Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education
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Materialism and Evolution (1932) is a work of theology. He concedes that he is indeed a<br />
theologian, but insists nonetheless that he is demonstrating that science proves theism<br />
true and evolution false. To support this, he fills his book with scientific quotes from<br />
anti-evolutionist, anti-Darwinian, and Bible-believing scientists (and, as in most creationscience<br />
books, these categories are run together and confused).<br />
“Biblical Concordism, or the ef<strong>for</strong>t to reconcile the Bible and science, has utterly<br />
failed.” Such is the declaration of Giorgio Bartoli in The Biblical Story of Creation: In<br />
the Light of the Recently Discovered Babylonian Documents (1926). Bartoli, an Italian,<br />
was a professor of chemistry and geology, and director of a mine in Sardinia. A strong<br />
proponent of Gap Theory creationism, he insisted on upholding a literal reading of<br />
Genesis and resolutely opposed evolution <strong>for</strong> contradicting the Bible. His approach is<br />
primarily theological, though he includes scientific and archeological arguments; he<br />
defends supernaturalism and Genesis against the bitter attacks of what he refers to as<br />
“infidel science.” “With Genesis stands or falls the whole fabric of Christianity,” he<br />
declares in typical fundamentalist style. “The evolutionists, of course, reject the first<br />
chapters of Genesis because these flatly contradict their beloved theory...” If man<br />
evolved, then God is a liar. Man, there<strong>for</strong>e, did not evolve.<br />
The missing link between man and beast is still missing, and it will never be found. Fossil man does not<br />
exist, and it is useless to look <strong>for</strong> him. Infidel anthropology is no science at all... Man was created by God,<br />
where and when the Bible tells us.<br />
Another very strong presentation of Gap Theory creationism, <strong>Science</strong> and Truth<br />
(1940), by L. Allen Higley, the Wheaton professor and president of the Religion and<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Association, likewise emphasized the dependence of science on the Bible. “The<br />
Bible is the one true foundation on which all true science must finally rest, because it is<br />
the one book of ultimate origins.” Any scheme which contradicts the Bible—and<br />
evolution is the prime offender—is “necessarily false.”<br />
A.I. Brown, the Vancouver physician-turned-evangelist, gives a fair summary of<br />
the fundamentalist position regarding the relationship of science to the Bible in his<br />
booklet Evolution and the Bible (undated:3-4):<br />
There is no conflict between science and the Bible because both are Truth, but undoubtedly, there is direct<br />
antagonism between the Bible and the interpretations of certain scientists who deny the literal value of the<br />
Genesis Record.<br />
The statement is made that the Bible was never intended to teach science. The Author of the Book makes<br />
no such admission, and it is fair to conclude, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that wherever<br />
the Writer touches a scientific subject He gives us Truth without any admixture of error.<br />
To deny accurate scientific knowledge to the writers of the Bible is to argue in the face of irrefutable<br />
facts. The science of Genesis, to take the most disputed Book of the list, is absolutely in accord with the<br />
findings of the most recent and most reliable investigation. In only one respect does it displease the<br />
“modern mind,” and that is in its unequivocal statement of Creation as the method used by God to bring life<br />
and life-<strong>for</strong>ms on the earth. And since there have never been discovered any facts which make Creation<br />
impossible we have no right to dispute it until the alternative theory can produce more than supposition. In<br />
spite of tireless and long-continued search <strong>for</strong> evidence which might prove it false, by learned and skilled<br />
enemies of this Record, evolution remains, not only “unproven and unprovable,” but impossible because<br />
directly opposed by known facts.<br />
God reveals himself both in nature and the Bible, affirms Paul Zimmerman in<br />
Darwin, Evolution, and Creation (1959). “Neither <strong>for</strong>m of revelation can possibly