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The Flat Earth movement appears to have emerged from a combination of Biblical literalism (e.g., young Earth creationism, geocentricism) and conspiracy theorizing (e.g., belief that NASA faked the moon landings). Interviews with participants of the first International Flat Earth Conference in 2017 revealed that the majority of Flat Earthers have come to endorse Flat Earth ideas only within the last few years after watching videos on YouTube. However, the novelty of the movement means that there is a lack of literature on this group, including what exactly convinced these new Flat Earthers and how that conversion took place. Here, we provide evidence for a gradual process of conversion after multiple exposures to Flat Earth YouTube videos to which viewers were initially skeptical but report failing to adequately debunk. Furthermore, evidence is presented here regarding the crucial role YouTube played in their conversion process, suggesting the platform is potentially a strong avenue for changing beliefs. The narratives provided here also support much of the research on conversion, describing a gradual process of deep personal change, via the relatively new mechanism of social media, where one finds a new center of concern, interest, and behavior, as well as a different view of reality.

What Does Dordrecht Have to Do With Katowice? Reformed Theology and the Problem of Climate Change Reformed Christians who deny or qualify the contemporary climate change (most probably caused by humanity) and its many baneful consequences often do so with an appeal to God’s predetermination and unceasing sustenance of the world’s climate. This essay discerns three theological lines of argument in favour of this position and briefly explores their connections with young earth creationism. Next, the essay critically assesses this appeal to God’s sovereign government in the light of a careful reading of the Canons of Dordt. It is argued that the doctrine of predestination is abused when it is invoked to downplay human responsibility. Sloth and indifference with regard to contemporary climate change are ecological sins; it belongs to the effects of God’s election that we start to hate and combat such sins.

In the century since the Scopes Trial, one of the most influential dogmas to shape American evangelicalism has been that of young-earth creationism. This article explains why, with its arm of “creation science,” young-earth creationism is a significant factor in evangelicals’ widespread denial of anthropogenic climate change. Young-earth creationism has become closely intertwined with doctrines such as the Bible’s divine authority and the Imago Dei, as well as with social issues such as abortion and euthanasia. Addressing this aspect of the environmental crisis among evangelicals will require a re-orientation of biblical authority so as to approach social issues through a hermeneutic that is able to acknowledge the reality and imminent threat of climate change.

This chapter describes creation museums as alternative natural history museums that replace evolutionary theory with young-earth creationism, which holds, first, that Genesis 1 depicts God creating the earth and all life forms less than ten thousand years ago, and, second, that Noah’s catastrophic worldwide flood (Genesis 6–9) established the earth’s present topology and fossil record approximately four thousand years ago. Creation museums claim to interpret the Bible as literal history and contend that a careful study of flood geology will prove the truth of the Bible. An examination of the Ark Encounter, the spectacular creation museum of Answers in Genesis, reveals that the exhibits routinely supersede scripture with the wholesale fabrication of historical information. For young-earth creationists, nevertheless, the museum simply feels true and functions as a pilgrimage site.

This paper answers the question of whether or not a Christian has to be a Young Earth creationist. The article opens with the typology of the current positions in the creation-evolution debate. Basing itself on this typology, it presents Young Earth creationism as one of four positions, the only one that denies the concept of “deep time”. Next, the paper presents the genesis of Young Earth creationism in Western thought. In the third part there is a brief response to the argument of the proponents of a Young Earth that early Christianity supported the young age of the universe. In the following part it is explained that Young Earth creationism confuses the scientific with the theological statements. At the end, a document of the Catholic Church is presented which explains that Catholics can understand the “day” in the creation account as either a natural day or any other period of time. This makes room for other positions within Catholic orthodoxy apart from that of a Young Earth.

“Cognitive creationism” is a term for ideologically based rejection of concepts from differential psychology or behavioral genetics. Various authors have compared this practice to young-Earth creationism, but the parallels between the two have not previously been subjected to an in-depth comparison, which is conducted for the first time in this paper. Both views are based on a similar set of psychological needs, and both have developed epistemologically similar worldviews, which draw certain conclusions ahead of time and then interpret all evidence in light of these assumptions. This reversal of the scientific method leads both young-Earth creationists and cognitive creationists to reject large swaths of otherwise well-established research due to its potential to support conclusions they have chosen a priori to reject. Both views also tend to rely on nonparsimonious ad hoc explanations, which are usually not able to reliably predict any future results. The risks posed by cognitive creationism will be discussed, along with potential implications for science education.

The theory of evolution and the idea of climate change are aspects of mainstream science that are not accepted by a large fraction of the United States population. Many persons in the United States subscribe to Young Earth Creationism and also deny the existence of climate change. Suspicion toward science is dangerous for the long-term viability of the United States economy and public health, and thus understanding the roots of suspicion toward science is useful toward improving science education. The Mennonite religion, although part of the wider Evangelicalism of the United States, has some unique beliefs, traditions, and its own educational institutions. It is a relatively powerful demographic in Kansas. This study compared younger and older Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA) denomination members from south central Kansas to each other and to the United States population as a whole. We found that MCUSA Generation Y (18–33 year olds) was more accepting of the theory of evolution than both older Mennonites and...

