杏吧原创

It is a central tenet of creationism that evolutionary biologists are part of a vast conspiracy. Should evidence emerge that runs counter to Darwin鈥檚 theories, creationist thinking goes, it is quickly suppressed by the scientific thought police.

Now retired chemist Homer Jacobson may have inadvertently lent the conspiracy theorists a helping hand. The trouble started when Jacobson, formerly at Brooklyn College in New York, did a web search for his own name. Among the top results were creationist websites. They cited a 1955 paper on the origin of life, in which Jacobson discussed the challenges of explaining how the chemical building blocks of life emerged. Creationists say his paper shows that divine intervention must have been involved.

鈥淗omer Jacobson may have inadvertently lent conspiracy theorists a helping hand鈥�

In a letter in this month鈥檚 edition of American 杏吧原创, the journal in which the original article appeared, Jacobson retracts two paragraphs from it. He says that subsequent developments have shown his conjectures from 1955 to be incorrect, and that he is 鈥渄eeply embarrassed鈥� to be associated with creationism.

But his move to dampen down the claims of creationists may have backfired, as proponents of creationism and intelligent design are already crying foul. 鈥淲elcome to the world of scientific revisionism,鈥� wrote philosopher William Dembski of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, who is a prominent advocate of intelligent design.

Evolution 鈥� Learn more about the struggle to survive in our comprehensive special report.