Customer Reviews

The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism

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This is an astonishingly evenhanded, objective history of the scientific creationist movement. As Numbers points out, this is one of those areas where it seems very difficult to carry on a rational discussion.

Despite how many fundamentalist creationists and humanists view the controversies over creation and evolution, the issue is not either a simple religion vs. humanism or religion vs. science struggle. As the author points out,

"Rather than finding clerics arrayed in simple opposition to scientists, we discover conflicts of a different sort: psychological, as creationists struggled to reconcile the apparently conflicting claims of science and Scripture; and social, as they quarreled with one another over competing scientific and biblical interpretations or contested the boundaries of science and religion with evolutionists in courthouses, legislative halls, and school-board rooms." (p. 10)

And, despite the ad hominem arguments employed by some earlier customer reviews, that is what Numbers deals with in an objective, historical fashion. He seldom betrays his own sympathies, and has received compliments from eminent creationists as well as historians and scientists.

It is eminently clear that the creationists have never been able to agree on their interpretations of the first creation story in Genesis. These disagreements between the young earth and old earth creationists are delineated in great detail. From my point of view, I should also point out that they do not agree with competent biblical scholars, either, who will place Genesis in the cultural context of the ancient Middle East. The first creation story in Genesis is fairly obviously a religious counterstatement to other ancient myths, not a scientific treatise. Besides the second creation story in Genesis, there are at least three other major ones, and a host of other creations texts generally ignored, which have quite different concepts of creation.

One of the main difficulties the creationists have faced is the lack of credible scientific support for their views. In the Arkansas trial, for example, the defendants could produce no peer reviewed articles in scientific journals which supported them; moreover, they had not even written any which they had tried to have published in such journals.

Of course, the scientists opposing creationishm in the schools also had their own political agenda, to compete for scarce resources to fund research. As I said, Numbers is quite even handed.

For anyone interested in the origins and development of old and young earth creationism, the creationist societies and their internal conflicts, and the attempts to introduce so-called creation science into the public school classrooms, this gives a detailed overview.

Creationists may find this book a useful resource to examine the background of their beliefs. For others, it will enable them to see better what the various varieties of creationists believe and why. For myself, I have engaged creationists in the letters to the local newspaper, taking issue with them with some sucess on mainly religious grounds, this book has enabled me to better understand where my antagonists are coming from. And as you can see from other reviews, some of them certainly are antagonistic.

A previous reviewer stated that this work focused too much on the "personalities and politics of creationism." However, that is the way the book was intended. It is a history, not so much, of creationism, but of creationists (thus the title of the book). And knowing that, I found it to be an information-laden investigation of the people behind creationism. The book chronicles the rise of creationism following Darwin's discoveries (for the first 50 years after Darwin the move to evolution was so overwhelming that, so it seems, Christianity had no effective response) up until the beginning of the nineties. Though the book does not detail much in the way of creationist "research" it does detail some of the the scientific problems that Old-Earth creationists had with Young-Earth creationism and vice versa. And even though, a previous reviewer wrote that the book is too biased against creationism, it's interesting to note that on the back of the book is a recommendation from Henry M. Morris, one of the biggest names in YEC.

Originally published in 1992, this superb history of the evolution of creationism, mostly in the United States, by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Ronald L. Numbers fills a major gap in the literature on the subject. The landscape of the evolution/creationism debate is filled with polemical works attacking evolution and advancing the cause of creationism/intelligent design, or vice versa, but there are few serious, sophisticated, and dispassionate histories of the debate. "The Creationists" is the gold standard if one is seeking to understand the history of the interplay between competing world views--evolutionary biology versus Judeo/Christian understandings of human origins--rather than learn arguments for the polemical battles currently taking place. While complete objectivity is beyond the capability of anyone, Numbers seeks to tell the story of this debate impartially as possible. To a very great degree he succeeds, and we all benefit.

In "The Creationists" Numbers pulls back the curtain beyond the high-profile Scopes Trial of 1925 and the recent textbook battles to focus on a less well-known but a remarkably interesting and complex story of how those firmly believing in the inerrancy of the Bible sought to deal with Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory. There is an extraordinary cast of characters in this effort ranging from George Frederick Wright, who published "Man and the Glacial Period" in 1892, to Wendell R. Bird who developed a political strategy to demand the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in the public schools in the 1970s. These divergent characters, the organizations they created, and the religious traditions they represented all competed amongst themselves on how best to counteract the effects of evolution. One of the virtues of this book is Numbers' commitment to unraveling the complex differences among those advocating creationism. He found a stormy history as creationists fought among themselves to define their ideas and make their arguments to others.

