Is the NCSE a partisan organization?

Actually the NCSE has started implanting us all with RFID chips. Never leave your house without your tinfoil hat strapped on!

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There are some “historical” connections, for instance they bought the magazine “Creation/Evolution” from the AHA, and if I remember correctly this morphed into the RNCSE. They dropped all references to Humanism in the outlet, though. Frederick Edwords, then head of the AHA, developed some key strategies of anti-creationism that the NCSE later adapted. (This is of course a gross oversimplification.)

And the Southern Baptist Church was started as the pro-slavery wing of that faith. And now no longer is pro-slavery.

You’re completely right in saying that past connections do not say anything about their current ideology (or lack thereof). I would go even further: The links I mentioned do not even say anything about their past ideological commitments. In the early days of professional anti-creationism it was all about acquiring resources (in a very broad “sociological” sense this includes funding, staff, political support, social networks, arguments that work, and also media that facilitate network activity). Creation/Evolution was one of those assets that linked professionals on creationism with an audience that would be interested not only in that topic but also potentially in providing further resources. The NCSE didn’t only buy the magazine but also its list of subscribers, and they added some new members in consequence of the shift of ownership.
To add a piece of completely useless self-promotion: You can read all about the organizational development of American anti-creationism in an unpublished dissertation by historian Hee-Joo Park (it’s a shame that he never published it), OR in my recently published dissertation on creationism and anti-creationism in the US. But it’s in German. :frowning:

@Eddie
The above is a reply to your suggestion also. I think in both cases the truth is much more complicated than the insinuation of a simple continuity. Organizations change over time and they change especially if the environment in which they act changes. I think this broad assumption is true for both the CSC and the NCSE.

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