Young earth creationism: why some Christians contest evolution

Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution nearly 170 years ago.

So why are there still creationists?

While mainstream Christianity holds that evolution and faith are compatible, a minority of Christians believe they are not.

Last week on God Forbid we looked at the entangled relationship between science and religion, and how, when the scientific revolution began, the two not always but often worked in harmony.

Priests were sometimes themselves scientists.

And scientists often saw themselves as trying to understand God’s creation.

But in the 20th and now 21st century, observation and measurement is left strictly to science. Values, and the world unseen is the realm of religion and philosophy.

Yet for a minority of believers – the new arrangement does not work. They insist on a forced and literal mixing of two.

GUESTS:

• Jonathan Marks is Professor Emeritus of Biological Anthropology at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Author of Why Are There Still Creationists?
• Russell Blackford is philosopher of religion and science from the University of Newcastle. Author of op ed "Why Does Fundamentalism Persist?" will appear in the Dec/Jan edition of Free Inquiry – the Journal of Secular Humanist Ideas. Books include 50 Great Myths About Atheism and his latest, How We Became Post-Liberal: The Rise and Fall of Toleration