TalkOrigins Archive
The TalkOrigins Archive is a popular web site that presents mainstream science perspectives on the antievolution claims of young-earth, old-earth, and "intelligent design" creationists. With sections on evolution, creationism, and hominid evolution, the web site provides broad coverage of evolutionary biology and the socio-political antievolution movement.
Origins and history
The TalkOrigins Archive began in 1994 when Brett J. Vickers collected several separately posted FAQs from the talk.origins newsgroup and made them conveniently available from a single anonymous FTP site. In 1995, Vickers created the TalkOrigins Archive web site. Vickers, then a computer science graduate student at the University of California at Irvine, produced a distinctive, spare "look" for the web site. Certain creationist web sites have utilized elements of the style Vickers established. Vickers established an easily browsed site, coded a feedback system, and handled all the updates to the Archive from 1995 to 2001.
In 2001, Vickers transferred the TalkOrigins Archive to Wesley R. Elsberry, since Vickers's work demanded much of his attention, leaving little time to maintain the web site. Elsberry organized a group of volunteers to handle the maintenance of the Archive, now including Troy Britain, Reed Cartwright, Mike Dunford, Kenneth Fair, David Iain Greig, Mike Hopkins, David Horn, Kathleen Hunt, Mark Isaak, Adam Marczyk, Larry A. Moran, Ross Myers, Steven Pirie-Shepherd, Douglas Theobald, Brett Vickers, and John Wilkins.
In 2004, Kenneth Fair incorporated the TalkOrigins Foundation as a Texas 501(3)(c) non-profit organization. The Foundation's purposes include funding and maintaining the TalkOrigins Archive and holding copyrights to Archive articles, thereby simplifying the process of reprinting and updating those articles. The copyright issue has posed a particular problem since the FAQs started off as a small collection with little thought given to copyright but have since mushroomed. In 2005, the Foundation was granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.
Features
The FAQs and FRAs (frequently rebutted assertions) on the TalkOrigins Archive cover a wide range of topics associated with evolutionary biology and creationism.
In 2004, Mark Isaak's Index to Creationist Claims was added to the Archive. This work comprehensively lists antievolution claims, gives succinct responses, and lists relevant primary literature for each claim.
Jim Foley's Fossil Hominids sub-site explores the topic and evidence of human evolution.
The Archive maintains an extensive, if not exhaustive, list of links to web sites on topics related to either evolutionary biology or creationism.
The Archive feedback system takes reader comments and posts a monthly compilation of those comments and responses made by Archive volunteers.
The "Awards" page lists the notice given to the Archive by scientific societies, journals, magazines, and also lists college courses that make use of materials from the Archive.
The TalkDesign sister site examines the claims of intelligent design advocates.
The Quote Mine Project examines quotes about evolution that are taken out of context by creaionists and/or intelligent design advocates.
Awards
Talkorigins.org has gained many awards and achieved substantial recognition.
- In August 2002 Scientific American recognized Talkorigins.org for its "detailed discussions (some of which may be too sophisticated for casual readers) and bibliographies relating to virtually any objection to evolution that creationists might raise." ("Other Resources for Defending Evolution", June 2002)
- The webpages of the National Academy of Science, Smithsonian Institute, The Leakey Foundation and other organizations recommend Talkorigins.org.
- Biomednet gave the Archive four stars.
The Archive has also been used in multiple college level textbooks and had material from the archive incorporated into over 20 college or university courses.
Criticism
The TalkOrigins Archive has been criticized by creationists because it is not peer-reviewed. Its articles are often used by laypeople who affirm the theory of evolution and try and argue against biblical creation. However, since it is not peer-reviewed, which is the benchmark for scientific scrutiny and validity, some have seen the Archive as less than authoritative. The Archive has responded to this by saying, "While materials on the Archive have not necessarily been subjected to formal peer-review, many have been subjected to several cycles of commentary in the newsgroup prior to being added to the Archive. Most of our materials provide links and/or bibliographic references to enable the reader to evaluate the evidence for themselves."[1]