Daylight Origins Society

The Daylight Origins Society is a Catholic creation science organisation based in the United Kingdom with ties to the Traditionalist Catholic movement. The stated aims of the Society are "to inform Catholics and others of the scientific evidence supporting special creation as opposed to evolution, and that the true discoveries of Science are in conformity with Catholic doctrines."cite news
title=Todos contra Darwin, que empiece el debate
author=Beatriz Navarro, The New York Times Syndicate
publisher=La Prensa, Panama
date=2006-10-29
url= http://www.prensa.com/actualidad/reportajes/2006/10/29/index.htm
accessdate= 2008-09-09
quote= ...la Daylight Origins Society, asociación creacionista con sede en el Reino Unido que tiene como fin informar a los católicos de las pruebas que apoyan la creación especial, en oposición a la teoría de la evolución. y de que 'los verdaderos descubrimientos de la ciencia son conformes con la doctrina católica'.]

The British organisation Christians in Science says that the Daylight Origins Society promotes "Young Earth Creation Science", a form of creationism that "argue [s] against the scientific consensus that the world is several billion years old." [cite web
title= Links relating to Young Earth Creation Science (YECS)
url=http://www.cis.org.uk/resources/links/yecs-links
author= Christians in Science Ltd.
accessdate= 2008-09-09] According to the British Centre for Science Education, which maintains a list of anti-evolution groups, the Daylight Origins Society, "doesn't appear to cooperate at all with mainstream creationist groups which are all basically Protestant, calvinistic and evangelical," and that "as far as [they] can make out, it isn't very active." [cite web
title= Creationist Organisations in the UK
url=http://www.bcseweb.org.uk/index.php/Main/CreationistGroups
author=British Centre for Science Education
accessdate= 2008-09-09]

History and present structure

The Daylight Origins Society was originally founded in 1977 by John G. Campbell as the Counter Evolution Group. It was relaunched in 1991 under the present name. cite web | title=Daylight Origins Society, Creation Science for Catholics | author= |url=http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/creation/daylight/daylight.html | publisher= Theotokos Catholic Books | accessdate = 2008-09-07]

The current secretary of the Society is Anthony Nevard, a school master living in Hertfordshire. cite web
url=http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/misc/contribu.html
title=Featured Authors / Contributors: Theotokos Catholic Books
accessdate=2008-09-09] Polish academic and Member of the European Parliament Maciej Giertych is an honorary member of the Society. Both Nevard and Giertych are also on the advisory council of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, cite web| title = Advisory Council - Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation |date= 2007-01-14) | url = http://www.kolbecenter.org/KCAdvisorsforWeb8.htm | accessdate = 2008-09-07] a Catholic creationist group located in Mt. Jackson, Virginia. cite web| title = Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation; About Us |date= 2007-01-14) | url = http://www.kolbecenter.org/missionstatement.htm| accessdate = 2008-09-09]

The Daylight Origins Society is affiliated with two more-recently formed Catholic creationist groups, the Morning Star Society, publisher of the creationist journal "The Watchmaker," founded in 1994 in the USA by Fr. David Becker; and Circle Scientifique et Historique (CESHE) in Belgium, publisher of "Science et Foi" magazine.cite book |title=The Six Days of Creation |first=Thomas Mary |last=Sennott |publisher=Ravengate Press |year=1985 |pages=p.xiv |url=http://www.marycoredemptrix.com/CenterReview/SixDaysPart1.pdf| isbn=091121822X
quote=In 1994 Fr. David Becker founded Morning Star, the first "Catholic OriginsSociety" in this country, which publishes an excellent journal called The Watchmaker. 3The new American society joins its older European counterpart, Circle Scientifique etHistorique (CESHE) based in Belgium, which publishes Science et Foi. The secretary ofthis organization is Peter Wilders, an Englishman, who lives in Monaco. 4 The Englishbranch of this society publishes another excellent little paper entitled Daylight: CreationScience for Catholics, edited by Anthony L. G. Nevard. ]