For approaching visitors, relatively little distinguishes the entrance to the Creation Museum from mainstream nature and science museums. The 70,000 square-foot museum rests on 47 acres of farmland in Petersburg, Kentucky, within a 10 minute drive of the Cincinnati airport. The parking lot entrance is framed by metallic outlines of stegosauruses atop brown and white stone walls, and the museum's modern architecture is highlighted by a facade of cement columns framing floor-to-ceiling dark-tinted windows. On an average weekday, visitors can expect to see buses lined up to deliver groups of school children on field trips, retirees, and tourists who frequently pose before a copper-painted replica of a stegosaurus which greets visitors near the building's entrance. The lobby contains both a scale model of NASA's first planetarium projector as well as a Creation Museum press-a-penny machine. The main hall, an enormous 3-story room, features a fossil replica of a mastodon skeleton and an animatronic sauropod in a lush primeval forest. Graphic designer Rothstein (2008) observes that the scene "seems like the kind of exhibit on Paleolithic life you might find at a natural history museum" (p. 97). Though the building retains the aesthetic markers of a natural history museum, a second glance reveals that this is a very different kind of museum. Just below the sauropod, an animatronic display depicts two children wearing animal skin garments who appear to be frolicking with two small dinosaurs. As visitors move beyond the lobby, they are directed to take heed of a sign inscribed with the museum's slogan: "Prepare to Believe." Founded by a $27 million grant from the Australian-based apologetics ministry, Answers in Genesis (AIG), the Creation Museum was established to counter the preponderance of scientific evidence for human evolution. Historically, apologetics is a strand of religious discourse which seeks to reconcile Christian faith with modernity by defending religious beliefs as scientific principles. AIG's uniquely sectarian uptake of apologetics leads them to posit that religious beliefs are, in fact, the only scientific principles. Identifying as Young Earth Creationists, AIG ministries believe in the "the insufficiency of mutation and natural selection in bringing about the development of all living kinds" and "a relatively recent inception of the earth" (La Follette as cited in Pennock, 2001b, p. 758-759). Therefore, Young Earth Creationists deem the Book of Genesis a literal scientific and historic account of the origins of life (Kitcher, 1983; Ruse, 2005). Young Earth Creationism is distinct from Intelligent Design (ID), or reformed creationism, which is premised on a more moderate and quasi-scientific belief system which accepts some features of evolutionary biology including natural selection and the common lineage of humans and apes (Pennock, 2001a; Sarkar, 2007). By and large, creationists have been unwilling to compromise with science and have sought to advance their beliefs in a variety of public forums, ranging from education to the press (Taylor, 1992; Taylor & Condit, 1988). With the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as a substantive legal barrier to teaching Christianity in public schools, creationists have sought out other venues in which they might establish themselves as legitimate stakeholders in a public controversy over scientific theory (Duncan, 2009; Haarscher, 2009; Numbers, 2006). Now, creationists have begun to utilize the form and style of science and natural history to pursue an alternative approach to legitimize their worldviews and contest evolution. Mark Looy, Vice President of Ministry Relations for AIG, explains that the museum is an "evangelistic center" designed to present "the evidence that supports Genesis and shows them [visitors] that they don't need to compromise with the evolutionists" (Looy as cited in Asma, 2007, para. 24, 27). According to Looy, the museum challenges visitors "with the question, why would an all-powerful, all-knowing God use something so cruel and wasteful as Darwinian evolution? …

Recent events indicate that creationists are becoming increasingly active in the Netherlands. This article offers an overview of these events. First, I discuss the introduction of Intelligent Design (ID) creationism into the Dutch public sphere by a renowned physicist, Cees Dekker. Later, Dekker himself shifted towards a more evolution-friendly position, theistic evolution. Second, we will see how Dekker was followed in this shift by Andries Knevel, who is an important figure within the Dutch evangelical broadcasting group, the Evangelische Omroep. His conversion to ID and, consequently, to theistic evolution, brought him into conflict with young-Earth creationists who still strongly identify themselves with the EO. Third, provoked by the ‘dissidence’ of prominent orthodox believers and the celebrations surrounding the Darwin year, young-Earth creationists became very visible. After three decades of relative silence, they started a project to make sure that the Dutch people would hear of the so-called ‘alternatives’ to evolutionary theory. This article (1) adds to the alarmingly growing number of reports on creationists’ increased activity in Europe; and (2) suggests that ID, in a context different from the United States, did not unite, but rather divided, the Dutch orthodox protestant community.

This paper examines the online enterprises of two Christian creationist organizations in the Evolution Wars, the collective debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries involving various religious beliefs and the theory of biological evolution. In affiliation with these disputes, the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis have employed every available mass media channel to circulate specific notions about faith and evolution worldwide. This paper classifies these mass media efforts as propaganda, and analyzes the online initiatives of both groups using a list of propaganda techniques developed in the work of Jowett and O’Donnell (2006). The resulting analysis exhibits how these organizations are utilizing the Internet, reveals key elements of these online anti-evolutionist enterprises, and briefly considers the significance of Evolution Wars cyber-propaganda.

