Creationism - National Center for Science Education

an article which originally appeared in the J. of the American Scientific Affiliation in
1975, which was also reprinted in Newman and Eckelmann’s 1977 book; Newman wrote
the Foreword to the book version. Wonderly, besides offering scientific evidence for an
ancient earth, also documents the opinions of early Christian authorities regarding the age
of the earth. He praises Christian scientists who attempted to harmonize geology with the
Bible, such as Hitchcock, Miller, Jamieson, Dawson and others. Though he presents both
Day-Age and Gap Theory creationism favorably, he prefers the former. Wonderly urges
that the distinction be made between evolution, which he rejects, and the age of the earth.
The separating of these two issues can be of untold value, both in promoting mutual understanding between
Christians and in helping to present the Biblical account of creation to the public. For example, the gaining
of respect for the Creation story in public education will be largely dependent on our showing that the
Biblical account is compatible with the better known principles of earth science. (Most scientists will
admit that the theories of evolution are not yet established fact, but the matters of age are far more certain.)
Whenever we attempt to “throw out” both evolutionary theory and the established facts concerning the age
of the earth, we will find unrelenting resistance. Public school teachers and pupils should be, and can be,
alerted to the transitory nature of evolutionary theory if we will not at the same time deny the geologic
evidences for age.
Let us hope that during the present decade Christians will determine to emphasize the fact that, even
though the Bible is not a handbook of science, it is scientifically respectable. [1977:217-218]
Duane Thurman, an Oral Roberts University biology professor with a Berkeley
Ph.D. in botany, maintains a calm and very reasonable-sounding tone in How to Think
About Evolution & Other Bible-Science Controversies (1978), stressing the need for
critical evaluation of arguments and detection of fallacies, and discussing scientific
method and proper interpretation of evidence at length. He chides both creationist and
evolutionist extremists for relying on unfair arguments and faulty logic. Evolutionists, he
complains, use the “most extreme, least-known version of creation as representative of
creationism in general.” Thurman presents the pros and cons of various old-earth
creationist theories, saying that he has “no firm choice.” “The Bible is quite accurate and
specific about some scientific matters,” he states, but it does not deal with the “how” of
creation.
The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, founded in 1977, is resolutely
creationist, but does not as a group insist on recent creation. The ICBI Council includes
Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler, Jay Grimstead, and Moishe Rosen; its Advisory Board
includes Blocher, Bill Bright, Criswell, D. James Kennedy, Francis Schaeffer, and many
other well-known evangelists and theologians. Summit II: Hermeneutics Papers (1982),
a volume from the 1982 ICBI conference, includes several papers advocating old-earth
creationism. Only one contributor defends recent creation. Walter Bradley, co-author of
The Mystery of Life’s Origin (Thaxton, Bradley and Olsen 1984), urges old-earth
creationism in the ICBI volume in “Trustworthiness of Scripture in Areas Relating to
Natural Science.” Archer, in “A Response to the Trustworthiness of Scripture in Areas
Relating to Natural Science,” also endorses old-earth creationism. The lone dissenter is
Henry Morris, who, in his “Response to the Trustworthiness [etc.],” holds out for strict
young-earth creationism. In an appendix on the interpretation of the word “day” in
Genesis, Geisler describes several types of creationism.
The ICBI distributes a tract Inerrancy: Does It Matter? (undated [1980s]), which
includes excerpts from the ICBI “Chicago Statement on Inerrancy,” a set of affirmations
and denials, which was signed by 250 Christian leaders. It is strongly creationist: