Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
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We “must simply follow the record of Genesis regarding [creation], which must ever lie<br />
beyond the reach alike of man’s guessing and his research.”<br />
Harry Rimmer, in The Harmony of <strong>Science</strong> and Scripture (1936) and his other<br />
works, similarly defends the absolute scientific inerrancy of the Bible (though his<br />
interpretation of the ‘literal’ sense of Genesis, unlike Price’s, allows <strong>for</strong> Gap Theory<br />
rather than recent creationism).<br />
Militant fundamentalist Gerald Winrod, founder of the Defenders of the Christian<br />
Faith, proclaims in <strong>Science</strong>, Christ and the Bible (1929) that Christianity and the Bible<br />
are scientific. In a section titled “Christianity is Scientific,” Winrod says:<br />
The scientist deals with natural laws. The Christian deals with spiritual laws. Christianity is more than<br />
dogma and theology—it is demonstrable truth. It rests upon certain immutable, spiritual verities and laws<br />
which are as unerring as the laws of mathematics. [1929:34]<br />
Scientific laws are not matters of opinion; they cannot be broken. Comply with them,<br />
and certain results definitely follow; ignore them, and suffer the consequences.<br />
Likewise, the Bible says that unless you repent, you will perish. That statement is science; not sentiment.<br />
Paul was scientific when he said, “Prove all things.” [1929:35]<br />
The Bible, “the greatest textbook ever written,” is replete with facts “which can be<br />
scientifically proved.”<br />
All true science, and Christianity, the one true religion, starts at the same place with the first four words of<br />
the Bible—”In the beginning God.” A godless science has no place to begin. [1929:28]<br />
God wrote two books—the Book of books and the book of nature. There is no discord between the two<br />
books. [1929:32]<br />
Between the proved facts of science and the truth of Christianity there is perfect harmony, but between the<br />
guesses of scientists and the dogma of religionists there is discord... Let the men of science confine<br />
themselves to what they can actually prove and demonstrate about the natural world, and let religionists<br />
confine themselves to the spiritual verities of our religion, and science and Christianity will go hand in<br />
hand. [1929:31]<br />
The fundamentalist attitude expressed here is that “true” science cannot conflict with the<br />
Bible. The concordist or harmonizer affirms this also, but—unlike the fundamentalist—<br />
is willing to reinterpret scripture in order to con<strong>for</strong>m to science. The fundamentalist<br />
insists that science must con<strong>for</strong>m to scripture.<br />
Evolution, says Winrod, is—in contrast to science—a philosophy which “purports<br />
to reduce everything to natural law.” In so doing, it reduces the world to a “physical,<br />
heartless, soulless machine in which man is merely a broken cog.” “When the theory of<br />
evolution hits the rocks of geology, it goes to pieces.”<br />
All organisms reproduce within the charmed circle of the species.... If the transmutation of the species<br />
were true, we would see about us all manner of hideous monstrosities. There would be creatures with<br />
heads like men and necks like giraffes and bodies like horses. Species would be all mixed up, but such is<br />
not the case, because each type of life reproduces according to kind. [1929:137]<br />
Theodore Graebner, a member of the Religion and <strong>Science</strong> Association of the<br />
1930s, denies that his book God and the Cosmos: A Critical Analysis of Atheism,