Links relating to Young Earth Creation Science
(YECS) and Intelligent Design (ID)
Christians believe that God created the world. In that sense, they are all “creationists”. However, the word “creationist” has taken on a different meaning in the last few decades and now generally refers to people who argue against the scientific consensus that the world is several billion years old and that biological complexity emerged through evolutionary mechanisms. Advocates of this stance often refer to their views as “Young Earth Creation Science” (YECS).
YECS is very controversial, both amongst Christians as well as amongst the general public. On this page we list a selection of the ever expanding number of sites, both pro and contra, devoted in one way or another to YECS. Most groups are US based, but there is also an important Australian influence. It would be a near impossible task to include them all, but we have tried to be as complete as possible in our listing of British YECS groups. We also include a few links on intelligent design (ID), which is rapidly growing in popularity amongst the same constituency that supports YECS.
If you have any suggestions of further links, or find broken ones below, please email Ard Louis
Young Earth Creationism (YECS)
UK based YECS sites
- Creation Science Movement
- Claims to be the oldest creationist movement in the world
- Runs Genesis Expo, a small museum on Portsmouth Hard
- I believe current president is Dr. David Rosevear, who also chairs the European Creationist Congresses
- Creation Research Trust
- Publishes “Creation Update”, as well as “Our World” (for children), and “Original View” for teens.
- Based in Somerset, with one full time worker called Geoff Chapman.
- Biblical Creation Society
- Publishes a magazine called “Origins”
- Quite an extensive list of online resources
- Two very active speakers: J.H. John Peet and Paul Garner
An active academic is David Tyler. See his review of “God and the Biologists” by R.J. Berry. - BCM council of reference
- an article by two UK Academics on the BCM council of reference
- Andy C McIntosh is Professor of Thermodynamics and Combustion Theory, University of Leeds
and Dr Stuart Burgess is Professor of Engineering Design, University of Bristol. Critical characteristics of an irreducible knee joint - A humanist response (rather nasty)
- Andy C McIntosh is Professor of Thermodynamics and Combustion Theory, University of Leeds
- Article “Teaching the truth about evolution” by Professor Edgar Andrews of the University of London, who is president of BCM?
- Letter signed by 27 British scientists & educators In response to the Emmanuel City Technology College Gateshead controversy.
- letter on Young Earth Creationism in Schools , also written by Christians, but from a different perspective.
- an article by two UK Academics on the BCM council of reference
- Article complaining about BCS speaker by Rev. David Robertson ( Free Church of Scotland)
- Daylight Origins Society
- A Catholic YECS group
- Publishes a magazine called “Daylight”
- Genesis Agendum ……demonstrating the accuracy of the Bible through historical and scientific scholarship ……
Sponsors public lectures - Malcolm Bowen site (writer of a number of UK YECS books)
- Creation Research UK
- UK base for Australian John Mackay
- Edinburgh Creation Group
- Answers in Genesis UK
- Dr. Monty White is the UK chief executive
- Philip Bell is another UK based AiG speaker who keeps up a busy schedule of lectures to churches
- Ken Ham stirs up England
- The Delusion of Evolution new book by Andrew Holloway
- Darwin Reconsidered A tour of UK churches by ID advocate Philip Johnson and YECS advocate Andrew Snelling
- Report on the 2004 Johnson-Snelling Tour Meeting in Birmingham, and interviews with Prof. Johnson. (pdf) A very revealing article, including some robustly expressed views by Johnson on Darwinism (“essentially the state religion”) the scientific establishment, theistic evolutionists, and Christian scientists (“[who] can’t stomach challenging evolution because they are not willing to rock the boat”).
- Andrew Snelling has stirred up some controversy in Australia:
Large YECS groups/websites :
- Institute for Creation Research (ICR) The grandaddy of big YECS organisations, set up by Henry Morris and now run by his sons. Although recently perhaps superseded in size by Answers in Genesis, they are still very influential.
- ICR list of YECS articles
- ICR website for kids
- ICR graduate school
- In a famous statement Henry Morris gave his robust opinion on the question: Can a Christian be an evolutionist?
Yes, no doubt it is possible to be a Christian and an evolutionist. Likewise, one can be a Christian thief, or a Christian adulterer, or a Christian liar! Christians can be inconsistent and illogical about many things, but that doesn’t make them right! (King of Creation, 1980, pp. 83-84)
- Answers in Genesis (probably the largest current organisation), see e.g. this newspaper article. Well known leaders of AiG include Ken Ham , Carl Weiland , and Jonathan Sarfati
- AiG Questions&Answers
- TJ: The in-depth journal of Creation
- Creation magazine (“Keep your family informed on the latest easy-to-understand evidences for creation and against evolution! ” they claim 50,000 subscribers in 120 different countries.)
