忘却からの帰還〜Intelligent Design

The rise of fundamentalist Christianity at the start of the 20th century saw a revival of interest in Young Earth creationism. In 1923, George McCready Price, a Seventh-day Adventist and amateur geologist, wrote The New Geology to provide an explicitly fundamentalist perspective on geology. The book was partly inspired by the book Patriarchs and Prophets in which Seventh-day Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White described the impact of the Great flood on the shape of the earth.

Price's work was adapted and updated by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb Jr. in their book The Genesis Flood in 1961. Morris and Whitcomb argued that the Earth was geologically recent and that the Great Flood had laid down most of the geological strata in the space of a single year. Given this history, they argued, "the last refuge of the case for evolution immediately vanishes away, and the record of the rocks becomes a tremendous witness... to the holiness and justice and power of the living God of Creation!"

20世紀初頭のキリスト教根本主義の勃興は"若い地球の創造論"への興味の復活を見た。1923年に、Seventh-Day Adventistの信者であり、アマチュアの地質学者だったGeorge McCready Priceは、"The New Geology"を執筆して、地質学に対する根本主義のあらわな見方を提示した。この本は、部分的には、Seventh-Day Adventistの予言者Ellen G. Whiteが地球の地形に与えた大洪水のインパクトについて記述した"Patriarchs and Prophets"にインスパイヤされたものである。

Priceの作品は、Henry M. MorrisとJohn C. Whitcomb Jrによって、適宜改作されて、彼らの1961年の本"The Genesis Flood"になった。Henry M. MorrisとJohn C. Whitcomb Jrは地球は若く、大洪水によって1年で大部分の地層が形成されたと論じた。この歴史のもとに、彼らは、これで進化論の最後の天国は消え去り、岩石の記録は生ける神の聖性と正義と創造の力の驚嘆すべき目撃者となると論じた。

At this time immense forests were buried. These have since been changed to coal, forming the extensive coal beds that now exist, and also yielding large quantities of oil. The coal and oil frequently ignite and burn beneath the surface of the earth. Thus rocks are heated, limestone is burned, and iron ore melted. The action of the water upon the lime adds fury to the intense heat, and causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and fiery issues. As the fire and water come in contact with ledges of rock and ore, there are heavy explosions underground, which sound like muffled thunder. The air is hot and suffocating. Volcanic eruptions follow; and these often failing to give sufficient vent to the heated elements, the earth itself is convulsed, the ground heaves and swells like the waves of the sea, great fissures appear, and sometimes cities, villages, and burning mountains are swallowed up. These wonderful manifestations will be more and more frequent and terrible just before the second coming of Christ and the end of the world, as signs of its speedy destruction.

このときに、広大な森林は土砂に埋もれた。これらは、その後に石炭に変化し、現在は広範囲に存在する石炭層を形成し、さらに大量の石油を生み出した。石炭と油は、しばしば発火して、地下で燃える。岩石は熱せられ、石灰岩は燃え、鉄鉱石は溶けた。石灰岩に対する水の作用は、高熱に凶暴さを加えて、地震や火山や炎を伴う災害を引き起こす。炎と水が岩石と鉱物の層に接触し、激しい爆発が地下で起こる。それはくぐもった雷鳴のような音を出す。空気はは熱く、息詰るものになり、続いて火山噴火が起こる。そして、これらの熱い空気に十分な空間がないために、地球自体が揺れ、地表は上下し、海の波のようになり、大きな亀裂が生じ、ときには町や村や燃える山を飲み込む。その速やかな破壊の徴候として、これらの素晴らしい徴候は、キリストの再臨と世界の終わりの直前にますます頻繁に起きる。

[Ellen White:"Patriarchs and Prophets", 1890, pp.108-109 ]

Price firmly believed that the evidence for a worldwide flood was "as well established as is the destruction of Carthage or the burning of Moscow," but because the specific cause of this catastrophe could only be surmised, he devoted little attention to the subject. He did, nevertheless, speculate in The New Geology and elsewhere that the cause of the deluge might have been "something of the nature of a jar or a shock from the outside, which would produce an abnormal tidal action, resulting in great tidal waves sweeping twice daily around the earth from east to west, this wave traveling 1,000 miles an hour at the equator." IIf this unidentified "external force" had knocked the earth's axis 23*4 degrees from its original position perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, as he suspected, then "there would be forces let loose on the earth's surface sufficient to do an inconceivable amount of geological work."[25]

