Bibliography of Creationist Astronomy

Keywords: creationist astronomy, articles, papers, letters to the editor

Introduction

More than 20 years ago Emmett Williams compiled a bibliography of astronomy articles and letters to the editor published in the Creation Research Society Quarterly (Williams, 1992). Beginning with this work, I have updated this list, including not only the Creation Research Society Quarterly, but the Answers Research Journal (from Answers in Genesis), the Journal of Creation (from Creation Ministries International), Origins (from the Biblical Creation Society, United Kingdom), the Proceedings of the International Conferences on Creationism (from the Creation Science Fellowship in Pittsburgh, the Institute for Creation Research’s Impact (through July, 2007), and Acts & Facts (since August, 2008, when Impact was absorbed into the magazine during a format change). The emphasis was upon creation science periodicals, so books and videos were not included.

While most articles and letters considered were either clearly related to astronomy or were not, a few required judgment calls. Examples of where a decision had to be made included terrestrial impacts, life on other planets, and physical constants. These were handled with the following considerations. If an article explored the effects of impacts solely upon geology without any interest in astronomical themes, that article was not included. If an article concerned itself with biological factors in extraterrestrial life without any discussion of astronomical topics, it was not included. Discussions of physical constants were deemed significant only if the discussions related to astronomical questions, such as a solution to the light travel time problem.

Another decision that I made was not to consider more popular level periodicals, such as Creation magazine, Answers magazine, and Creation Matters. Since Creation Matters often contains articles a bit more detailed than popular level, articles from that periodical may be included in the future. Lastly, Acts & Facts is a popular level magazine, but since the absorption of Impact in 2007, some articles similar in depth to Impact have been carried in its pages. I evaluated each astronomy-related article to determine if the level of discussion or topic warranted inclusion in this list.

This list is not in competition with the CER (Creation Education Resources) Research Assistance Database (RAD). The RAD is a valuable tool in researching topics in creation studies. For instance, if you want to see what has been published in the creation literature on a particular subject, such as comets, you may use the RAD to search for all papers, books, DVDs and other resources on subject, complete with abstracts. However, it is not possible to search the RAD for all resources relevant to astronomy and display those results.

At this time the list contains 463 articles and 130 letters to the editor, and it is current through 2012. It is my intention to update this list annually, so it is located on this journal’s website on its home page at https://answersresearchjournal.org. I hope that other astronomers and those interested in astronomy will find this bibliography helpful. I encourage those who think that I have overlooked an article to bring it to my attention.

References