“Denialism is a term used to describe the position of governments, business groups, interest groups or individuals who reject propositions that are strongly supported by scientific or historical evidence and seek to influence policy processes and outcomes accordingly.[1]” (From the denialism article on Wikipedia.) The article continues: The term has been used in relation to ‘holocaust denial‘, ‘AIDS reappraisal‘,[2][3][4][5][6] and ‘climate change denial‘[7][8][9] and the creation-evolution controversy.[10]
The creationist movement seems to fit the overall definition of denialism quite well – it “reject[s] propositions that are strongly supported by scientific … evidence”, and it “seek[s] to influence policy processes and outcomes accordingly”. While there is a small Islamic creationist movement, creationism is still primarily linked to a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation story. Any literalist reading of the bible, especially one that considers the bible to be inerrant, forces a person not only to reject 150 years of biblical scholarship, but also forces a person to harmonise what are obviously contradictory accounts. It is only after you have denied biblical scholarship (and the bible itself) that you move on to evolution denial.
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