Looking for the Evidence of “Self-Evident Truth”: Creation Scientists’ Research and Identity Examined through the Methuselah Project

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

One of the major criticisms of creation science is the assertion that creation sci-ence is not a knowledge production system but rather a collection of rhetoric and discourses based on the Bible. This means that creation scientists are not produc-ing new evidence or data but are only reinterpreting the evidence and data pro-duced by other scientists to make them fit in with the Bible. However, some crea-tion scientists have received academic degrees through methodologies required by traditional science and are conducting research in secular organizations, including universities and government institutions. Creation scientists reject the common notion that personal faith and research need to be separated. How should we un-derstand these creation scientists? In this context, this study analyzes the decade-long Methuselah Project, led by Professor Lee Eun-il (Yi Ŭnil) of Korea Universi-ty in the early 2000s. Regardless of the research team‘s belief that the Bible is an uncompromisable record of scientific and historical fact, the water canopy theory, one of the theories that the Methuselah Project aimed to verify through research, was a hypothesis derived from the Bible. Therefore it was able to play a mediating role between the immutable truth of the Bible and dynamic science. By examining the research activities of creation scientists from this perspective, it is possible to explain how creation scientists can conduct research for an already fixed conclu-sion. Moreover, this study shows us how creation scientists resolve the conflict between their personal faith and their identity as scientists.

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