Teaching & Learning Guide for: Creationism
Authors: McCalla Arthur 
Published: November 2008

Author's Introduction

Whereas Creationism is usually taught in the context of religion and the history/philosophy of science, this guide has been written in the conviction that creationism is not ultimately about science at all, but is rather about the status of the Bible in the modern world. Creationism as a modern ideology exists in order to defend the authority of the Bible as a repository of trans‐historical truth from the challenges of any and all historical sciences. It belongs to and is inseparable from Protestant Fundamentalists’ desire to resubject the modern world to the authority of the inerrant Bible. Intelligent Design Creationism, to the extent that it distinguishes itself from reactionary biblicism, is a program advocating a supernaturalist, providentialist understanding of the world. This guide outlines an approach to teaching about creationism that situates it in relation to the development, from the early modern period onwards, of the historical, critical study of the Bible and the liberal theology that followed from that study, as well as from the more familiar perspectives of the history and philosophy of science.

Annotated Reading List

Forrest, Barbara and Paul Gross. Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

A thoughtful critique of Intelligent Design Creationism and a well‐documented expose of the wider cultural program of its proponents.

Kitcher, Philip. Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design and the Future of Faith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

A philosopher of science argues that Intelligent Design Creationism is ‘dead science’ rather than non‐science, and then reflects on the religious costs of accepting Darwinism.

Larson, Edward. Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

The best of the voluminous literature on the Scopes Trial.

McCalla, Arthur. The Creationist Debate: The Encounter between the Bible and the Historical Mind. London & New York: Continuum, 2006.

A wide‐ranging intellectual history study arguing that the debate between creationists and evolutionists is not only about the content of evolutionary and other historical sciences, but also about historical‐mindedness in relation to the status of the Bible in the modern world.

Numbers, Ronald. The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2nd ed. 2006.

This new edition of Numbers’ standard work has been expanded to include discussion of Intelligent Design.

Pennock, Robert (ed.). Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.

A valuable compendium of key articles by leading proponents of Intelligent Design Creationism and their critics.

Rossi, Paolo. The Dark Abyss of Time: The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Lydia Cochrane (trans.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.

An intellectual history study of how what came to be called geology and anthropology challenged biblical chronology in the early modern period.

Ruse, Michael. Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

An accessibly written account of the history and present‐day status of the design argument.

Online Materials

1. http://www.ncseweb.org

This site of the National Center for Science Education, an organization that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools, monitors anti‐evolution activity in the USA and around the world, provides scientific criticism and historical analysis of creationist claims, and reviews recent publications and videos.

2. http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf

This is Judge John E. Jones’ 138‐page Memorandum Opinion in Kitzmiller v Dover (2005), the Pennsylvania test case on the constitutionality of teaching Intelligent Design Creationism in public schools.

3. http://www.talkorigins.org

A Usenet newsgroup on the creation/evolution controversy and related topics. The site includes an archive of mainstream scientific responses to frequently asked questions in the group and refutations of creationist claims.

4. http://www.icr.org and http://www.answersingenesis.org

These are two influential young‐earth creationist websites, maintained by the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis, respectively.

5. http://www.discovery.org/csc

This is the home site of the Discovery Institute, whose Center for Science and Culture spearheads the movement for Intelligent Design.

Sample Syllabus

This sample syllabus includes readings appropriate to both general‐level courses (indicated by A) and advanced or seminar courses (B).

1. The Earth Acquires A History

A Paolo Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time: The History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, Lydia Cochrane (trans). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984, Chapters 1–7; Arthur McCalla, The Creationist Debate: The Encounter between the Bible and the Historical Mind. London & New York: Continuum, 2006, Chapters 2 and 5.

B John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in Creation (1691). Reprint Georg Olms Verlag, 1974, excerpts; Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1965 (1680), excerpts.

2. Histories of the Gentiles

2.1 Biblical Exceptionalism

A McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapter 3; Richard H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979, Chapter 11.

B Richard Popkin, Issac La Peyrère: His Life, Work, and Influence. Leiden: Brill, 1987, Chapters 1–7.

2.2 Universal Histories

A Rossi. The Dark Abyss of Time, Chapters 17–23; McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapter 4.

B
The New Science of Giambattista Vico, trans. T. H. Bergin and M. H. Fisch. Cornell University Press, 1948, Book One.

3. Historical Criticism of the Bible

A R. E. Clements, ‘The Study of the Old Testament’, in Ninian Smart et al., Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, Vol. 3, Chapter 4; J. C. O’Neill, ‘The Study of the New Testament’ in Smart et al., Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West, Vol. 3, Chapter 5; McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapter 7.

B Benjamin Jowett, ‘On the Interpretation of Scripture’, in Victor Shea and William Whitla (eds.), Essays and Reviews: The 1860 Text and Its Reading. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000; D. F. Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1972, pp. 757–758, 781–784.

