Evolutionism

See evolution and also evolution (disambiguation)

The word Evolutionism has various usages:

• In anthropology, the advocacy of cultural evolution.
• The advocacy of biological evolution as an explanation for the diversity of life; the word is particularly used by creationists.
• A similar term evolutionist may be one who studies evolutionary biology; because of the ambiguation with a supporter of "evolutionism", most prefer the term evolutionary biologist.

Historical use

section under construction see talk:evolutionism

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. Others such as social Darwinism and eugenics.

In 1994, John Peloza an American High school teacher sued his 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.

See also

• Darwinism
• list of evolutionary biologists

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]