One of the revelations of "The Creationists" is that for the three-quarters of a century after the publication of Darwin's "On the Origins of Species" in 1859 most of those involved in the creationist debate sought to rationalize the two belief systems. As Numbers' concludes, "by the late nineteenth century even the most conservative Christian apologists readily conceded that the Bible allowed for an ancient earth and pre-Edenic life. With few exceptions, they accommodated the findings of historical geology either by interpreting the days of Genesis 1 to represent vast ages in the history of the earth (the so-called day-age theory) or by separating a creation `in the beginning' from a much later Edenic creation in six literal days (the gap theory)" (p. x). As an example, William Jennings Bryan, the creationist advocate in the Scopes trial, subscribed to the day-age theory.

This approach changed, slowly at first but then with accelerating support among evangelical Christians, as they sought to compress the age of the Earth into less than 10,000 years during the second quarter of the twentieth century. They did so by attributing the fossil record and geological disjuncture to the biblical flood and its aftermath. Thus was born the idea that humans and dinosaurs roamed the Earth together. By denying that the record of flora and fauna in the stratified rocks did not represent millions of years of the Earth's history, and that the flood explained everything found by scientists, the creationists found an argument for a young Earth convincing to many evangelicals. George McCready Price first developed the primacy of flood geology in creationism, publishing the "New Geology" in 1923 to lay out this position.

Price's argument, with modification and elaboration over time, became the dominant theory for most creationists. As the book "Scientific Creationism" argued in 1974, "The Genesis Flood is the real crux of the conflict between evolutionist and creationist cosmologies. If the system of flood geology can be established on a sound scientific basis, and be effectively promoted and publicized, then the entire evolutionary cosmology...will collapse" (p. xi). Numbers documents the manner in which Price's "new catastrophism" gained adherents among the creationists and became the dominant theory among those questioning evolution in the middle part of the twentieth century. As Numbers concluded, "By the 1980s the flood geologists had virtually co-opted the name creationism to describe the once marginal views of Price" (p. xi).

A recent update of this book allowed Numbers to add material on the recent intelligent design argument that emerged in the 1990s. Building on the concept of a young Earth and flood geology, this idea suggests that evolution cannot explain the ultimate complexity of many features of the universe and of living things, those are best explained by deliberate causation.

"The Creationists" goes far toward helping readers understand how creationism has come to its present status in the United States, as well as elsewhere. Ron Numbers is to be congratulated on a superb historical--as opposed to a polemical--study of this important subject in science and society. It is a model of historical scholarship and a testament to the enlightenment non-partisan analyses offer to the reading public.

A superb, comprehensive, and magisterial presentation of the history (and evolution) of the creationist movement in America by a noted historian of science. Professor Numbers is not unsympathetic with creationists, in spite of the fact that he knows better than to believe what they believe. He tells us that, in the interests of humility, he keeps on his desk an announcement of an anti-evolution speech that his father, a Seventh-Day Adventist preacher, gave some six decades ago. For anyone who wants to know about this peculiarly American movement, Numbers is the place to start. Extensive bibliography for further reference

The point that many reviewers seem to miss is that this is the work of an historian, not someone that wishes to engage actively in the debate (such as it is). Hence the emphasis on the politics and personalities that shaped scientific creationism. Numbers succeeds admirably in decribing the many disagreements within the several creationist movements, and its problematic relation with mainstream science. Having edited an important source publication on the subject, hardly anyone is more qualified to pass judgment on the creationist movement than Numbers, but he remains careful not to get entangled, which is not always easy. If you think the book is too much anti- this or pro- that, let that be your loss, because you will never appreciate the fascinating history of one of the more enigmatic popular culture movements of recent time.

Ronald Numbers's classic work The Creationists has now been reissued in an expanded edition. For many years the earlier edition of this book has been hard to obtain, fetching high prices in the secondary market. Harvard Press has done us a favor in issuing this updated edition of an important text.

Numbers defines the "creationists" as those holding to a very literal interpretation of Genesis 1, a very recent creation of the universe (on the order of about 10,000 years ago or less), and flood geology (the idea that the various geological layers were formed by a global flood in the days of Noah). He tells us that he himself was brought up believing in this form of creationism in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but that over the years scientific evidence has persuaded him to abandon those beliefs; he describes himself as now a theological agnostic.

The primary purpose of the book is to carefully describe and document the rise of modern day creationism. At the beginning of the twentieth century orthodox and fundamentalist Christians usually held to the doctrine of creation along with belief that the earth was very old. They interpreted Genesis 1 with a "day-age" interpretation or with a "gap" interpretation that allowed for billions of years of earth history. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, however, followed a "revelation" to its founder, Ellen G. White, that the flood of Noah caused the rock layers with their fossils, giving an apparent age to the earth, and that the creation days of Genesis were 24-hour periods with no gaps--the belief of modern creationism.

