Is The ICR Cult Just In It For The Money?
By Chris Colby

There has been a lot of traffic recently concerning Gish's debating tactics. I have a hypothesis that could explain it (I'm sure it has crossed everyone's mind at some time). Is Gish (or any other big-name creationist) just in it for the money?

He (they) must make quite a bit of money off lectures and books. And notice they are all aimed at popular audiences. He really doesn't seem to care that anyone with any science acumen, or a lib- rary to check out a quotation will see through his arguments. I just watched a PBS special on P.T. Barnum, and his attitudes towards the 'rubes' got me to thinking about this.

If you wanted to con a large group of people out of money by telling them what they wanted to hear -- who would you target? Fundies, of course. Look at how much T.V. evangelists fleece these people for. And they don't even mind when their preacher get's caught with a hooker or their prayer requests are checked for money, then thrown away. (Did anyone else see that CBS(?) news special about this -- fascinating)

So, I was just wondering, is there any evidence that Gish or Morris (or any other of the big boys) are just hucksters; or do they really believe in what they are doing? How could they when they knowingly misquote people? Also, from reading all the material they must have to find these (mis)quotes, they have to know they are not putting forth a fair representation of evolution. Morris has even made up evidence to bash evolution with. If these "scientists" really believed in creation, why don't they go into the lab and conduct some experiments to test their ideas (or at least try to put forth a cohesive, testable theoretical framework)?

A good piece of evidence to examine would be, where does all the money the ICR makes (or any of their organizations) go?

Chris Colby

That's possible. In the Gish / Plimer debate, Gish protested this accusation by saying that he doesn't keep his appearance fees, and he left a higher-paying job at Upjohn for the ICR. However, Barry Price [1] claims that once one figures in book royalties, Gish makes pretty good dough ("several times Plimer's income").

But I wouldn't bet on any of these folks really being insincere about their own beliefs. My money is on the hypothesis that these folks really believe they're doing "God's work" by deluding people into accepting creationism. I'd wager that they lose more souls than they save in this manner, but I suspect they don't see it that way.

[1] Barry Price, The Creation Science Controversy, p. 61

Chris Stassen