By comparing the understandings of theology major with science major in a college, this study investigates how theology major students view the origin of universe and life and how they portray the view of sciences. In addition, this study examines how theology majors change their viewpoints through a series of lectures related to understanding of the modem sciences. Twenty six theology majors and nineteen science education majors participated in the survey investigation. For theology majors, questionnaire data revealed that 42% of theology majors support theistic evolution, while 42% responses with young and old Earth creation and none with evolutionism. On the other hand, most respondents in science education major espoused evolutionism and no one with extreme creationism. Most respondents with creationism shared the insights that science is an instrument for describing the creator`s work, whereas most with evolutionisms perceived science as a logical and descriptive system of the natural world. After taking science courses, the theology majors` support of an extreme view like young Earth creationism has decreased by 4% (was 23%), while their support of the theistic evolution increased by a small percentage. This result lends support to the idea that science related courses helps theology major undergraduate students to understand the scientific evolutionism based on their theological backgrounds.

This article extends the work of conceptual revision of the narrative paradigm in order to more directly and completely account for the inventional possibilities of new narratives, the rhetorical revision of old narratives, and the appeal and acceptance of improbable narrative accounts. It does so by reconceptualizing Burke's concept of identification in the narrative paradigm by expanding identification's critical range. Reconceptualizing identification in the narrative paradigm further expands narrative rationality beyond “the logic of good reasons,” provides a theoretical mechanism that accounts for and complements prior theoretical extensions advanced in revision of the narrative paradigm, and provides greater conceptual flexibility for the critical use of narrative in light of poststructuralism. Reconceptualizing the role of identification in the narrative paradigm enriches our understanding of how narratives foster beliefs, attitudes, and actions by accounting more fully for the range of the symboli...

This chapter discusses the issue about origin of life and biological evolution: the hypotheses of Young Earth creationism and intelligent design. The data obtained in Brazil regarding this issue were compared with British results. Two categories were considered in the analysis of the respondents: religion and education. Velazquez describes in this chapter, the rejection of Darwinism in Brazil is a phenomenon which increased throughout the course of the nineteenth century. Even though Darwin and Wallace carried out research in this region for the development of their theory, when their ideas were published, the rejection in Brazil was intense. Brazil is predominantly Catholic and this religion did not have a strongly antagonistic attitude towards Darwinism. For a population that has religiosity as a central aspect of life, Darwinist ideas that clash with an accepted way of perceiving reality might cause a feeling of loss. This could then generate anxiety and opposition, as the numbers indicated throughout this study seem to reveal.

Antievolution arguments of Christian and Hindu creationists often critique Darwin s metaphor of the geological record as an ill-preserved book of life, while highlighting the problem of anomalous fossils. For instance, Bible-based young-Earth creationists point to anomalous humanlike prints alongside authenticated dinosaur tracks to argue for the creation of all life some few thousand years ago. But Vedic-based ancient-hominid creationists view the same sort of evidence as indicating the existence of all species, including the hominids, billions of years ago. I examine the roots of this Hindu Vedic creationism and its recent elaboration among scientifically minded members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Similarities in the methods and rhetorical strategies of the two creationist groups are considered, as well as the underlying motives that have brought together such otherwise disparate religious worldviews.

The creationist–evolutionist conflict is perhaps the most significant example of a debate about a well-supported scientific theory not readily accepted by the public. We analyzed creationist texts according to type (young earth creationism, old earth creationism or intelligent design) and context (with or without discussion of “scientific” data). The analysis revealed numerous fallacies including the direct ad hominem—portraying evolutionists as racists, unreliable or gullible—and the indirect ad hominem, where evolutionists are accused of breaking the rules of debate that they themselves have dictated. Poisoning the well fallacy stated that evolutionists would not consider supernatural explanations in any situation due to their pre-existing refusal of theism. Appeals to consequences and guilt by association linked evolutionary theory to atrocities, and slippery slopes to abortion, euthanasia and genocide. False dilemmas, hasty generalizations and straw man fallacies were also common. The prevalence of these fallacies was equal in young earth creationism and intelligent design/old earth creationism. The direct and indirect ad hominem were also prevalent in pro-evolutionary texts. While the fallacious arguments are irrelevant when discussing evolutionary theory from the scientific point of view, they can be effective for the reception of creationist claims, especially if the audience has biases. Thus, the recognition of these fallacies and their dismissal as irrelevant should be accompanied by attempts to avoid counter-fallacies and by the recognition of the context, in which the fallacies are presented.

Sandstrom concludes by extending an olive branch to people in the different camps of evolution, divine Creation and Intelligent Design. He urges evolutionists to recognise the limits of naturalistic evolutionary theory and to resist turning it into an ideology. He shows how Intelligent Design Theory has become an ideology by insisting on its natural scientific legitimacy, when in fact it serves more accurately as a feature of science, philosophy and theology/worldview conversation. Young Earth Creationism is a view that cannot be taken seriously, whereas religious persons can honourably accept divine Creation, though not as a scientific theory. Human Extension cuts through the controversy on all sides and invites advocates of evolution, divine Creation and ID to consider its new contribution as social epistemology.