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The Many Faces of Anti-Evolution

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.

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".

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

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.

The Talk.Origins Archive

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.

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.

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.

Old-Earth Creationism

The Old-Earth creationists differ from the Young-Earth Creationists in the obvious way: they accept (more or less) the dates proposed in mainstream science for the age of the earth and the universe. However, Old-Earth Creationists still adhere to a modified doctrine of special creation. Instead of species, the nebulous words "kinds" or "baramin" are used to refer to the inclusiveness of a lineage which must be created by God.

Proponents of Old-Earth Creationism

Hugh Ross' "Reasons To Believe"

Intelligent Design

Proponents

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.

Access Research Network

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.

Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University

Fall 1999 to December 2000. The MPC consisted of Bruce Gordon and William A. Dembski, both Fellows of the DI CRSC. The MPC represented yet another outworking of the DI CRSC "wedge" strategy, part of which calls for the establishment of ID centers in academic institutions. The MPC was very controversial at Baylor, and an 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. The MPC has since been disbanded and its elements incorporated into Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning.

Critics of ID

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 Antievolutionary Approaches

Post-Modernist Criticism

Realian Antievolution

Hindu Antievolution

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