History of Modern Creationism––#

HISTORY OF MODERN CREATIONISM

  1. Introduction

    1. The history of creationism is no less interesting––or complicated––than the history of evolutionary theory
    2. If anything, the history of creationism has been more colorful and raucous!
    3. Modern creationism began as an American phenomenon

      1. Historically, Americans have tended to be common-sense pragmatists––”The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it”
      2. Also, American religion exhibits more diversity than found in many other places––there is less reliance on tradition and authority

    4. Despite its American roots, creationism has now “flooded the world”––it is an international phenomenon along with its associated religious world view, fundamentalism
    5. The history and sociology of modern creationism are the topics of several books, the most significant of which is Ronald L. Numbers’ The Creationists (1992)
    6. Here we examine the history of modern creationism, primarily during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

  2. Creationism before Darwin’s Origin of Species

    1. Christian geologists developed the geologic column primarily during the early 1800s
    2. This, along with discoveries in paleontology, had led most Christian scholars to view the earth and life as much older than Archbishop Ussher’s 6000 years

      1. Some, like George Cuvier, believed in multiple creations over the ages
      2. Others believed in limited evolutionary change directed by God

    3. Numbers (1992: 17, 18) writes: “No doubt many Christians, perhaps most, remained unpersuaded by the geological evidence of the earth’s great age and continued to believe in a recent creation in six literal days, but these people rarely expressed their views in books and journals. Of those who did, only a tiny minority invoked the deluge to explain the fossil record, the most compelling evidence of an ancient earth”
    4. Two notable examples were the Lord brothers

      1. Eleazar Lord (1788-1871)

        1. Presbyterian businessman
        2. Wrote The Epoch of Creation (1851)

          1. Six-literal day creation
          2. Genesis flood responsible for fossil sequence

      2. David Nevins Lord (1792-1880)

        1. Congregationalist dry-goods buisnessman from New York
        2. Wrote Geognosy (1855)

          1. Six-literal day creation
          2. Strata formed before and after the flood; did not favor Eleazar’s diluvial notions

    5. The Lord brothers were exceptions––most pre-Origin of Species Christian writers and scholars were content to give geology all the time it wanted

  3. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century creationism

    1. Asa Gray (1810-1888) and theistic evolution

      1. Gray was a botanist at Harvard
      2. He was also an orthodox Christian
      3. Gray was Darwin’s strongest ally in America
      4. He believed

        1. God created life at the beginning
        2. God then directed the subsequent evolution of life over the ages
        3. Thought that God may have directed the evolutionary process by creating the variation necessary for natural selection to operate
        4. Unlike Darwin, Gray believed that humans were divinely created.

      5. In short, Gray was a theistic evolutionist

    2. Arnold Guyot (1807-1884) and the day-age theory

      1. Guyot was a New Jersey geologist
      2. He was also an active Presbyterian
      3. Believed that

        1. Genesis 1 provides a broad outline of earth history
        2. Each “day” of creation represents a long period of geologic time
        3. Rejected human evolution: No amount of time would ever “suffice to make of the monkey a civilizable man”
        4. His day-age theory was popularized by two prominent geologists:

          1. James Dwight Dana
          2. John William Dawson

    3. George Frederick Wright (1838-1921)––Christian Darwinist turned fundamentalist

      1. Wright was an Oberlin College-educated Congregationalist pastor
      2. He became an expert on New England geology
      3. Early in life he found Asa Gray’s “Christian Darwinism” convincing
      4. Later in life, however, he became increasingly critical of his earlier Darwinian views, although he never completely rejected the notion of change
      5. Also, as he grew older, he took an increasingly more literalistic view of the Bible
      6. Eventually he wrote “The Passing of Evolution” for The Fundamentals, the founding documents of “fundamentalism” published during the first few years of the twentieth century

    4. The gap theory (ruin-and-restoration theory)

      1. This view was extremely popular among conservative creationists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
      2. Holds that

        1. Between the initial creation of “the heavens and the earth” mentioned in Genesis 1:1 and Day One of creation week, there is a blank spot in the biblical record
        2. During this unreported interval

          1. Much of the geologic column formed
          2. Pre-creation organisms lived, died, and left their remains as fossils

      3. The gap theory received enormous support from the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) which contains an annotation that Genesis 1:1 “refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all the geological ages”
      4. Harry Rimmer, a Presbyterian minister and evangelist, was an outspoken proponent of this view during the early twentieth century
      5. Today among SDAs, a closely-related view is defended by Jack Provonsha

    5. Thus, up through about the 1920s and 1930s, even fundamentalist Christians commonly believed that the earth and life were very old
    6. How and when did “young-earth creationism” emerge?

