Leaving My Best Friend

I joined the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) in 1970 and for the next 40 years became very involved. The ASA is a Christian organization of scientists interested in associating with like-minded persons. As I became more involved I began attending their annual meetings held at various Christian colleges. I also published 27 articles in their peer-reviewed scientific journal Perspectives. On April 30, 1983, I was honored by being elected a fellow of ASA.

I also became close friends with many of the members, including Baylor University Professor Walter L. Bradley, Stanford physics Professor Richard H. Bube, Harvard University Historian of Science Owen J. Gingerich, and especially Iowa State University biochemistry Professor Dr. Walter Hearn, who actively and openly supported me and my work.

The ASA was formed in 1941 under the auspices of the fundamentalist Moody Bible Institute through the leadership of science popularizer Dr. Irwin A. Moon. Moon founded the Moody Institute of Science in 1945 and produced the Sermons from Science series of excellent Bible-science films.

In one experiment Dr. Moon designed a pair of glasses which, when worn, caused the viewer to see the world upside down. Moon at first could not walk or read while wearing the glasses. He took them off only to sleep. Soon his brain reversed the image, allowing him not only to walk, but also drive his motorcycle and fly an airplane, while wearing the glasses! After a week, the experiment was completed and he no longer needed to wear the glasses. Without the glasses on, he now faced an upside world! The occipital vision center of his brain again reversed the image to see the right-side-up world as we do.

Most scientists eventually succumbed to the evolution propaganda in academia and the media. Many Christian colleges at first tolerated it under the guise of academic freedom. Eventually, evolution also became widely accepted by most Christian colleges and their faculty.

At a Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, conference one faculty member researched all Christian colleges (not Bible colleges) and located only 12 out of approximately 600 private Christian colleges in the U.S. (i.e., 2%) that accept the Genesis teaching of human origins called creationism. From what he could determine, all 600 taught human evolution as fact.  Of these, 182 are Catholic colleges, and most of the rest are affiliated with a Protestant denomination.

The science faculty at the 12 colleges knew their science, but most did not have an in-depth understanding of the creation issues. I am not aware of any that regularly spoke at churches in favor of the creation worldview. Liberty University required only one class in creationism which only covered the basics.

The ASA began as an anti-evolutionist organization and, as is common, slowly drifted away from their founder’s goals. As the creationist supporters passed away or retired, the new ASA leaders who were hostile to both creation in all of its forms, and also of my life’s work, came into the ASA. The ASA eventually moved from tolerating evolution to open opposition to creationism and intelligent design. Unfortunately, this is the dominant, anti-Biblical position the ASA accepts today.

I became disillusioned when I wrote an article on anatomy, a subject I was then teaching at the college level, disproving an evolutionary claim that certain human body organs were poorly designed. I documented that several very good reasons existed for each organ’s exiting design. I submitted my article to the ASA Journal and, even though the editor was very supportive of my article, it was rejected by the reviewers. The reviewers could not point to any specific error I made. It was clear that the ASA would no longer accept articles that refuted evolutionary claims. Only articles that supported evolution would be accepted. The ASA were not interested in supporting evidence against Darwinism, but only the evidence for evolution and against both creationism and intelligent design.

Another revealing incident was a review of my well-documented book The Dark Side of Darwin that Baptist college professor Dr. Sara Joan Miles, published in the June 2012 issue of Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith. In short, this so-called “review” was an irresponsible hatchet job. She implied that Darwin was an important scientist because he was able to document that humans evolved from some primate common ancestor due to the accumulation of mutations. We know that the vast majority of mutations are near-neutral or deleterious, leading to genetic meltdown, causing death or extinction. I briefly responded to her review and sent a copy to the current book review editor of Perspectives who declined to publish my response.

In view of how critically important ASA was in my life, this experience was very difficult to deal with. It was as if one of my best friends had died, which many of them had. Greatly missing the people I knew and worked with for so many years, many I counted as close friends, I resigned from the ASA. This was yet another example of the harm that Darwinism has done in both society and the church, and especially in the Christian colleges.