Ronald Numbers

Ronald Numbers at the 2008 History of Science Society conference, 2008-11-08.

Ronald Leslie Numbers (born 1942) is an American historian of science. He was awarded the 2008 George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society for "a lifetime of exceptional scholarly achievement by a distinguished scholar".[1]

Biography

Numbers is the son of a Seventh-day Adventist preacher, and was a Seventh-day Adventist in his youth,[1] but now describes himself as agnostic.[2] He became a leading scholar in the history of science and religion and an authority on the history of creationism and creation science.

Numbers received his Ph.D. in history of science from University of California, Berkeley in 1969.[3] Currently he is Hilldale and William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 1989 to 1993 he was editor of Isis, an international journal of the history of science. With David Lindberg, he has co-edited two anthologies on the relationship between religion and science. Also with Lindberg, he is currently editing the 8-volume Cambridge History of Science.

Writings

Prophetess of Health

In 1976, while still a lecturer at Loma Linda University, he published the book Prophetess of Health. The book is about the relationship between church co-founder and prophetess Ellen G. White and popular ideas about health that were fashionable in certain circles in America just prior to the time during which she wrote her books.[4]

The Creationists

In 1992, he published The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism, a history of the origins of anti-evolutionism. It was revised and expanded in 2006, with the subtitle changed to From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. The book has been described as "probably the most definitive history of anti-evolutionism".[5] It has received generally favorable reviews from both the academic and the religious community.[6] Former Archbishop of York John Habgood described it, in an article in The Times, as a "massively well-documented history" that "must surely be the definitive study of the rise and growth of" creationism.[7]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 History of Science Society. "2008 Award Winners". Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  2. See introduction to Ronald Number's book: The Creationists. See also Prophetess of Health Reappears, an interview of Numbers by Alita Byrd of Spectrum. And Inside the Mind of a Creationist: Ron Numbers & Paul Nelson in discussion
  3. Numbers, Ronald Leslie (1969). The nebular hypothesis in American thought (Ph.D.). University of California, Berkeley.
  4. Critiques and reviews include "A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health" by the official church Ellen G. White Estate; Glenn Vandervliet. Isis 69:1 (March 1978), p146–47. JSTOR link. See also the reviews in Spectrum 8:2 (January 1977)
  5. Steve Paulson, "Seeing the light -- of science", Interview with Ronald Numbers, Salon.com, Jan. 2, 2007.
  6. See references in "notable reviews".
  7. The creation of Creationism, John Habgood, The Times, July 23, 2008
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