- The Necessity for believing in six literal days
- Buddy Davis, the AiG children’s site.
- Children’s cartoons against evolution
- Creation Museum (They eventually expect 100,000 visitors/day!)
- AiG UK (chief executive is Dr Monty White)
- Trueorigin Archive: YECS site set up to counter many arguments on the Talk.Origins Archive.
- evolution-facts.org large list of YECS arguments
- www.creationism.org large YECS site
- Creation Research Society An organisation with its own study centre and peer reviewed journal
- Creation Research Australian organisation run by John Mackay
- Creation superlibrary large YECS compendium
- Creation Science Evangelism Kent Hovind, a.k.a. Dr. Dino
- note the criticism for using false arguments that Hovind has received from other YECS groups
- The revolution against evolution A group with their own TV show
- Young Earth Creation club
- Earth History Research Center YECS research group based at Southwest Adventist University
- Creation Worldview Ministries Grady S. McMurtry sometimes tours the UK.
YEC Sites From Other Countries
- Creaton A slick Dutch YECS site
- Degeneratie Site written by a popular Dutch Christian TV personality. It has received lots of media attention
- Dutch creation-evolution reference site
- CreaBel Belgian (Flemish) YECS site
- 8th European Creationist Congress (held 2003)
- Kuratorium Lebendige Vorwelt A German YECS group
- Studiengemeinschaft Wort und Wissen German YECS group
- genesisnet.info professional looking German content site, mainly by Word und Wissen.
- Au Commencement. French group, seems linked to AiG, but less strident in tone.
- Creation Research And Apologetics Society Of India Indian YECS group, in existence since 1970
- Many more intentional sites are listed on Creationism links — International
Anti-YECS sites
Non-Christian Anti-YECS sites
- Talk.Origins Archive Probably the largest anti-YECS site out there.
Because it is compiled by volunteers, the quality can be variable, and moreover the tone can be scathing and sometimes anti-Christian (although Christians do write for them). Other useful sections of Talk.origins include
- Was Darwin wrong? An extensive (and sometimes fairly thoughtful) site defending Darwinism. Has interesting book reviews
- Creationism on infidels.org the infidels is a website dedicated to “secular thought”. Nevertheless there are some useful anti-YECS articles
- How Good Are Those Young Earth Arguments?
- YECS and theology written by Anthony Garrett (from Granchester), who writes as a Christian. Anthony Garrett bio
- www.antievolution.org Website dedicated to refuting anti-evolutionists
- National Center for Science Education Defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. Director is Eugenie Scott
- Evidence against creationism a simple page of questions and answers
- YECS Lying About Moon Recession an example of the heated debates that typify anti-YECS discourse
- Project Steve (humour)
- Sir Paul Nurse autobiography (lost his faith in part because of his church’s inability to answer his questions about creation/evolution)
Christian anti-YECS sites
I haven’t come across any Christian sites that counter YECS claims point by point like Talk.Origins does on its index to creationist claims page. However, there are a few sites that do explicitly discuss some YECS claims:
- Christians in Science(CiS) The membership of CiS holds diverse opinions on YECS. However, it is probably fair to say that the dominant opinion reflects that of most Christians active in academic science or theology, who would not support YECS, and may even consider it to be damaging to the cause of the Gospel. These ideas are reflected, for example, in the following
- letter on Young Earth Creationism in Schools , written by many CiS stalwarts.
- American Scientific Affiliation CIS sister organisation
- ASA Online Resources
- including a Creation-Evolution page
- Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective by Roger Wiens is apparently the most downloaded article on the ASA site
- Science Education (in progress) this site will address science education, including questions of origins
- Fish wars ASA origins site for children
- ASA statement on Creation
- Defines major views:
- Young-Earth (Recent Creation) View
- Old-Earth (Progressive Creation) View
- Theistic Evolution (Continuous Creation, Evolutionary Creation)
- Intelligent Design View
- Defines major views:
- ASA Resources — The Testimony of a Formerly Young Earth Missionary by Dr. Joshua Zorn
- Affiliation of Christian Geologists
- Ask a geologist feature
- Essays
- “Joe Christian Needs to Hear From Us” by Roger Wiens
- Taxonomy, Transitional Forms, and the Fossil Record by Keith B. Miller (also of ASA)
- Dinosaurs and the Bible From the popular publishers of the “Our Daily Bread” devotional –whose audience has a large proportion of YECS — an attempt to pitch a larger tent for Christian thinking about origins.