In reporting on a pro-Creationist seminar held for members of the European Parliament in Brussells in October 2006, the biologist Ulrich Kutschera described Giertych as a honorary member of the UK-based Catholic creationist organization "Daylight Origins Society". This description appeared in an article for the National Center for Science Education and in a letter to the Journal Nature. cite web |title = Devolution and Dinosaurs, The Anti-Evolution Seminar in the European Parliament |date= 2006 |url= http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol26/6633_devolution_and_dinosaurs_the__12_30_1899.asp |author= Ulrich Kutschera |publisher =National Center for Science Education |accessdate= 2008-09-07] cite web | title= A timely wake-up call as anti-evolutionists publicize their views | author= Ulrich Kutschera |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7120/full/444679a.html | date= 2006-12-07| publisher=Nature International Weekly Journal of Science| accessdate = 2008-09-07]

"Daylight" magazine

The Society issues a quarterly Catholic creationist journal titled "Daylight", published beginning in 1977 by the late John Campbell, founder of the "Counter Evolution Group", and after 1991, published and edited by creationism lecturer and writer Anthony Nevard. cite web|title=An Insight into How Evolutionary Ideas Operate Amongst the Faithful in Britain |url=http://www.kolbecenter.org/nevard.faithmovement.html |publisher=The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation ] cite journal |url=http://www.marycoredemptrix.com/CenterReview/center_review_6_2003_noah.pdf |title=The Ark of Noah and the Church of Christ |volume=Spring 2003, Serial No. 46 |author= |work=From the Housetops |publisher=Saint Benedict Center] The magazine states that it is circulated in many Anglophone nations, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, The United States of America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in other countries, including France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, India, Brazil, Argentina, and the Philippines.

The society's list of writers whose works have appeared in "Daylight" magazine includes contemporary Catholic authors such as Maciej Giertych, John G. Campbell, Wallace Johnson, Steven Austin, John Flanagan, Patrick Gill, David Becker (of the Morning Star Society), Redmond O'Hanlon, Donal Anthony Foley (author of "Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World," Gracewing Publishers, 2002), cite web
url=http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/misc/contribu.html
title=Featured Authors / Contributors: Theotokos Catholic Books
accessdate=2008-09-09] Gerard Keane (author of "Creation Rediscovered", Tan Books and Publishers) and Elizabeth Thornton; also listed are reprinted works by historical Catholic authors, including G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis.

In 1994, "Daylight" magazine published French geologist Guy Berthault's Young Earth Creation Science or "catrastrophic model" theory of marine sedimentation in an article titled "The laying down of marine sediments - a revolutionary new perspective". cite journal |journal=Daylight, |volume=Number 11 |title= The laying down of marine sediments - a revolutionary new perspective |date=May 1994 |author=Guy Berthault |pshrd= pp.6,7 |publisher=Daylight Origins Society] Articles from "Daylight" that deal with the topics of creationism and anti-atheism have been reprinted in the pages of Christian Order, [ cite web
url= http://www.christianorder.com/features/features_1998/features_aug-sep98.html
title = Theistic Evolution and The Mystery of FAITH
author= Anthony Nevard
publisher = Christian Order
date=August/September 1998
accessdate=2008-09-08] [cite web
url= http://www.christianorder.com/editorials/editorials_2006/editorials_jan06.html
title = Editorial: Evolving Into Atheism
publisher = Christian Order
date=January 2006
accessdate=2008-09-08] a Traditionalist Catholic current-affairs journal that is also published in the United Kingdom. [cite web
url= http://www.christianorder.com/index.html
title = Christian Order home page
date=
accessdate=2008-09-08
quote="Christian Order is a British international monthly devoted to the defence and propagation of the One True Faith - Catholic, Apostolic and Roman - through incisive comment on current affairs in Church and State; at home and abroad."]

ee also

*Relationship between religion and science
*Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church
*Creation-evolution controversy
*Creation science
*Young Earth Creationism
*Flood geology
*List of Christian thinkers in science

References

External links

* [http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/creation/daylight/daylight.html Daylight Origins Society homepage]