Creation science as culture: South Korean antievolutionists' international practices in four countries.

Résumé

Creation science, a religious belief denying evolutionary theory in favor of scriptural literalism, came to South Korea, whose evangelical Protestants practiced it in other countries as well as their own after the Cold War. Focusing on what they called "science" and its ramifications in the United States of America, China, Mongolia, and Canada, this paper illustrates the significance of cultural practices of this "science" in Koreans' international missionary projects, which surprisingly enjoyed a long survival and involved many people, including Korean nationals, diasporas, and foreigners. "Science" was important for Korean creationists who stressed their academic credentials, "geological evidence" for a young earth, and purportedly apolitical and non-religious nature of technical education in countries emerging from communism. Their activities assisted by this "science" accompanied its varied unanticipated ramifications, such as benefits of cost-effective leisure, yearnings for lucrative international career, desires for placing children in top universities, and hopes for immigrating to richer society. Rather than its propositional or epistemic dimensions, these cultural implications and practices of "science" in each mission field's context account for Korean creationists' overseas resilience despite their geographic, demographic, and chronological limitations.