- Glenn R. Morton site — a former YECS writer
- An extensive archive by Don Lindsay Evolution and Christianity a page written by a PhD student at UCLA
- Genesis Research & Education Foundation a London based group. Also works with international students at Christian Alliance Centre near Waterloo.
- www.creationandevolution.co.uk Online textbook by Prof. Douglas Spanner.
- Clegy Letter project US based Christian clergy sign a letter in favour of teaching evolution.
Christian Old-Earth sites
The strong reaction from YECS shows that this issue is crucial
- Answers in Creation very comprehensive site.
- Age of the earth? Christian site arguing for an old earth
- Is the Young-Earth Interpretation Biblically Sound? this site disagrees.
- Is There Really Scientific Evidence for a Young Earth? written by a Christian undergraduate.
- Reasons to Believe. A large apologetics organisation run by Hugh Ross, an astronomer who has popularised a version of the anthropic principle among American evangelicals. Ross believes in an old earth and the big bang, but is also an ID advocate who doesn’t seem to believe in macro evolution.
- Reasons to Believe FAQ about the age of the earth
- The Creation Date Controversy In spite of Ross’ skepticism towards evolution, the success of his old earth advocacy amongst evangelicals has made him the bête noire of the YECS community, as the following sites demonstrate:
- The dubious apologetics of Hugh Ross
- “Progressive Creationist” Hugh Ross, who is he and what does he believe?
- a book specifically countering his old earth arguments
- A series of articles about Ross at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR)
- Hugh Ross v.s. Russell Humphreys — Ross has criticised the YECS cosmology of Humphreys, described in his book Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe. The exchanges below are an interesting illustration of the rhetorical style that often characterises this debate.
- Ross’ view: Exchanges Between Dr. Hugh Ross and Dr. Russell Humphreys
- Humphreys’ view: Hugh Ross Avoids Debating Russ Humphreys … Again
Intelligent Design (ID)
Pro Intelligent Design
- Access Research Network Large ID organisation
- Discovery Institute ID research centre
- The International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID)
- www.designinference.com the writings of William Dembski www.uncommondescent.com ID blog by William Dembski
- ID the future an official? ID blog
- Reasons to believe FAQ on evolution
- Idea Center Another well designed ID advocacy site.
- Pro ID articles in First Things, a generally thoughtful conservative US magazine.
- Scientific Orthodoxies by Michael Behe
- DNA and Other Designs by Stephen C. Meyer
- Science and Design by William A. Dembski
- review of Philip Johnson book “The Wedge of Truth” by Edward T. Oakes
- ID debate in the Netherlands
- Pleidooi voor een open houdeing ten aanzien van de historische oorsprong van het leven Skepter 15(4) 2002(the Dutch equivalent of Skepsis magazine) — a carefully worded defense of ID by Profs Cees Dekker and Ronald Meester. Dekker and Meester edited a book Schitterend ongeluk of sporen van ontwerp? which caused considerable controversy in the Netherlands. See the following two reviews
- Discussie over intelligent design kan voor beide partijen geen kwaad: Darwin dobbelt niet
- William Paley’s kapotte horloge
- or several articles and letters in www.bionieuws.nl .
- A particularly interesting article by Cees Dekker: Experimenten die ID kunnen aantonen English: “Experiments that could demonstrate ID”.
which ends withIk denk dat darwinistische evolutie op de lange termijn sterker onderbouwd zou kunnen worden door de uitdagingen van ID, hoewel waarschijnlijk met wat bescheidener claims en een nauwkeuriger scheiding van wetenschap en metafysica
in English:
I think that, in the longer term, Darwinian evolution could become more strongly founded through the challenge of ID, although probably with more modest claims and a more accurate separation of science from metaphysics.
(editors note: Although the ID literature teems with claims that it is a “scientific research programme”, I have yet to find an article by any major ID proponent in the USA that actually proposes a detailed research programme in the same direct manner that Dekker does. Surely this is a critical issue?)