Priceは全地球的洪水の証拠はカルタゴの滅亡やモスクワの炎上くらいに確立されたものと強く信じていたが、カタストロフの特定原因は推定するしかなかったので、これについて、あまり関心を払わなかった。しかし、彼は"The New Geology"などでノアの洪水の原因を「何らかの自然の水源か地球外からの衝撃で、異常な潮汐が起きて、日に2度の巨大な津波を引き起こし、それが東から西に地球を洗い流し、赤道ではその速度は時速1000マイルで伝播した」と書いた。彼が考えたように、この得体の知れない「外力」が軌道面に垂直だった地軸を23.4度傾けたとするなら、膨大な地質学的影響が地表に刻まれていただろう。」
[25] Price, Back to the Bible, p. 225; Price, The New Geology, pp. 682-5.

[ Ron Numbers:"The Creationists" (1993), p.82 ]

Price, who recognized the problem from a scientific point of view, nevertheless defended his appeal to miracles:
Priceは科学的観点の問題点を認識していたが、しかし、奇跡だという自分の立場を擁護した。

If I didn't believe in a God Who is running this universe, and Who has always been running it in the past, and if I were out to defend through thick and thin the naturalistic doctrine of "uniformity," I  suppose I never could be brought to admit the possibility of a great world Catastrophe, even though such a theory might bring in a great simplification into many of these problems. But you can't scare me with the bugbear of "miracle." You will have to think up something else.[52]

宇宙を動かしている神、そして過去にも宇宙を動かしてきた神を信じていなかったら、斉一説を一貫して擁護してきたとしたら、これらの多くの問題を単純化できるとしても、私はカタストロフの可能性を認めることはなかっただろう。しかし、奇跡の恐怖で私を脅せないなら、別のことを考える他ない。

[52] E. T. Brewster to G. M. Price, April 29, [1930], accompanied by "Two More Questions for Professor Price," and G. M. Price to E. T. Brewster, May 2, 1930, Price Papers. See also George McCready Price, "Facts the Flood Explains," Bible  Champion 36 (1930): 206-7.

[ Ron Numbers:"The Creationists" (1993), p.96 ]

As late as 1924 he gave similar reasons for bypassing the scientific establishment:
1924年までは、科学界を迂回する似たような理由を挙げてきた。

Over twenty years ago, when first making some of my geological researches, I came face to face with the question: How shall I publish my discoveries? If I wait for the dilatory methods of "orthodox" scientific pedantry, through the media of papers before scientific societies, etc., I will be grayheaded before I can force recognition of these discoveries. On the other hand, if I publish in some "unorthodox" (scientifically) way, such as through the popular or religious journals, I will very likely be boycotted by the standard scientists, and almost turned out of the scientific synagogue.

I chose the latter method; and the result has been as might have been expected. But I have never regretted my choice; for I believe a much greater number of people have been benefited by my publications.[45]

20年以上前、私が最初の地質学研究をしていたとき、人々は口々に、発見の発表の場をどうするのか問うてきた。学会発表の前に論文誌掲載とか、時間のかかる正統科学の煩い規律に従っていたら、これらの発見を認めさせる前に老いさらばえてしまっていただろう。一方で、一般雑誌や宗教誌のような科学的非正統な方法で発表したら、通常科学者からボイコットされ、科学界から消えるだろう。私は後者を選択し、その結果は予想通りのものだった。しかし、その選択を私は悔いたことはない。はるかに多くの人々が私の出版物を見て得るところがあったからだ。 

It was not until after the rebuff from Cattell that Price began crying foul, claiming (without documentation) that he had been "blackballed" by scientific societies and denied access to scientific journals by the "self-appointed censors of modern scientific discussion."

Cattellによる拒絶までは、Priceは（証拠なく）、科学界から追放され、現代科学の議論の検閲者を自認するも者たちから論文誌への掲載を拒否されたと主張したことはなかった。
[45] G. M. Price to J. M. Cattell, July 14, 1922, Cattell Papers; J. M. Bird to G. M. Price, January 4, 1919, Price  Papers; Price, Q.E.D. p.11; G. M. Price to John Roach Straton, March 25, 1924, John Roach Straton Papers, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, NY. Clark, Crusader for Creation, p. 38, erroneously implies that Scientific American published Price's  manuscript.

[ Ron Numbers:"The Creationists" (1993), p.93 ]