1 in 4 Americans Reject Evolution

The full title of this article by William Trollinger and Susan Trollinger is 1 in 4 Americans Reject Evolution, A Century after the Scopes Monkey Trial Spotlighted the Clash between Science and Religion.

Trollinger and Trollinger give a brief outline of the trial and some of its antecedents; what happened at the trial is comparatively well known, and you can read it for yourself. They point out, in particular, that Clarence Darrow’s famed (or perhaps notorious) “interrogation” of William Jennings Bryan made it obvious that a literal reading of the six-day creation myth in Genesis 1-2 was incompatible with modern science. Additionally, news stories, particularly by H.L. Mencken, portrayed religious fundamentalists as ignorant fools and led many to believe that such biblical literalism would soon disappear. It did not, though I think you could say it went underground for some time.

The fundamentalists, note Trollinger and Trollinger, needed scientific evidence to support their belief in a young earth. In 1961, they found it in The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications (the link is to a 50th anniversary edition published by P&R [Presbyterian and Reformed] Publishing).

Trollinger and Trollinger note that today approximately one-quarter of all Americans are young-earth creationists and reject much of modern biology and modern geology, not to mention modern cosmology. Answers in Genesis, which is strictly YEC, is now the world’s largest creationist organization. We report occasionally on AIG’s Ark Park, most recently here, so I will not dwell on it. Trollinger and Trollinger note that the Ark Park and other museums such as the Creation Museum attract millions of visitors.

Worse, though, they point to “an ever-expanding network of fundamentalist schools and homeschools that present young Earth creationism as true science.” Yet more worse, they say that at least 15 states have school choice programs which use tax money to pay for private and home schools. I would add only that these private schools take scarce funds from public schools that need them badly.

Young-earth creationism is not dead; it is not even sick (OK, it is sick, but it is not at death’s door). With a little help from old-earth creationisms, not least intelligent-design creationism, creationism writ large may be making a comeback.