International Conference on Creationism

The International Conference on Creationism (ICC) is a conference in support of young earth creationism,[1][2] sponsored by the Creation Science Fellowship (CSF). The first conference occurred in 1986 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Subsequent conferences have been held in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013;[3] The next conference will be held in 2018.[4]

Debates

The 1990 conference at Duquesne University featured a debate between Gregg Wilkerson, a creationist geologist and Steven A. Austin, chairman of geology at the Institute for Creation Research. Wilkerson urged the conference attendees to drop the young Earth viewpoint and accept the "ample scientific evidence" that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Austin stated that Wilkerson was misinterpreting the data and that a young Earth viewpoint remained feasible.[5]

Reception

Writing in the Reports of the National Center for Science Education, Robert Schadewald emphasized the influence Kurt Wise has had on shaping a more candid and rigorous approach to creationism, particularly praising a talk entitled "How Geologists Date Things" at the 1986 conference, which mixed introductory geography with a debunking of creationist misconceptions about the field. Schadewald suggests that this influence has resulted in a progressively higher quality of both presentations and audiences, but that both he and the conference participants agree that this improvement has had little impact upon grassroots creationism.[6]

Washington D.C. journalist[7] Larry A. Witham describes it as having "become the preeminent meeting of its kind in the world." He states that the conferences express similar disdain for both "slipshod" populist young earth creationism, and for smuggling in "antiquity and evolution", with the latter condemned by a member of the 1998 conference host group as "warmed-over theistic evolution" and "all compromise". He describes as "astounding" their presupposition that God "used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe." We cannot discover by scientific investigation anything about the creative processes used by the Creator".[8]

Mathematics professor Jason Rosenhouse writes expressing sadness that while generally impressed with attendees "personality and temperament", that they are "hopelessly ignorant of science. This ignorance is exacerbated by the annoying fact that so many of them fancy themselves highly knowledgeable indeed."[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Creationism Conference Takes "Scientific" Approach" (Blogs / Reality Base). Discover Magazine.
  2. ↑ "Group Seeks a Scientific Creationism". Philadelphia Inquirer. August 3, 1990.
  3. ↑ "About the ICC".
  4. ↑ "ICC Home Page".
  5. ↑ Guggenheim, Ken (1990-09-01). "Geologists Debate The Age Of Earth Before Creationists". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  6. ↑ Schadewald, Robert (May–June 1998). "The 1998 International Conference on Creationism". Reports of the National Center for Science Education. 18 (3): 22–25, 33. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  7. ↑ Witham, Larry A. "Who Shall Lead Them?". Oxford University Press.
  8. ↑ Witham, Larry A. (2002). Where Darwin meets the Bible: creationists and evolutionists in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-19-518281-1.
  9. ↑ "Annual Creationism Conference Takes "Scientific" Approach" (Blogs / Reality Base). Discover. 2008-08-18.
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