4. An Ancient Earth and the History of Life

A Rudwick, Martin J. S. The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology. The Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed. 1976, Chapter 3; McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapter 6.

B William Buckland, Geology and Minerology, considered with reference to natural theology. New York: Arno Press, repr. 1980 (1836), pp. 1–33, 135–186, 580–596; Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam (1850), esp. sections 31–36.

5. Evolution and Design

A Michael Ruse, Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003, Chapters 5 and 6; McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapter 8.

B Charles Darwin, Origin of Species. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968 (1859), Chapters 3, 4, 10, and 14; David N. Livingstone, ‘Science, region, and religion: the reception of Darwinism in Princeton, Belfast, and Edinburgh’, in Ronald Numbers and John Stenhouse (eds.), Disseminating Darwinism: The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 7–38; Jon H. Roberts, Darwinism and the Divine in America: Protestant Intellectuals and Organic Evolution, 1859–1900. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988, Chapters 5 and 7.

6. Reactionary Biblicism

6.1 The Bible in America

A Mark Noll, America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, Chapter 18.

6.2 Fundamentalism

A Nancy T. Ammerman, ‘North American Protestant Fundamentalism’, in Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (eds.), The Fundamentalism Project, vol. 1: Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 1–65.

B William Bell Riley, The Finality of the Higher Criticism, or, The Theory of Evolution and False Theology, New York: Garland Publishing (reprint), 1988 (1909), Chapters 4 and 5.

6.3 The Scopes Trial

A Ronald L. Numbers, Darwinism Comes to America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998, Chapter 4; Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2nd ed. 2006, Chapter 3.

B Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997, Chapters 4, 7, and 8.

7. Young‐Earth Creationism & Creation Science

A Numbers, The Creationists, Chapters 10, 11, and 12; sample the Institute for Creation Research website at http://www.icr.org; McCalla, The Creationist Debate, Chapters 12 and 13.

B Henry Morris (ed.), Scientific Creationism. El Cajon, CA: Master Books, second edition 1985 (1974), Chapter 1; Edward Larson, Trial and Error: The American Controversy over Creation and Education. New York: Oxford University Press, updated edition 1989, Chapters 4–6; William R. Overton, ‘Decision of the Court’, in Ashley Montagu (ed.), Science and Creationism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 365–397.

8. Intelligent Design

A Numbers, The Creationists, Chapter 17; Barbara Forrest, ‘The Wedge at work: How Intelligent Design creationism is wedging its way into the cultural and academic mainstream’, in Robert Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001, pp. 5–53.

B Michael Behe, ‘Molecular machines: experimental support for the design inference’, in Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, pp. 241–256; Phillip E. Johnson, ‘Evolution as dogma: the establishment of naturalism’, in Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, pp. 59–76; Robert T. Pennock, ‘Naturalism, evidence, and creationism: the case of Phillip Johnson’, in Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, pp. 77–97; Robert T. Pennock, ‘Why Creationism Should Not Be Taught in Public Schools’, in Pennock (ed.), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, pp. 755–777; John E. Jones, ‘Memorandum Opinion’, in Kitzmiller v Dover (20 December 2005) at http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf, pp. 18–50, 64–89.

Focus Questions

Discuss the rise of historical‐mindedness (the recognition of radical historical change) in terms of signs of history in geology, palaeontology, and biblical criticism.

La Peyrère, Burnet, Vico, and Cuvier all propose theories of history (of humanity or of the earth) that they clam to be compatible with biblical orthodoxy. Discuss tensions between their historical‐mindedness and their orthodoxy. Answers should include reference to the status of the Bible, providence, and the Flood.

How might one answer Tennyson's fear that only blind faith can preserve beauty, morality, and meaning in a world of deep time and unending evolutionary change?

What were some of the scientific, religious, and philosophical difficulties Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection faced in the late nineteenth century? How did theistic evolution seem to solve some of them?

Discuss the alliance in America of common sense epistemology and reactionary biblicism from the early Republic to the Scopes Trial.

‘It would be well if theologians had made up their minds to accept frankly the principle, that those things for the discovery of which man has faculties specially provided are not fit objects of divine revelation’ (C. W. Goodwin in Essays & Reviews [1860]). Do you agree?

‘Victory in the creation‐evolution dispute belongs to the party with the cultural authority to establish the ground rules that govern the discourse’ (Phillip Johnson, ‘Evolution as Dogma’, p. 66). Does this claim accurately explain the history of creationism vs. evolutionism in America from Morris’ creation science to the Dover decision on Intelligent Design?

Seminar Activity

Divide the class into groups and assign each group the task of developing a new strategy (intellectual? political? cultural?) to introduce creationism into public schools that addresses the criticisms against it that proved fatal in the Dover, PA, decision (i.e., have them try to predict the next mutation of creationism).