From that humble beginning creationism has blossomed out in the second half of the twentieth century to become the majority position among fundamentalist Protestant churches in America, and now in many churches around the world. Numbers traces this amazing growth and carefully follows the careers and struggles of the movement's primary leaders. From the Adventist George McCready Price, to the early creationist organizations to the popularizing work of John C. Whitcomb and Henry Morris (The Genesis Flood, 1961), to the explosion of flood geology and recent creationism in fundamental churches and schools, to its present dominance in many evangelical and fundamental churches and institutions and rapid spread overseas--Numbers gives the names, dates, and issues involved. He also details the aggressive and militaristic methods and mindsets of many of creationism's promoters, and their controversies with evangelicals who believed in an old earth.

The new expanded edition provides some minor changes and updating of the previous edition. But more importantly it includes two entirely new chapters: "Intelligent Design" and "Creationism Goes Global." Many of the familiar names in the ID movement are identified here, with a summary of the development of this new front in the creation wars. Numbers shows the connection of creationism with the ID movement, but also the differences. At the point this book was written the ID movement was neutral on the time of creation, receiving much of its support from creationists. Unfortunately, he does not include any detailed discussion of active groups that oppose Darwinian evolution but yet believe in an old earth. It appears to this reviewer that the ID movement is moving in the old earth direction, and will more and more distance itself from modern creationism.

The strength of Numbers's book is not only in its thorough coverage of the creationist movement, but in its detailed documentation. He has provided us with an authoritative reference source as well as a plausible account of the complicated history of modern creationism. In spite of his own personal viewpoint, he has treated the actors in this history fairly, going out of his way to understand their thinking. This book will have value for the historical study of creationism for years to come.

This is a well-researched, well-written and reasonably unbiased survey of the personalities and power behind the creationist movement of the latter 20th Century. Numbers provides an excellent resource that helps us understand the motivations of what is, in the end, a POLITICAL movement (not a scientific movement - there is no science to creation 'science'). It's amazing that I see reviews of this book that complain about how it concentrates too much on personalities and politics, but that and religious motivation (particularly American christian fundamentalism) are what creationism is all about. This book is an outstanding resource for anyone interested in the subject of creationism, the major creationist players, and their war against science and reason. Highly recommended!

This is a very well researched and well written account of the development of creationism over the course of the 20th century. Numbers' primary concerns are to describe the evolution of creationist views and provide some analysis of their origins. He resolutely resists use of disparaging language and stays above sectarian disputes. As Numbers points out, creationism is a 20th century phenomenon. Evolutionary theory was not markedly threatening to 19th American Protestants who were able to deal with it through versions of theistic evolution and non-literal interpretations of Genesis. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, members of certain denominations that stressed literal interpretations of scripture began to view evolutionary theory and the antiquity of the Earth as challenges to their basic beliefs. Abandonment of biblical inerrancy, for example, would put at hazard biblical predictions about the impending Second Coming, a key feature of the beliefs of some of these groups and individuals. Numbers identifies the Seventh Day Adventists, some conservative Lutherans, and some Reformed traditions as groups for whom modern scientific conclusions posed particular problems. Its clear also from Numbers' account that these concerns were driven often by fears of modernization eroding traditional religious values and that these concerns were brought to the surface by the expansion of public education in the course of the 20th century that resulted in exposure of more individuals to scientific teachings.

While Numbers emphasizes the variety of creationist views, including those based on non-literal interpretations of Genesis, much of the book is a narrative of the development of efforts to reconcile literal interpretations of Genesis with modern science. This effort was characterized by often creative and imaginative efforts to explain natural phenomena that pose a challenge for biblical literalism. This culminates in the elaborate, though somewhat ad hoc, versions of Flood Geology, developed by several, notably Henry Morris. A very important point made by Numbers is that it simply isn't correct to regard creationism as an anti-intellectual response to modern science. Many of the individuals discussed by Numbers struggled hard to produce intellectually coherent products and many were clearly very intelligent and well educated, Henry Morris, for example, was Chair of Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech for many years, and a respected individual in his discipline. The tension between biblicism and genuine desires to produce something scientifically respectable is an important theme of this book.

The narration and documentation are impeccable, and this is a very well written book, combining nice discussions of theological issues, the relevant science, and brief bios of many major figures. Numbers concentrates on narrative. There is a good overview-analytic chapter towards the end but I would have like to have more analysis in this book. For example, a bit more discussion of the theological roots of some denominations might have been illuminating. A theme that Numbers doesn't bring to the fore is the recurrent phenomena of creationist advocates pursuing scientific careers seriously in efforts to garner knowledge that would bolster their theology. Over and over again, however, serious pursuit of science would lead many of these individuals to something like theistic creationism.

