The intelligent design (ID) movement has suffered setbacks lately, but the biblical literalists known as young-Earth creationists are going strong. This month, the Institute for Creation Research, based near San Diego, California, launched the International Journal for Creation Research.
Described as a "professional peer-reviewed journal," the publication promises to supply "hard data based on cutting-edge research" to support theories such as "the young earth model, the global Flood, [and] the non-evolutionary origin of the species."
The editor-in-chief is Andrew A. Snelling, a former geologist for a uranium-mining company who has a Ph.D. from Sydney University and is now in Brisbane, Australia. According to the instructions to authors, papers will be evaluated as to whether they "are formulated within a young earth, young universe framework" and whether they "provide evidence of faithfulness to the grammatico-historical/normative interpretation of Scripture." Snelling could not be reached for comment.
Attempts to demonstrate a scientific basis for ID, the highbrow version of creationism, have failed in court when defenders of evolution have challenged the presentation of ID in science classes. But, notes biologist Kenneth Miller of Brown University, the picture is different at the grassroots level. "Young-Earthers have always represented the bulk" of anti-evolutionists, he says.
