Recognizing Genesis: the Nature of the Evolution-Creation Controversy

Abstract

The evolution-creation controversy concerns the origin of life and its main forms. In practice, however, it exists on a completely different level, a philosophical and methodological one. As a rule, proponents of both positions quarrel about whether creationism is a scientific position. Evolutionists claim that creationist conceptions are incompatible with fundamental criteria identifying science. The main criterion is the principle of naturalism: in scientific explanations we cannot resort to causes from outside the material world. The paper analyzes some arguments of both sides and supports the idea that if recognizing intelligent design is a legitimate task of many scientific enterprises then there is no good reason to exclude this possibility in biology. In the author's opinion scientists rather than philosophers of science should be engaged in the controversy.