An Index to Creationist Claims

An Index to Creationist Claims

A rather … compulsive, but welcome approach to the creationist ideas in the marketplace these days along with responses to them.  This would be an ideal approach as a wiki in the classroom where the claims are separate pages with a wiki and students have to approach them in writing, challenging them with their own writing and thinking.  I might even use this myself in a freshman comp context.   Plus, it’s nice to see the responses to the more ridiculous arguments, for example:

Claim CA006:

Evolution promotes eugenics.

Source:

DeWitt, David A. 2002. The dark side of evolution. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/0510eugenics.asp

Response:

1. Eugenics is based on genetic principles that are independent of evolution. It is just as compatible with creationism, and in fact at least one young-earth creationist (William J. Tinkle) advocated eugenics and selective human breeding (Numbers 1992, 222-223).
   
   
2. Many eugenics arguments, such as the expected effect of selective sterilization and the results of interracial mating, are based on bad biology. Better biology education, including the teaching of evolution, can only counter the assumptions on which eugenics is based.

Links:

Wilkins, John. 2000. Evolutionists against eugenics; Post of the month: November 2000. http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/nov00.html

References:

1. Numbers, Ronald L. 1992. The Creationists. New York: Knopf.