock of Ages.” 
He had preached to the masses, “I 
would rather begin with God and rea- 
son down then begin with a piece of 
dirt and reason up.” But the new cre- 
ationists profess no disdain for science. 
College-educated fundamentalist 
Christians with a strong commitment 
to both science (particularly in the 
form of technology and engineering) 
and to a literal interpretation of the 
Bible, they have set out to convince 
the public that “true science” supports 
the creation model of world and life 
origins. Denying that they are trying 
to bring religion into the public 
schools, they are seeking to have their 
model taught as science. 
By the end of 1980, seventeen years 
after Hofstadter had pronounced the 
evolution controversy dead, “two- 
model” scientific education bills — 
which would require public schools 
to present creation as a scientific 
model alongside evolution — had been 
introduced and debated in the state 
legislatures of Florida, Georgia, Illi- 
nois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Min- 
nesota, New York, South Carolina, 
Tennessee, and Washington and were 
being introduced elsewhere. In addi- 
tion, various local school boards 
around the country had passed res- 
olutions that made concessions to cre- 
ationist pressure. The membership of 
the Creation Research Society, based 
in Ann Arbor, had grown to 2,500. 
Sister organizations such as the Bible 
Science Association (Minneapolis), 
the Creation Social Science and Hu- 
manities Society (Wichita), the Insti- 
tute for Creation Research and the 
Creation Science Research Center 
(San Diego) had been formed to de- 
fend scientific creationism and pro- 
mote the teaching of creation as equal 
with evolution. 
Led by virtually the same nucleus 
of antievolutionists, these organiza- 
tions have become efficient factories 
of purportedly scientific antievolution- 
ary propaganda. Conventions, as well 
as debates, textbooks, and films, are 
the means to the political end of build- 
ing a constituency. The Institute for 
Creation Research (ICR) now offers 
college- and graduate-level programs 
as well as summer institutes (offering 
optional college credit) on creation- 
ism; distributes antievolutionary 
books, pamphlets, and cassettes; and 
sponsors creation/evolution debates 
and nationally distributed weekly ra- 
dio broadcasts. And the ICR also 
funds research: to find evidence of 
Noah's ark and a global flood; evi- 
dence of coexisting humans, trilobites, 
and dinosaurs; and proof of a recent 
creation of the universe and the planet 
Earth (the earth is assumed to be 
roughly 10,000 years old). The Cre- 
ation Research Society developed the 
first “creation science” biology text- 
book meant for use in public second- 
ary schools, and since 1964 the society 
has published a quarterly journal deal- 
ing with evidence that supports a lit- 
eral interpretation of the Bible. 
The scientific creationists make no 
attempt to hide the proselytizing role 
of their various research organizations. 
Emphasis Creation 1980 was a Mid- 
western convention of scientific cre- 
ationists sponsored jointly by the ICR 
and the Bible Science Association. 
The Director of the ICR, Henry Mor- 
ris, gave explicit instructions, which 
appeared in the newsletter of the 
ICR’s Midwest Center: 
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