Science, state, and spirituality: Stories of four creationists in South Korea.

Publisher: Sage Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 17340520R Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0073-2753 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00732753 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Hist Sci Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE

Publication: 2014-: London : Sage
Original Publication: Cambridge, Eng. : Science History Publications

This paper presents an analysis of the birth and growth of scientific creationism in South Korea by focusing on the lives of four major contributors. After creationism arrived in Korea in 1980 through the global campaign of leading American creationists, including Henry Morris and Duane Gish, it steadily grew in the country, reflecting its historical and social conditions, and especially its developmental state with its structured mode of managing science and appropriating religion. We argue that while South Korea's creationism started with the state-centered conservative Christianity under the government that also vigilantly managed scientists, it subsequently constituted some technical experts' efforts to move away from the state and its religion and science through their negotiation of a new identity as Christian intellectuals ( chisigin). Our historical study will thus explain why South Korea became what Ronald Numbers has called "the creationist capital of the world."

Keywords: Conservative Christianity; South Korea; developmental state; intellectuals; religion; scientific creationism

Date Created: 20171216 Date Completed: 20190930 Latest Revision: 20190930

20260130

10.1177/0073275317740268

29241363