Originally published a number of years ago, Numbers added 2 chapters on the recent "intelligent design" controversy and the world-wide spread of creationism. The last chapter leads to the conclusion that creationist views are probably an inevitable response to the dissemination of scientific ideas.

In 2004 the school board of Dover, Pennsylvania voted to require the presentation of Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolutionary theory in their public school system. The members of the school board were acting on the advice of a Seattle-based group called the Discovery Institute, who claimed that Intelligent Design provided a scientific solution to certain problems with the theory of evolution. In the inevitable lawsuit that followed, it was revealed that there was in fact no science behind Intelligent Design -- no testable theories, no experiments, no data. In short there was nothing to teach, and the entire idea had been a convoluted expression of the personal religious beliefs of the members of the Discovery Institute, which happened to coincide with the religious beliefs of many of the members of the school board. In the end the town of Dover was stuck with their old biology curriculum and a legal bill for a million bucks.

The Dover fiasco illustrates some of the major themes in the history of creationism, which is the subject of Ronald Numbers's fascinating book:
1) Creationism (like cross-country skiing) seems like a good idea until you figure out what's involved. It's usually marketed to religious people as a scientific complement to their faith, and to everyone else as an alternative to evolutionary dogma for the open-minded. Both ideas appeal to Americans, roughly 40% of whom still identify themselves as creationists. This seems like a lot of people until you realize that similar numbers of people believe in UFOs, ghosts, and astrology. For most people, creationism is just a superstition, and they don't realize that accepting it means rejecting virtually all of modern science.

2) For its devotees, creationism is all about evolution. Scarcely anyone would have thought of interpreting the stories in Genesis as literal truth until a couple of centuries ago, and Biblical literalism didn't really catch on until evolution had been overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community. Efforts at developing a scientific creationism have traditionally been geared toward finding problems with evolutionary theory, rather than examining precisely what was created when and how. Indeed the current goal of Intelligent Design is simply to encourage "critical analysis" of evolution in schools.

3) Given the incompatibility of creationism and reality, creationists have traditionally been forced to choose between knowledge and honesty, as illustrated by the egregious abuses of the Discovery Institute. However, a surprisingly large number of creationists have been neither dishonest nor ignorant, and indeed a number of creationist groups throughout the 20th century have honestly sought to reconcile Biblical literalism with scientific findings. The fact that this is an impossible task must surely tell us something important about human psychology, and it makes for interesting reading.

As others have pointed out, The Creationists is not really a critique of creationism or an explanation of evolutionary theory. It's more of a description of the difficulties involved in reconciling passionately held beliefs with reality, and as such it's a good introduction to the broader culture wars that persist in the U.S.

I have been reading about the scientific research of the earth's origins interpreted through the worldview of creation for many years now, primarily through the writings of the Institute for Creation Research. In general, I am interested in history and how thoughts and cultural assumptions develop. Since I am also interested in the evolution vs. creation debate, this book was a goldmine for me, learning how Christian scientists responded to Darwin in the nineteenth century, continuing from there all the way up to the time this book was written in the early 1990s. It was fascinating to learn how the response to evolution has changed through the years, not only from scientists, but the book even gives some glimpses into the responses of the laity. Through this book I have learned of some important historical figures in the creationist movement, and of the differing viewpoints of creationists throughout time.

I have been very interested in the political skirmishes in the schools and courts regarding this issue, but these are only mentioned in passing in this book because it's not about the politics of society but about the people who were key in influencing the development of current creationist thinking.

Considering that the author clearly states in the introduction that he does not believe in creation in any kind, the book is quite objective, I think. There wasn't that condescending smirking so often found in the writings of evolutionists when they discuss creationists and creation science. The history was reported quite even-handedly, I think. Some reviewers have claimed that the book is devastating to creationists, but I don't see it as such. If they see it as so devastating, then I think they must not have much knowledge about similar disagreements and politicking that goes on in the secular scientific community. It's amazing how much scientific research results in desired outcomes in order to get more grant money from the government or make the researchers or institution famous. Science is not so pure as some people who want to put it on a pedestal imagine.

While the sentence-by-sentence wording of the book sounds objective, by the time I finished the book I did have a feeling, though, that the important challenges creation science have brought against evolution were largely ignored, giving the implicit impression that creation science is weak and less scientific than evolution science. But this is a minor point, for the book is not really about the comparison of the two branches of study on the origins of the earth and life, but rather a history of the development of creationist thought, and in that regard, I think this book did a splendid job.