Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line

320 Pages·2012·1.88 MB·English

by  Jason Rosenhouse

Among the Creationists
Among the Creationists

DISPATCHES FROM THE ANTI-
EVOLUTIONIST FRONT LINE
Jason Rosenhouse
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosenhouse, Jason.
Among the creationists: dispatches from the anti-evolution frontline / Jason
Rosenhouse.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-974463-3 (hardcover)
1. Creationism. I. Title.
BS651.R757 2012
231.7′652—dc23 2011026995
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
To my parents, who taught me the value of
being open-minded but skeptical.
CONTENTS

List of Figures

Preface

PART I Vignettes

1 Studies in Insularity
2 Showdown at Subway
3 The Prospects for Agreeable Disagreements
4 How I Got Here
5 My Problems with Religion
PART II The Creation Mega-Conference, Lynchburg, Virginia, July
2005

6 An Introduction to Evolution
7 An Introduction to Creationism
8 Literalism and Other Canards
9 Browsing the Bookstore
10 The Best Evidence That God Created
11 Fossils, Human and Otherwise
12 On Information
13 Movies and Television
PART III The “Darwin vs. Design” Conference, Knoxville, Tennessee,
March 2007

14 The Marginality of Genesis 1
15 Intelligent Design vs. Young-Earth Creationism
16 Rhetorical Legerdemain
17 Conversion Stories
18 On Religious Experience
19 Creation as Fishtank
20 Methodological Naturalism
21 Irreducible Complexity
PART IV Visiting the Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky, August
2010

22 Creation Cinema
23 Creation and Corruption
24 Groaning under the Curse
25 From Catastrophe to Consummation
26 What Does Genesis Mean?
27 Theological Phlogiston
28 Why I Love Being Jewish
PART V The Sixth International Conference on Creationism,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 2008

29 Building the Creation Model
30 Inevitable Humans?
31 Unpleasantness
32 Conversations in Bookstores
33 Is the Earth at the Center of the Universe?
34 Things I Learned at the Banquet
Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index
LIST OF FIGURES

7.1 The Vines Center at Liberty University
9.1 A display of creationist books
9.2 This display at the Creation Museum (see part IV) shows the
wrecking ball of “Millions of Years” destroying the foundation of
a church
18.1 An interesting position from my career as a chessplayer
23.1 The Creation Museum grounds
23.2 As presented at the Creation Museum, the most important
events in world history can be summarized in these “Seven Cs.”
23.3 Adam and Eve
25.1 The unrepentant seek high ground on the rock at the lower left,
while the Ark floats safely by
25.2 This exhibit of a dinosaur with a saddle symbolizes the
creationists’s belief that humans and dinosaurs coexisted
29.1 Creationist children’s literature on display at the conference
34.1 An encouraging slide, from the banquet presentation
PREFACE

Just over a decade ago, because of events described in part I, I developed a
strong interest in evolution and creationism. Though this interest was somewhat
tangential to my professional work in mathematics, I gradually found it
occupying an increasing amount of my time and my thoughts. I indulged my
interest in part by becoming a regular attendee at creationist conferences. After
several dozen such events over a number of years, I found myself dissatisfied
with much of the scholarly literature in this area. I felt there was a story to tell in
what I had experienced and that I could paint a realistic picture of why
creationists believe the things they do.
This book has three main purposes. It is a memoir recounting some
interesting experiences I’ve had socializing with people whose worldview differs
greatly from my own. It is also an explication of the beliefs and attitudes that are
common in the anti-evolution subculture. And it is a discussion of certain
questions about the relationship between science and religion that arose naturally
through my experiences. The book is structured as follows:
Part I contains some anecdotes intended to whet your appetite. In the first
three chapters I present a handful of stories that are broadly typical of my
experiences among the creationists. As described in chapters 1 and 2, I found
that insularity and scientific ignorance were distressingly common. That aside,
as described in chapter 3, in most cases I was treated respectfully, and sometimes
even generously, by my fellow conference attendees, even after it was clear that I
did not share their views. Chapters 4 and 5 present some relevant biographical
information about how I developed my interest in this subject and about my
general views toward science and religion.
Part II reports on the Creation Mega-Conference. This was a large, week-
long conference held in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 2005. It shall serve as our
introduction to young-Earth creationism, which is what most people think of
when they hear the word “creationism.” After providing a primer on evolution in
chapter 6, chapters 7 and 8 consider basic aspects of creationism and clear up
some misconceptions about creationists that have been common in my
experience. Chapter 9 discusses creationist jargon. Chapters 10, 11, and 12
consider, and find wanting, certain creationist scientific claims, drawn from
biology, geology, and mathematics. Part II closes, in chapter 13, with a