http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/h/Creationists.html

     title: The Creationists
        by: Ronald L. Numbers
 publisher: University of California Press 1992
  subjects: religion, history of science
     other: halftones, references, index, US$16.95

Much has been written for and against creationism, but its _history_
is poorly documented — and poorly understood by both critics and
proponents. In _The Creationists_ Numbers offers us an intellectual and
institutional history of creationism, or more accurately of
"creationism" as it is now understood. As he writes:

During the early decades of the twentieth century, few

creationists, even among hard-shell fundamentalists, insisted on

a young earth or a fossil-producing flood. Some naive readers of

the Bible no doubt assumed that the date 4004 B.C. found in the

margins of the first chapter referred to the original creation

of the earth, but except for the Adventist disciples of Ellen

G. White they almost never committed such beliefs to writing.

By applying the unquestionably orthodox day-age and gap theories

to Genesis 1, even the staunchest defenders of biblical inerrancy

could accommodate the claims of historical geology. But by the

end of the century … the very word _creationism_ had come to

signify the recent appearance of life on earth and a geologically

significant deluge.

It is this story — of an intellectual revolution in creationism —
that Numbers tells, but he spends little time on "big picture"
generalisations (the quote above is from a brief conclusion). He
concentrates instead on the key individuals, on their backgrounds, their
relationships with one another (informal and organisational), the
challenges they faced, and the development of their beliefs.

This is not obviously exciting material: the people involved are
often obscure, and offer little drama — no great tragedies and not much
in the way of comedy, either. Numbers also refuses to be lured by high
profile, public events such as the encounters with scientists and
anti-creationists in legal conflicts and public debates. There is no
blow-by-blow description of the Scopes Trial, for example; it is the
light that trial sheds on creationists such as Bryan and Price and on
their views of one other that interests Numbers.

Despite this he has produced a dramatic and readable volume, almost
novelistic in its feel. (It is also a solidly scholarly work, but the
ninety pages of detailed references are left to the endnotes.) It
achieves objectivity and even-handedness not with an artificial
detachment but with a powerful, all-embracing empathy. Numbers’
contagiously sympathetic understanding succeeds in making the ideas,
concerns, and lives of his subjects matter to the reader, despite the
large and changing "cast".

In the years immediately following publication of _The Origin of
Species_, evolution rapidly swept America. Many had qualms about an
animal lineage for man, but there was hardly "a scientist or cleric
who rejected the antiquity of the earth, denied the progressive nature
of the fossil record, or attached geological significance to the
Noachian flood". One notable early exception was the pastor George
Frederick Wright. Outside scholarly circles, anti-evolutionism was more
widespread, however; it was connected with the fundamentalist movement
right from the beginning. This popular support for creationism was
illustrated by William Jennings Bryan’s anti-evolution crusade in the
20s.

Scientific credentials were far and few between amongst
creationists, and those they had were flaunted. But it was the
self-taught Harry Rimmer who reached the widest audience during the
second quarter of the century. The Seventh Day Adventist George McReady
Price was the leading proponent of flood geology during the first half
of the century. His message fell largely on barren ground, however, and
the association of flood geology with Adventism was to complicate
creationist attempts at organisation.

The Religion and Science Association (RSA), set up in 1935, aimed to
be an elite group of trained scientists. Irreconcilable differences,
doctrinal and exegetical, between the organisation’s officers lead to
its self-destruction within a few years. The founders of the Deluge
Geology Society tried to avoid the fate of the RSA by restricting
membership to believers in "six literal days" and "the
Deluge as the cause of the major geological changes since
creation". Despite this, the society was soon riven by
disagreements (and personal animosities) and lasted less than a decade.
The key point of conflict was again the age of the Earth, with Molleurus
Couperus leading advocates for "pre-Genesis time" and an old
Earth.

The oldest anti-evolution organisation in Great Britain was the
Victoria Institute, founded in 1865. Over time most of its members had
moved towards theistic evolution, leading anti-evolutionists such as
Douglas Dewar and Lewis Merson Davies to set up the harder-line
Evolution Protest Movement in the early 30s. This never gained much
credibility amongst evangelicals, however. In the United States the
American Scientific Affiliation, founded in 1941, was turned against
flood geology by the criticisms of J. Laurence Kulp, and towards
progressive creation or theistic evolution by Russell L. Mixter and J.
Frank Cassel. This contributed to the broader fundamentalist-evangelical
split.

After decades in the wilderness, a turning point for flood geology
and young-earth creationism came with the publication in 1961 of John C.
Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris’ _The Genesis Flood_. Another key event
was the setting up by Walter E. Lammerts and others of a Creation
Research Advisory Committee, which was to evolve into the Creation
Research Society (CRS). The CRS didn’t require the acceptance of flood
geology or a young earth by members, but was eventually, after some
conflicts, dominated by those holding such beliefs.

One consequence of the struggle to get creationism into schools was
a shift towards a "scientific creationism" in which religion
was downplayed. Some of the pitfalls facing creationist attempts to do
science research can be seen in the career of Clifford L. Burdick, who
was considered a bit of a loose cannon even by his fellow creationists.
(His career was also notable for claims of discrimination and censorship
by the scientific establishment.) The CRS looked long and hard for
"Ph. D.’s in geology who take Genesis 6-9 seriously", with
several apparently promising candidates defecting. Two creationist
research institutes were set up, the Institute for Creation Research and
the less well known Adventist Geoscience Research Institute; both faced
similar problems to earlier creationist organisations.

There may be relatively few creationist scientists, but creationism
can draw on a broad base of support amongst the wider community.
Numbers compares its influence and standing amongst Lutherans,
Pentecostals, Mormons, and other denominations and religions. He
concludes with a brief account of the spread of creationism outside the
United States.

Disclaimer: I requested and received a review copy of _The Creationists_
from the University of California Press, but I have no stake, financial
or otherwise, in its success.

%T
The Creationists
%S
The Evolution of Scientific Creationism
%A
Ronald L. Numbers
%I
University of California Press
%C
Berkeley
%D
1992
%O
paperback, references, index
%G
ISBN 0-520-08393-8
%P
xvii,458pp,16pp halftones
%U
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/2575.html
%K
religion, history of science, evolution, geology

22 August 1998

Copyright (c) 1998 Danny Yee ()
http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/