Antievolution and Creationism in the United States

Evolution is considered controversial by a substantial minority of Americans. Religious opposition explains this, but this opposition is comprised of a broad continuum of religious views. It runs from “young earth creationism” through “old earth creationism” (including “day-age,” “gap,” and “progressive creationism”) to “theistic evolutionism.” Historically, antievolutionists have attempted to ban evolution and to present it on an equal footing with “creation science.” Scholars largely ignored antievolutionism until efforts to pass “equal time for creation and evolution” laws stimulated both political and scholarly activism. Lately, there are efforts to discourage the teaching of evolution by requiring teachers to read disclaimers before teaching it, to teach it as “theory, not fact,” or to present fancied “evidence against evolution.” Recently, “intelligent design theory,” a restatement of William Paley's Argument from Design, has surfaced. Although rejected by scientists, intelligent design arguments and publications are appearing at the college level (in nonscience courses) as accurate representations of scientific scholarship.