Kreationistische Schöpfungslehre: Eine Ernst zu Nehmende Alternative zur Evolutionstheorie? Eine Wissenschaftstheoretische Betrachtung
Is the Doctrine of Creationism a Serious Alternative to the Theory of Evolution? Some Considerations in Philosophy of Science

Summary/Abstract: “Creationism” means a fundamentalist Christian movement which had its origin 80 years ago in the U.S., where the number of followers is still growing. In consequent fidelity to the bible, these circles understand the biblical account of creation literally and try to establish it as a serious alternative to the scientific theory of evolution and cosmology. On the one hand they are trying to make evolutionary theory (as well as cosmology and historical geology) appear scientifically questionable by posing its open problems and unresolved issues as fundamental theoretical deficits, on the other hand they want to hedge the biblical creation story by connecting it with scientific arguments. In this way, the theory of evolution should be downgraded to a “doctrine of evolution” and the creation myth upgraded to a “doctrine of creation”. In the eyes of creationists, it is then a matter of fairness that at school the “doctrine of evolution” should be treated to the same extent as the Christian “doctrine of creation”. The paper shows that the creationists ground their criticism of the theory of evolution on a very simplified picture of scientific theory, that either does justice to the actual scientific research programs in physics, chemistry or biology, nor gives a background for reflecting the difference between the justification of a scientific law and its application. In contrast to the theory of evolution, the creationist doctrine of creation has no scientific research program at all, since the creation story is an illustration of the historical process which can not exposed to scientific criticism, because this would mean ultimately blasphemy. The rejection of the principle of actualism by the creationists actually implies the rejection of any scientific research program to explain processes in natural history. To speak of “Creation Science” is thus a mere rhetorical trick.

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