ABSTRACT
Some 25 years ago, one of the editors of this volume (Simon Coleman) visited the United States for the first time. Among the many delights for a British teenager was the almost endless array of television channels. Much of what was on offer seemed relatively familiar, but one programme did stand out from the rest. An apparently distinguished scientist was being interviewed by a journalist on the theory of evolution. However, what the scientist had to say was hardly an orthodox account of natural selection or adaptation. He was arguing that Darwin and his followers were gravely mistaken in their views of human origins. In fact, he claimed, ‘science’ was demonstrating that biblical accounts of the creation of the world were correct. What was most striking for a British viewer was the reaction of the television audience to their guest. Prompted by a compliant interviewer, the scientist would regularly speak for two or three minutes at a stretch, often using highly technical terms that would almost certainly have been incomprehensible to most of the people in his audience. However, each time he used a specialist word that was four or five syllables long, the audience did not stop him to ask what on earth he meant: instead, they cheered and clapped. Clearly, this was not a ‘neutral’ public service broadcast. Indeed, it turned out to be a programme produced by Protestant evangelicals.
