1975

Richard P. Aulie, "The Doctrine of Special Creation Part I. The Design Argument" (1975)

JASA (Journal of American Scientific Affiliation) March 1975, s. 8-11; http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1975/JASA3-75Aulie.html ----- This study examines the anti-evolutionary views that are promulgated in the high school biology text recently published by the Creation Research Society. Three main features of the doctrine of special creation-the design argument, catastrophism, and the ideal type-are examined in a historical context. It is argued that this creationist model, here distinguished from the Judaeo-Christian doctrine of creation, is essentially non-Biblical in character. The creationist model in the textbook is very similar to the interpretation of similarity and variability that prevailed in the late 18th and 19th centuries, Moreover, with its emphasis on fixitij, creationism represents in large measure an extension of Greek philosophy. It was part of the biology that, until the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, was strongly influenced by the thought of Plato and Aristotle. By contrast, the them,, of evolution could only arise where, in the West, the antecedent ideas of progress, origin, linear time, and future fulfillment were part of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation and the theory of evolution may be complementary, but they can never he alternative views of organic nature.