On the Use of the Term "Creationism" in Popular Debate in the Past Century or So

[Jonathan_Burke]

@Eddie

“Creationism”, when used by itself, is almost always understood as denying the reality of bacterium-to-man evolution.

But as I have already pointed out, I am not talking about the use of the word “creationism” by itself. As I have pointed out, you are trying to appeal to the use of the word “creaitonism” by itself as justification for why it should not be used in combination with other words you don’t like. However that’s just your personal opinion. Meanwhile, thousands of other people are doing the thing you don’t like, and have been doing so for a century or more.

@Eddie

However, when one fiddles around with terms like “evolutionary creationism”, one invites confusion and misunderstanding, because the “ism” at the end of “creationism” is loaded with cultural resonances, even if the user of the compound term wishes those resonances didn’t exist and hopes to abolish them. Thus, the attempts by BioLogos etc. to talk about “evolutionary creationism” merely muddy the waters.

Total nonsense. As I demonstrated, the use of “creation by evolution” dates to at least 1973, and the use of “evolutionary creationism” dates to at least 1910, both of them predating even the term “Intelligent Design”. People have been using these terms for 100 years without any confusion.

@Eddie

You fail to appreciate the weight of history in language – the loading of words with connotations that become widespread in a culture.

No I don’t. I’ve demonstrated that in this case there is a weight of an entire century of use of the very language to which you object, and which you claim is so confusing. These terms have become well established, and are very widespread. Clearly you were totally ignorant of this.

@Eddie

The aroma of evolution denial clings to the word “creationism”, and that is why attempting to sanitize the term for use by evolutionists, by the addition of a qualifying adjective “evolutionary,” either fails or engenders confusion.

This is disproved easily by the fact that people have been using the word “creationism” paired with the qualifying adjective “evolutionary” for over a century, without engendering confusion.