This article explores one aspect of "scientific" creationism and
suggests that it illustrates an important general point about
that enterprise. I began this investigation because, as an
archeologist who has also written about creationism (Harrold and
Eve, 1987; Eve and Harrold, 1990), I was interested in how the
movement's most influential spokespeople—scientific creationist
authors—regard my anthropological specialty. Scientific
creationists are anti-evolutionists who, rather than simply
rejecting scientific findings out of hand, argue that scientific
evidence, when correctly interpreted, really supports their
beliefs. They blame the alleged dogmatic materialism of
mainstream scientists for the failure of said scientists to see
this truth. Most prominent scientific creationist authors are
"strict" or "young-earth" creationists. According to their
literalistic interpretation of Genesis, the earth and all its
life (including humankind) were created in more or less their
present form during creation week, vario