One of the consequences of the Fundamentalist movement that Harding explored was the resurgence of "special creation". By 1991, 47 percent of all American surveyed by Gallup pollsters reported that they believed in this special creation; that God created man in its present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.
I thought this was very interesting because Harding argues that the scientists who made this view popular actually emphasized the scientific aspects of creationism. They brought up the fact that Noah's flood in Genesis could have actually created many of the geological patterns that exist today. Because of this, they were able to teach creationism in schools under the very guise that tried to expel it. It's premise was that, if the bible is true, then everything will provide evidence of the Bible's truth. When there were conflicting views regarding the literal interpretation of the science, they made new science to respond.
This act of melding science to explain the bible is very salient, even today, because the reason so many people believed in this special creation research was because they believed that in some way, it could be tested using the scientific method, and one of the consequences was that many Christians today believe in this one interpretation of the creation story.
I'm curious to see if science implements itself in another Christian revival to encourage new born again Christians, and if so, in what capacity?
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