The Phantom of Evolution

I really admire folks like those at the NCSE who keep up with the latest schemes of creationists. Not only is their service valuable to protecting science in the United States, but I just don't think I could match their endurance when it comes to listening to creationist nonsense. Creationism is just so dull! Not only is there an unsatisfying blanket explanation for everything ("Because God said so.") but creationists make a business out of repeating themselves. If you have read one tract you have generally read them all.

Young earth creationism in its present manifestation hatched during the fundamentalist religious revival of the 1920's. It hasn't changed much since that time. Outside of style there isn't a lot of difference between the work of the "father" of young earth creationism, George McCready Price, and modern tracts by Ken Ham and co. Many of Price's books are available for free download on Google Books, but if you would rather spend your time on more worthwhile pursuits just have a look at this advertisement for his books that appeared in the Seventh Day Adventist magazine Liberty in 1921;

i-d232b4a44841e039dfde0d8c2e385474-phantomofevolution.JPG

More like this

With the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States, many science-savvy folks have breathed a (tentative) sigh of relief. Perhaps we can finally put all this creationism in the classroom nonsense to rest now that a progressive Democrat is next up for the presidency. I'm not…
The big debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham was tonight. Click here for the video. The whole thing is close to three hours, so get comfortable if you want to watch it all. I was watching it live, but about two-thirds of the way through I kept losing the signal. I would reload the page, but then…
If you spend any time talking to ID folks, you know that they are very touchy about being called creationists. As they see it, the creationists have been so incompetent in making their case, and so extreme in their religious views, that they discredit the cause of anti-evolutionism every time they…
I've had a chance now to watch Questioning Darwin. Twice. Short review: I liked it quite a bit. Now for the long review. I'm obviously a bit partial, since this film represents my television debut! I was one of the talking heads interviewed in the film, and it was a thrill to be in the company…

Ah, if only I had $2.50 to spare...

Is the blueness of the graphic & (part of) headline a scanning artifact?

By Pierce R. Butler (not verified) on 13 Apr 2009 #permalink

Yes, Pierce. The original ad appears to have been red and blue. As much as I love Google Books I am often peeved by their treatment of images. All too many are scanned poorly, skipped, or folded over. Unfortunately there's no way to provide feedback to get people to do it the right way!

I don't have anything by Price, but I have a couple of items written by followers of his, from that same time period. It's actually a little bit depressing to read them and see just how little the creationist arguments have changed in the almost-a-century since Price wrote his first creationist tome. Down through all the years, so many new discoveries, so much work by so many dedicated, competent, extremely intelligent people, science has marched steadily onward ... while the creationists haven't moved an inch or learned a single new thing. Their arguments haven't changed by so much as a single word.

By wolfwalker (not verified) on 13 Apr 2009 #permalink

A woman at my wife's office was telling her that a man came to her church and basically proved that dinosaurs and people lived together because there are rock paintings of dinosaurs. I hadn't heard that one.

The quote I find most interesting from the advert:

It has utterly changed my ideas about several points, about which I had not been informed. . . .

In a nutshell, there is Creationism. If he was not informed about the points, what were his ideas? and if he was not informed, how could his ideas change? Creationists try to find undeducated people, fill them with a simple idea in which everything is already solved (no ongoing research) and, by virtue of simplicity and filling the void, gain a convert.