  4. Emergence of twentieth century young-earth creationism

    1. Modern young-earth creationism has its roots in nineteenth century Seventh-day Adventism
    2. Adventists rejected evolutionary biology and geology for several reasons:

      1. Evolutionary science seemed to conflict with a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2––Adventists were afraid that if they rejected the notion of a six-day creation they would lose any reason for keeping Sabbath
      2. E. G. White reported having a vision of creation which early Adventists took to be authoritative
      3. Adventists equated evolution with atheism.

    3. Adventist creationism would not be what it is today without George McCready Price (1870-1963)

      1. Price was without question the most influential creationist during the early twentieth century
      2. He spent two years in college plus one year at a teacher-training school

        1. At the teacher-training school he took a course in mineralogy and a few other courses in natural science
        2. This was the extent of his formal training in science

      3. He wrote more than 20 books and hundreds of magazine articles on creationism
      4. He corresponded with many prominant personages of his day, including David Starr Jordon and William Jennings Bryan
      5. Bryan asked for Price to serve as an expert witness at the Scopes trial
      6. Price described Charles Darwin as “of the slow, unimaginative type so frequently found among English country squires [and] . . . singularly incapable of dealing with the broader aspects of any scientific or philosophic problem”
      7. Price believed that evolution was propped up by the long age views of geologists––that Christians “soft on time” were in effect opening the door for godless evolutionism
      8. He thought if he could demolish the concept of the geologic column, evolution would collapse
      9. He hoped to achieve this goal through flood geology
      10. As Gary Wills has written: “Price deserves some kind of award for creative imagination, and for economy of argument: He countered all the Darwinian arguments with one simple chess move of the mind”
      11. Price parted company with conventional geology over three issues:

        1. The geologic column––[His “Great Law of Conformable Stratigraphic Sequences”]
        2. Overthrusts
        3. The Ice Age

      12. Price was an “arm chair” geologists––he hated field work and learned what he knew of geology from the books he read
      13. Nevertheless, he was very clever and bright, he was an excellent writer, and his influence continues to be felt today both inside and outside his church

    4. Harold W. Clark (1891-1986)

      1. Student of Price
      2. Ended up teaching biology and geology at Pacific Union College––He used Price’s textbook, The New Geology
      3. Clark’s visit to the oil fields of Oklahoma and Texas and rejection of Price’s views
      4. Wrote new text, The New Diluvialism (1946)

        1. Accepted geologic column
        2. Accepted overthrusts
        3. Accepted Ice Age

      5. Price’s response

        1. Wrote Theories of Satanic Origin
        2. Filed formal heresy charges with the Pacific Union Conference

      6. Clark’s ecological zonation model continues to exert wide influence in creationist circles

    5. Bernard L. Ramm (1916-1993)

      1. Prominant Baptist theologian
      2. Recognized the impact of Price’s and Clark’s views, but was unwilling to overlook the implications of

        1. Radiometric dating
        2. Paleontology
        3. Paleoanthropology

      3. Wrote The Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954)

        1. Rejected flood geology and young earth views
        2. Favored progressive creationism
        3. Believed that “creation was revealed in six days, not performed in six days”

    6. John Whitcomb and Henry Morris

      1. More conservative elements within evangelical Protestantism were not enthusiastic about Ramm’s book
      2. These people felt that Ramm had sold out to liberalism
      3. Thus, in 1961, John C. Whitcomb (fundamentalist professor of Old Testament) and Henry M. Morris (a Baptist hydrologic engineer) published The Genesis Flood

        1. Took literal view of Genesis 1-11
        2. Incorporated many of Price’s views on geology, even some of those questioned by Clark
        3. Superficially the book had the appearance of a scholarly work
        4. It was widely accepted among conservative Christians and served as the impetus for the scientific creationist movement
        5. The Genesis Flood was simply a reincarnation of Price’s views, but it had more widespread influence than Price’s books

          1. Unlike Price, Whitcomb and Morris were from mainline Protestant churches
          2. Unlike Price, both Whitcomb and Morris had earned doctoral degrees
          3. Whitcomb and Morris’ book appeared at the same time evolutionism was being pushed in America’s public schools (as part of a post-Sputnik initiative to improve science education)

    7. Recent events

      1. Creationism in the courts
      2. Creationist publications
      3. Highly educated creationists

        1. Steve Austin
        2. Kurt Wise

      4. Non-creationist writers on creationism
      5. “Intelligent design” theorists

  5. Conclusion

    1. The concepts of creationists have exhibited great diversity
    2. This diversity of views continues to characterize the creationist movement––There is no “standard creationist position”
    3. Every indication suggests that this diversity of views will continue and even multiply