NationStates Jolt Archive

Was it created by creationists to call the opposing position? It seems like an attempt to speak about the scientific theory of evolution without mentioning science.

Ok, I admit it. It was me.

See, I figured there isn't enough ignorance in the world, and there is also not nearly enough anti-science sentiment. So I set out to find yet another trivial yet irritating way for uninformed boobs to get under the skin of anybody who has taken the least bit of time to learn about basic scientific principles.

Ironically, the very next day I took a trip to Kansas, and discovered that my contribution was unnecessary.

I've never heard of that but it sounds like nothing more than a straw man. "Evolution t3h only 4 7heorie, so let's call it evolution'ism to make it seem less scientificie!"

Not surprised.

Was it created by creationists to call the opposing position? It seems like an attempt to speak about the scientific theory of evolution without mentioning science.

The monkeys did it.

Was it created by creationists to call the opposing position? It seems like an attempt to speak about the scientific theory of evolution without mentioning science.
I doubt it. The term "evolutionist" has many meanings: for instance, in anthropology it refers to a naturalist scientist of the 19th Century who believes that life-forms that evolve evolve towards a specific form. More likely Creationists heard it used and absconded with the word.

Generally, it is used to describe people who "believe in" evolutionary things. Evolutionary just means "things developing naturally (unplanned)". An "evolutionary theory" for instance is a theory that develops naturally; a species, or system, or set of concepts that "evolves", in the common use of the term, develops naturally; so a person who buys into the idea that things develop naturally is an "evolutionist".

The Theory of Evolution began as a theory that described things changing and developing naturally, but mutation can also be induced, bred or forced, so it's not really a theory about "evolutionary" things. Not entirely.

Evolutionism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionism)

Evolutionism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionism)


Evolutionism, from the Latin evolutio, unrolling, refers to theories that certain things develop or change as natural (unplanned) outgrowths of those that existed before, in contrast to beliefs that these things are fixed and immutable.

...

The term evolutionist is still used more widely and can refer to proponents of the theory of evolution through natural selection which has superseded the earlier biological theories, but particularly in the U.S.A. this term is used by opponents of the theory to bolster their claim that evolution theory is a belief rather than a science, and so this usage is often avoided by the scientific community.

Thanks, that answers my question quite well.

I think it was Thomas Huxley that first coined the phrase while describing gradual geological processes.

I am taking this from memory and of course my Huxley stuff is in boxes.....

It evolved from the word 'Evolution'.

That was actually educational. Thank you.

Regardless of the useful Wiki quote, i'd heard it was due the ambitions of a hard-pressed Scrabble player on the last round of her game with her church group.

I guess it evolved

I guess it evolved
Hmmm...
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10379368&postcount=9
Yep. *dusts hands off*

Was it created by creationists to call the opposing position? It seems like an attempt to speak about the scientific theory of evolution without mentioning science.

I think you are right about how the word is used politically, but you are wrong about its roots.

Accordingly to the OED, "evolutionism" was used as follows to mean the "The theory of evolution or development.":

1869 HUXLEY in Sci. Opin. 28 Apr. 487/1 The three schools of geological speculation which I have termed Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism. 1872 E. FRY in Spectator 21 Sept. 1201 Evolutionism does not propose to explain the unfolding of life out of dead matter. 1873 DAWSON Earth & Man xiv. 348 Evolutionism..excluded creation and theism.

Thus evolution proponents coined the term in the 19th Century.



So

The affinity of hucksterism and crookedness for long and complicated word affixes should eventually result in "mud theorists" using "pro-evolutionarianism"