Table 1.
Sources of principal sample material.
Fig 1.
Prevalences (%) of selected aspects of experiential thinking in the sampled material representing young-earth creationism (YEC; n = 29), intelligent design/old-earth creationism (ID/OEC; n = 8) and pro-evolutionary texts (EVO; n = 15).
“Testimonials” include personal testimonies, quotes, appeals to authorities, etc. “Confirmation bias” represents ignoring or dismissing contradictory data and alternative hypotheses. “Pseudodiagnostics” entails giving high relevance to misinterpreted or irrelevant issues. “Stereotyping” includes dichotomies and generalizations and “moral issues” refer to scientifically irrelevant discussion of moral implications to prove or disprove a claim. * = Difference between the text types (χ2-test, Fisher’s exact test, p < 0.001).
Table 2.
Examples testimonials as proof in creationist writings.
Table 3.
Examples of oft-repeated citations of evolutionary scientists as evidence against evolution.
Table 4.
Characteristics of experiential thinking in creationist texts and their comparison with fallacies.