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
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 Although recently perhaps superseded in size by Answers in Genesis, they are still very influential.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
YEC Sites From Other Countries
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
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
- 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.
Christian Old-Earth sites
The strong reaction from YECS shows that this issue is crucial
- 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:
- 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.
Intelligent Design (ID)
Pro Intelligent Design
Anti Intelligent Design
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- Critiques by Christians and Science/Faith organisations
- Other Critiques
- Statements by Scientific Associations
- Physics Today (American Physical Society)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Society for Neuroscience
Other lists and general evolution/creation sites
- Lists of creation/evolution sites
- Other Science/Faith/Creation/Evolution sites
Other pages with useful lists of resources