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Paranoid Science: The Christian Right's War on Reality
Explores the Christian Right's fierce opposition to science, explaining how and why its leaders came to see scientific truths as their enemy
For decades, the Christian Right's high-profile clashes with science have made national headlines. From attempts to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools to climate change denial, efforts to -cure- gay people through conversion therapy, and opposition to stem cell research, the Christian Right has battled against science. How did this hostility begin and, more importantly, why has it endured?
Antony Alumkal provides a comprehensive background on the war on science--how it developed and why it will continue to endure. Drawing upon Richard Hofstadter's influential 1965 essay -The Paranoid Style in American Politics, - Antony Alumkal argues that the Christian Right adopts a similar paranoid style in their approach to science. Alumkal demonstrates that Christian Right leaders see conspiracies within the scientific establishment, with scientists not only peddling fraudulent information, but actively concealing their true motives from the American public and threatening to destroy the moral foundation of society. By rejecting science, Christian Right leaders create their own alternative reality, one that does not challenge their literal reading of the Bible.
While Alumkal recognizes the many evangelicals who oppose the Christian Right's agenda, he also highlights the consequences of the war on reality--both for the evangelical community and the broader American public. A compelling glimpse into the heart of the Christian Right's anti-science agenda, Paranoid Science is a must-read for those who hope to understand the Christian Right's battle against science, and for the scientists and educators who wish to stop it.
For decades, the Christian Right's high-profile clashes with science have made national headlines. From attempts to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools to climate change denial, efforts to -cure- gay people through conversion therapy, and opposition to stem cell research, the Christian Right has battled against science. How did this hostility begin and, more importantly, why has it endured?
Antony Alumkal provides a comprehensive background on the war on science--how it developed and why it will continue to endure. Drawing upon Richard Hofstadter's influential 1965 essay -The Paranoid Style in American Politics, - Antony Alumkal argues that the Christian Right adopts a similar paranoid style in their approach to science. Alumkal demonstrates that Christian Right leaders see conspiracies within the scientific establishment, with scientists not only peddling fraudulent information, but actively concealing their true motives from the American public and threatening to destroy the moral foundation of society. By rejecting science, Christian Right leaders create their own alternative reality, one that does not challenge their literal reading of the Bible.
While Alumkal recognizes the many evangelicals who oppose the Christian Right's agenda, he also highlights the consequences of the war on reality--both for the evangelical community and the broader American public. A compelling glimpse into the heart of the Christian Right's anti-science agenda, Paranoid Science is a must-read for those who hope to understand the Christian Right's battle against science, and for the scientists and educators who wish to stop it.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 23, 2017
12 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 6, 2019
It is important to note that the author is a sociologist and a professor at the Iliff School of Theology. His study of far right evangelical tactics and protocols is laced with terminology that would befuddle most of his scientifically illiterate critics. Hence, what few one star reviews you see are undoubtedly from individuals who are dumbfounded by big words like "bioethics" and "climatology." Perhaps their MAGA hats are just a little too tight?
June 9, 2017
Hello, and in this instalment of “Ben continues to be behind on reviews and on NetGalley reviews in particular” we’re reviewing Paranoid Science: The Christian Right's War on Reality, by Antony Alumkal. I was drawn to this book in much the same way that other people are drawn to evangelical Christianity: the promise of answers. Of course, in this case, I was looking for answers as to why and how the Christian right continues to be such a vocal minority in politics and policy in the US. Living as I do in Canada, we also have our conservative moments—we just saw a year-long race for leader of our own Conservative party with several candidates spouting anti-abortion lines, climate-change denial, xenophobia, etc., to appeal to those more extreme elements of their party. Yet we have a tenth of the United States’ population, and our conservativism looks downright liberal compared to what y’all got in America. So what’s up?
Given that this book is published by New York University Press, it should come as no surprise that it is quite academic in tone and style. Alumkal is writing from a sociologist’s perspective and provides a survey, essentially, of evangelical propaganda literature using the tools and techniques of the sociologist. Although he does not hide his disagreement with evangelical views, his intent isn’t so much to judge or denigrate the evangelical positions so much as examine how they exist in relation to the wider American society, and how they have fluctuated over the past fifty years or so with changes in that wider society.
This book was perhaps too academic for me, and this is mostly what held me back from enjoying it more than I did. I’m thankful that it doesn’t overstay its welcome; the book is structured very orderly and tightly, and the editing is strong in this one. It wasn’t that I was getting bored or that the book was being repetitive; however, I don’t have the background or passion for sociology that Alumkal’s target audience would have. This isn’t a pop science book—nor is it trying to be. It’s trying to be academic, and it accomplishes that goal. Alumkal has plenty of citations to back up his research, and it’s clear from the depth of his knowledge of evangelical literature that he has done his research and done it well.
