Online in the Evolution Wars: An Analysis of Young Earth Creationism Cyber-Propaganda

Abstract

This paper examines the online enterprises of two Christian creationist organizations in the Evolution Wars, the collective debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries involving various religious beliefs and the theory of biological evolution. In affiliation with these disputes, the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis have employed every available mass media channel to circulate specific notions about faith and evolution worldwide. This paper classifies these mass media efforts as propaganda, and analyzes the online initiatives of both groups using a list of propaganda techniques developed in the work of Jowett and O’Donnell (2006). The resulting analysis exhibits how these organizations are utilizing the Internet, reveals key elements of these online anti-evolutionist enterprises, and briefly considers the significance of Evolution Wars cyber-propaganda.