Evolutionism
- See evolution and also evolution (disambiguation)
The words Evolutionism and evolutionist has three related usages:
- Originally the term meant the advocacy of the theories of social evolution.
- The term evolutionist may be one who studies evolutionary biology; because of the ambiguation with a supporter of "evolutionism", most prefer the term evolutionary biologist.
- The advocacy of biological evolution as an explanation for the diversity of life; the word is particularly used by creationists.
Historical use
The word evolution was popularised during the 19th century by Herbert Spencer to mean cultural evolution; i.e. the improvement of cultures (see History of the theory of cultural evolution) — it was only later that it acquired its biological meaning. Advocacy of such theory was called evolutionism.
At the same time, the word evolutionist was used to describe one who studies evolution; most prefer to use the term evolutionary biologist instead because of how the word evolutionism is used by creationists (see below).
Bibliography
- Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History by Robert Carneiro, ISBN 0813337666
Use in the evolution/creation controversy
The word is widely used by creationists and others who are opposed to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the diversity of life), to mean the proposition of such theory. They consider it to be a matter of religious faith in such explanations (see -ism).
The scientific community however rarely uses the word. In America, the National Center for Science Education, an organisation which opposes creationism, does not use the term, but does use related term "anti-evolutionism", meaning the opposition to the evolutionary theory.
In addition, Young Earth creationists may use the term evolutionism to include the paradigms of other sciences such as geology and astronomy which have been used to estimate the age of the Earth and age of the Universe respectively.
Opponents of evolutionary theory may also equate the word with other belief systems that they are opposed to such as atheism, agnosticism, secular humanism and rationalism, and things they identify with that such as materialism. They may further try to equate with extremist political ideologies such as fascism because of its harsh economics and/or communism/Marxism because of the communist association with atheism. Eugenics, generally discredited is also mentioned — the bastardization "evil-utionism" is a useful of their point of view
In 1994, John Peloza an American High school teacher sued his school board claiming that he was being forced to teach the "religion" of "evolutionism". The United States Court of Appeal, Ninth Circuit found against Peloza. The court found that Peloza's arguments were inconsistent. On that appeal, the decision to make Peloza pay the costs of the High School Board was reversed because it was an important test case balancing free speech against the Establishment Clause.
Philosopher of science Michael Ruse has more recently come to the conclusion that evolution is ultimately based on several unproven philosophical assumptions.
See also
References
- Ruse, Michael. 2003. "Is Evolution a Secular Religion?" Science 299:1523-1524
External links
Creationism/evolution controversy
- Findings of the Peloza v Capistrano Unified School Disctrict case on the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- National Center for Science Education [1]
- Talk.Origins Archive [2]
- Young Earth creationist organisation Answers in Genesis have an article entitled "Evolution As Religion" by David Ungred [3], as well as several other FAQs and articles.
- Intelligent design proponents the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture [4]