Harold Willard Clark (1891 – 12 May 1986) was a prominent creationist in the middle of the twentieth century.

Biography

Clark was born in 1891 and raised as a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

on a farm in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. His interest in

science and religion The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the Ancient history, ancient and Middle Ages, medieval worlds did not have conc ...

was first evoked by

George McCready Price George McCready Price (26 August 1870 – 24 January 1963) was a Canadian creationist. He produced several anti-evolution and creationist works, particularly on the subject of flood geology. His views did not become common among creationists u ...

's ''Back to the Bible'' (1916). After years of church-school teaching, he enrolled at

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private university, private Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa Cou ...

in 1920, where he studied under (the newly arrived) Price. He graduated two years later and replaced Price (who had accepted a position at Union College, Nebraska) on the faculty. In 1929, he had dedicated his work ''Back to Creationism'' to Price. Historian Ronald L. Numbers credits this book with the introduction of the name "Creationism" to the movement, which had previously been known as "Anti-Evolution". That summer, and a number of vacations thereafter, he spent studying

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

, coming (in the 1930s) to the conclusion that large proportions of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

had been covered in ice for as long as one and a half millennia after the flood — a view that was anathema to Price. In 1932 he earned an MA in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, and on his return updated and enlarged his book, introducing his views on glaciation, and rejecting the common Adventist view, associated with Price, that species were fixed, in favour of one that allowed considerable hybridization. The revised book drew effusive praise from Price. In 1938, Clark visited the oil fields of

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

and Northern

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, where his observation of deep drilling confirmed long-standing suspicions that there existed a meaningful geological column, a position adamantly denied by Price. Clark attributed this column to antediluvian ecologies ranging from ocean depths to mountaintops, rather than the successive layers through deep time of mainstream geology. Despite continuing to point out that he still believed in six-day creation, Clark was pelted with criticisms from Price, who accused Clark of having contracted "the modern mental disease of universityitis" and curried favor with "tobacco-smoking, Sabbath-breaking, God-defying" evolutionists. This led Price to vitriolically and implacably break with Clark, who Price would continue to criticize strongly in his 1947 pamphlet ''Theories of Satanic Origin''. Clark died in St. Helena Hospital on 12 May 1986, aged 94.

Publications

* ''Back to Creationism'', 1929 * ''Genes and Genesis'', 1940 * ''The New Diluvialism'', 1946 * ''Creation Speaks: A Study of the Scientific Aspects of the Genesis Record of Creation and the Flood.'', 1949 (2017 Reprint, CrossReach Publications) * ''Crusader for Creation: The Life and Works of George McCready Price'', 1966 * *''The Battle Over Genesis'' *

Biography

Publications

References

See also