From:    Paul D. Farrar
To:      All                                    Msg #216, Jul-13-93 11:30AM
Subject: Where are the Creationists of tomorrow?

Organization: POPS Supercomputer Center
From: farrar@pops.navo.navy.mil (Paul D. Farrar)
Message-ID: <1993Jul13.193057.7443@cs.tulane.edu>
Reply-To: farrar@pops.navo.navy.mil
Newsgroups: talk.origins

Where are the creationists of tomorrow?

Laugh at them, rage at them while you still can.  The leading lights
of Price-ite young-earth, young-life, flood-geology creationism will soon be
dimmed by time. Unless they were child prodigies, Gish should be in his late
60s and Morris in his late 70s (old enough to remember the Scopes trial).
These two gents resuscitated George McCready Price's DOA flood geology and
made it into the creed of a creationist organisation, elbowing their way
into the limelight as the official spokesman of the Lord on scientific
topics. They were rare finds, having real Ph.Ds in science and engineering
from real universities, and, in Morris's case, minor prominence in the
administrative cadre of hydraulic engineering. But their successes will
probably not outlast them. Their prominence in creationism has warped it in
a direction which has marginalized it. Their influence has tied the
movement to scientific theory which even many fundamentalist Christians
regard as absurd and embarrassing.

They will have successors, although probably not from their own following of
mail-order Ph.Ds in ark-eology. The doctrine that gives man a special place
in the universe will demand new spokesmen. Flood geology should survive in
farther fringe groups, but could disappear in the more mainstream
fundamentalist movement.  ASA-style spokesmen, such as Hugh Ross (trained as
an astronomer) may have a chance at leadership, although they may not have
the lust for power needed to seize control of the movement. Phillip Johnson
is out. As a cunning lawyer, he knows better than to take a position on a
scientific issue, preferring his role as arbiter of "truth."

I do not think that creationism will disappear as a threat to humanity, but
like the once-mighty Evil Empire, it may fall into ruin, leaving its ecological
niche open for some new, and yet unrecognized successor.