What Not to Know and How Not to Know It

During the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, radical creationists have built a network of institutions to spread the word about their anti-evolution faith. Universities, schools, museums, and publishing companies all provide an environment in which Americans can raise children in a world safe from mainstream thinking. As this chapter argues, the alternate world of creationist institutions does not see the threat as being evolutionary theory itself but rather a changing society, one in which traditional values are no longer seen as sacrosanct. Children are not only taught creationist ideas but also a deep distrust of mainstream thinking.

Evolution and All That

When radical creationists warn about the dangers of evolutionary theory, they do not focus on scientific ideas. Rather, the threat of evolutionary theory to radical creationists comes from such ideas as homosexuality and abortion. For many radical creationists, evolutionary theory is not necessarily bad by itself, but terrifying in its suggested threat of utter social disintegration. Adopting an evolutionary worldview, they warn, is a stepping stone to abandoning traditional morality altogether. This chapter relates the long history of radical-creationist worry about the social threats of evolutionary theory. It argues that creationists who worry about evolution are not generally nervous about science but social decline.

After Their Kinds

This chapter describes the many varieties of American creationism. A certain form of creationism tends to attract the most attention, a form this book describes as “radical” creationism. Some radical creationists believe in ideas that are truly outside the scientific mainstream, such as an actual global flood and the recent creation of humanity within the last 10,000 years or so. But those creationists are by far not the only representatives of American creationism. All religious traditions tend to have creation stories but very few religions demand that those stories are superior science. Many more people believe in types of creationism that have no argument with evolutionary science, as this chapter describes.

Introduction

The notion that Americans do not disagree about evolution can seem difficult to digest. This introduction previews the many ways that Americans fight about creationism yet share a fundamental desire to have children learn real evolutionary science. To recognize the real contours of American disagreements about creationism—not merely the inflated rhetoric we see in newspapers—all sides need to adopt a humbler attitude about their own preconceptions. Secular people need to take note of the broad divisions among American creationists and realize that few creationists actually dispute mainstream science. Creationists who are nervous about mainstream science need to modify their century-old anxieties.

Ignorance and Evolution

Secular Americans might assume that creationism is the result of a lack of knowledge about evolution. In fact, as this chapter argues, creationists are not distinguished by their lack of knowledge. The best available evidence suggests that all Americans—creationist or not—do not know very much about actual evolutionary theory. Key ideas such as natural selection are vaguely understood, at best. Those who say they believe evolutionary theory tend to be just as ignorant about it as those who say they do not believe it. Creationism tends to be less about what people know than about whom they trust.

Evolution USA

In spite of common stereotypes, American creationists do not dislike science. Even radical young-earth creationists have never dismissed the value of science. To be sure, radical creationists often have ideas about science that differ from mainstream ones, but they never dispute the value of science itself. This chapter describes the true feelings of radical creationism about science and demonstrates that even the most radical of creationists actually want their children to learn mainstream evolutionary science, if it can be done safely. Americans’ shared respect for science offers a path out of long culture wars about evolution. The central issue is not about science itself, but rather about building trust.

I Saw the Light

The history of culture-war battles over creationism and evolution have been dominated by the language of religious conversion. Instead of focusing on the science of evolutionary theory, activists have focused on its religious implications. This long tradition of conversion-talk has confused the real disagreements among creationists about evolutionary theory. It has not only been religious creationists that have tried to convert America to their particular creationist vision, but also secular people hoping to convert creationists to the side of mainstream science. In the end, talk of conversion only makes it more difficult to see the broad areas of agreement Americans share about evolutionary theory.

Conclusion

Americans do not have a fundamental disagreement about evolutionary science. Not the science itself, that is, and not in ways that matter to public policy. The thing that distinguishes radical creationists from the rest of us is not their sincere belief in religious ideas that seem peculiar to outsiders. Rather, the thing that separates radical creationists is their profound distrust of mainstream institutions. Radical creationists do not distrust science, but they have been taught for generations to distrust scheming secularists who hope to undermine their children’s religious beliefs in the name of science. If we can separate out science itself from this accumulated distrust, we can agree on two fundamental principles about evolution education.

The Evolution of Radical Creationism

The most eye-catching form of American creationism is the one that builds huge replicas of Noah’s ark and insists that humans and dinosaurs must have shared the planet at one time. This chapter relates the unique history of this kind of radical young-earth belief. In the 1920s, very few creationists thought that their ardent opposition to evolutionary theory needed to include a belief that humanity was created relatively recently. By the end of the twentieth century, belief in a young earth came to be far more common. This evolution was part of a revolution in both religion and public life, as this chapter relates. As radical creationism was pushed out of mainstream universities and scientific life, it flourished in more and more radical forms.