- Pleidooi voor een open houdeing ten aanzien van de historische oorsprong van het leven Skepter 15(4) 2002(the Dutch equivalent of Skepsis magazine) — a carefully worded defense of ID by Profs Cees Dekker and Ronald Meester. Dekker and Meester edited a book Schitterend ongeluk of sporen van ontwerp? which caused considerable controversy in the Netherlands. See the following two reviews
- ID debate in the UK
- ID in the United Kingdom Blog by Andrew Rowell
- ID.Plus Blog by Peter S. Williams
- Britons unconvinced on evolution on bbc website
- A war on science background to bbc Horizon program.
- pro ID opinion in Telegraph by Stephen Meyer.
Anti Intelligent Design
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- Critiques by Christians and Science/Faith organisations
- Is Intelligent Design Biblical? by Denis Alexander — see also the longer version (pdf).
- Kenneth R. Miller page Prominent Catholic anti-ID and anti-YECS advocate (many links to his own content)
- Interview in Books and Culture
- another Interview
- Recorded Talk on 3 Jan 2006 with Millers take on the Dover ID lawsuit
Whether you agree with him or not, he is a very good communicator.
- Taking the ID debate out of pundits’ playbooks Introductory article by Owen Gingerich.
- Online Commentary from Science & Theology News
- The Design of Evolution by Stephen M. Barr ( First Things 156 (October 2005): 9-12.) A thoughtful Catholic viewpoint on the ID controversy.
- The Designs of Science A reply to Barr by Cardinal Schoenborn .
- God’s chance creation A reply by George Coyne, the Vatican’s chief astronomer, to an earlier article in the NYT by Shoenborn.
- A thoughful Critique of Dembski Vise Strategy article by Gareth McCaughan
- Creation Scientists Applaud PA Judge’s Ruling Against ‘Intelligent Design’-Dressing Up ID Is No Substitute for Real Science a press release by Reasons to Believe.
- Press release by Metanexus Institute
- Press release from Templeton Foundation
- Other Critiques
- Wikipedia entry on ID
- talk.design a subgroup of talk.origins, but devoted to ID
- Evolution Blog by Jason Rosenhouse. See also his
writing on science and pseudoscience - talkorigins critique of Michael Behe
- National Association of Biology Teachers critique of the book “Of Pandas and People” Includes an analysis of ID. The author appears to be a Christian.
- Critique of Jonathan Wells’ book “Icons of Evolution” by the National Center for Science Education
- Statements by Scientific Associations
- Physics Today (American Physical Society)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Society for Neuroscience
- Critiques by Christians and Science/Faith organisations
Other lists and general evolution/creation sites
- Lists of creation/evolution sites
- Creation/Evolution links A long list of rated and annotated sites from the IDEA centre, an ID advocacy organisation.
- talk.origins other links list of pro and anti YECS websites
- Index of Creationist Organisations (extensive list)
- Who believes what? List of sites organised according to which camp they fall into.
- Fullerton University course on Evolution/Creation debate (An excellent compendium of sites)
- Google’s Science Christianity Directory
- Other Science/Faith/Creation/Evolution sites
- Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity online version of the famous 1809 book by Archdeacon William Paley.
- Christian student organisations
- Natural Sciences and Math Resources
from the Graduate/Faculty ministries of InterVarsity (US equivalent of UCCF). Interestingly IVP USA now publishes mainly ID books. - Leadership U Science pages Campus Crusade (Agape in Europe) tends to be ID, but not exclusively so.
- Science and Christianity — including evolution and creation from www.bethinking.org by UCCF
- Natural Sciences and Math Resources
Other pages with useful lists of resources
- Select Bibliography on Creation and Evolution from Regent College.
- Science/Religion links to other organisations, by the magazine Science and Spirit
- Metanexus A large site, with many different perspectives, funded by the Templeton Foundation
- Counterbalance A very large site with a good introduction to various debates
- Extensive list of sites
- The Evolution Controversy one of a series of new seminary courses
- Science & Theology News is a monthly international newspaper reporting the latest … and discussions on the relationship between religion, science, and health.
- Sites by Christian Academics active in Science
- Faith of Great Scientists by MIT faculty fellowship
- St. Edmunds/CiS Cambridge Lecture Series with some very eminent speakers
- Essays by Dr. Christopher Downs
- Prof. Loren Haarsma’s essays
- Annotated bibliography by Prof. Keith Miller
- Prof. Dan Berger’s science/Christianity page
- List of Christian Academics by Prof. Arnold Neumaier
- UCSB Faculty forum List of online resources
- an essay by Prof. Carlo Beenakker of Leiden University.
- Some “Opinionating texts on Evolution & design” by Prof. Cees Dekker of Leiden University.
