Creation science

Not to be confused with Christian Science.
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Creation science or scientific creationism is a pseudoscientific form of Young Earth creationism which claims to offer scientific arguments for certain literalist and inerrantist interpretations of the Bible. It is often presented without overt faith-based language, but instead relies on reinterpreting scientific results to argue that various myths in the Book of Genesis and other select biblical passages are scientifically valid. The most commonly advanced ideas of creation science include special creation based on the Genesis creation narrative and flood geology based on the Genesis flood narrative.[1] Creationists also claim they can disprove or reexplain a variety of scientific facts,[2] theories and paradigms of geology,[3] cosmology, biological evolution,[4][5] archaeology,[6][7] history, and linguistics using creation science.[8] Creation science was foundational to intelligent design.[9]

The overwhelming consensus of the scientific community is that creation science fails to qualify as scientific because it lacks empirical support, supplies no testable hypotheses, and resolves to describe natural history in terms of scientifically untestable supernatural causes.[10][11] Courts, most often in the United States where the question has been asked in the context of teaching the subject in public schools, have consistently ruled since the 1980s that creation science is a religious view rather than a scientific one. Historians,[12] philosophers of science and skeptics have described creation science as a pseudoscientific attempt to map the Bible into scientific facts.[13][14][15][16][17] Professional biologists have criticized creation science for being unscholarly,[18] and even as a dishonest and misguided sham, with extremely harmful educational consequences.[19]

  1. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 268–285
  2. ^ Kehoe, Alice B. (1983), "The word of God", in Godfrey, Laurie R. (ed.), Scientists Confront Creationism, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, pp. 1–12, ISBN 9780393301540
  3. ^ Montgomery, David R. (2012). The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood. Norton. ISBN 9780393082395.
  4. ^ Plavcan 2007, "The Invisible Bible: The Logic of Creation Science," p. 361. "Most creationists are simply people who choose to believe that God created the world – either as described in Scripture or through evolution. Creation Scientists, by contrast, strive to use legitimate scientific means both to disprove evolutionary theory and to prove the creation account as described in Scripture."
  5. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 271–274
  6. ^ Harold, Francis B.; Eve, Raymond A. (1995). Cult Archaeology and Creationism. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa. ISBN 9780877455134.
  7. ^ Moshenska, Gabriel (November 2012). "Alternative archaeologies". In Neil Asher Silberman (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 54. ISBN 9780199735785.
  8. ^ Pennock, Robert T. (2000). Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism. Bradford Books. ISBN 9780262661652.
  9. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 375–376, 392–393.
  10. ^ NAS 1999, p. R9
  11. ^ "Edwards v. Aguillard: U.S. Supreme Court Decision". TalkOrigins Archive. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  12. ^ "A brief history of American pseudoscience". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  13. ^ Ruse, Michael (1982). "Creation Science Is Not Science" (PDF). Science, Technology, & Human Values. 7 (40): 72–78. doi:10.1177/016224398200700313. S2CID 143503427. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-01-05.
  14. ^ Sarkar & Pfeifer 2006, p. 194
  15. ^ Shermer 2002, p. 436
  16. ^ Greener, M (December 2007). "Taking on creationism. Which arguments and evidence counter pseudoscience?". EMBO Rep. 8 (12): 1107–9. doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7401131. PMC 2267227. PMID 18059309.
  17. ^ Massimo Pigliucci; Maarten Boudry (16 August 2013). Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem. University of Chicago Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-226-05182-6.
  18. ^ Scott, Eugenie C.; Cole, Henry P. (1985). "The elusive basis of creation "science"". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 60 (1): 21–30. doi:10.1086/414171. S2CID 83584433.
  19. ^ Okasha 2002, p. 127, Okasha's full statement is that "virtually all professional biologists regard creation science as a sham – a dishonest and misguided attempt to promote religious beliefs under the guise of science, with extremely harmful educational consequences."