As the title implies, Paranoid Science isn’t just about evangelical attitudes towards science. Alumkal asserts a stronger claim, namely that evangelicalism takes a paranoid style in its writing about science. The evangelical centre and right, as he calls the two most extreme camps within evangelicalism, believe that “postmodern” science and scientists are part of a conspiracy to promote secularism, weaken Christianity, and turn the United States into a country of heathens. He examines the literature and leaders of the intelligent design movement, the ex-gay movement, the climate-change denial movement, and the bioethics movement. Each of these chapters would make excellent extract material for a more focused class. Altogether, they result in a triangulation of the evidence, making Alumkal’s case far stronger than if he had merely examined one of these movements.
Rather than discussing all four of these chapters in detail, allow me to just point out a few things that I found interesting. Firstly, Alumkal sheds some light on the personalities involved in these movements that people who don’t follow them closely wouldn’t necessarily know about. This seems particularly important for the intelligent design movement, which in many ways positions itself in direct opposition to the “New Atheism” movement that has a similar cult of personality around figures like Dawkins and Hitchens.
Secondly, I learned a lot more about the ex-gay movement than I knew going into the book! I had a vague awareness of “pray away the gay” conversion therapy outfits in the US. Alumkal furnishes the reader with a much more specific description of these ministries, their origins, and most importantly, how they have changed over the years. Ministries that began with highly optimistic promises of totally “curing” someone of homosexuality have walked back these claims. Now they only “reduce urges” but acknowledge a “lifelong struggle” for most people who seek these “cures”. Alumkal also points out, with no small note of irony, how many of the prominent people in this movement have later abandoned it, culminating in one of the most well-known ex-gay ministries, Exodus, completely changing its tune, apologizing for its harm, and stating it will reform and start promoting tolerance.
The chapter on bioethics—namely, the connections between the anti-abortion movement and the anti–stem-cell research movement—intrigued me, because to be honest, it’s the one I’m most sympathetic to. Evolution is a fact; climate change is real and caused by humans; gay people exist and have a right to be, you know, gay—but bioethics is such a grey area! And I’m not talking about abortion: women have a right to access to safe, unshamed abortions. I’m referring more to the germline editing of cells. Genetic engineering of humans (and to a lesser extent, animals) freaks me out, from an ethical and a practical perspective.
Of course, the difference between me and members of the evangelical right is that I am happy to exist within shades of grey. One of Paranoid Science’s overarching themes is this observation that evangelicalism largely eschews shades of grey. It presents its apologies for the Bible as the “truth” that sheds light on the confusion and lies perpetuated by science and other media. The exception, here, comes in the bioethics debates. Alumkal points out how the evangelical ministries are often less strident when it comes to matters like birth control, because, unlike the Catholic Church, their base isn’t so opposed to contraception. So the message turns from “science is ignoring what we know to be true because Bible” to “science is unclear on this one, please pray for your personal answer”.
Paranoid Science, overall, is a detailed and interesting look into the structure of these evangelical movements against and in suspicion of science. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for general consumption, just because I think most readers will find it drier than they like. This is definitely more aimed at scholars and others—I’m in that camp, but not in that mood at the moment, and that affected my enjoyment of the book despite my appreciation of its merits.
Given that this book is published by New York University Press, it should come as no surprise that it is quite academic in tone and style. Alumkal is writing from a sociologist’s perspective and provides a survey, essentially, of evangelical propaganda literature using the tools and techniques of the sociologist. Although he does not hide his disagreement with evangelical views, his intent isn’t so much to judge or denigrate the evangelical positions so much as examine how they exist in relation to the wider American society, and how they have fluctuated over the past fifty years or so with changes in that wider society.
This book was perhaps too academic for me, and this is mostly what held me back from enjoying it more than I did. I’m thankful that it doesn’t overstay its welcome; the book is structured very orderly and tightly, and the editing is strong in this one. It wasn’t that I was getting bored or that the book was being repetitive; however, I don’t have the background or passion for sociology that Alumkal’s target audience would have. This isn’t a pop science book—nor is it trying to be. It’s trying to be academic, and it accomplishes that goal. Alumkal has plenty of citations to back up his research, and it’s clear from the depth of his knowledge of evangelical literature that he has done his research and done it well.
As the title implies, Paranoid Science isn’t just about evangelical attitudes towards science. Alumkal asserts a stronger claim, namely that evangelicalism takes a paranoid style in its writing about science. The evangelical centre and right, as he calls the two most extreme camps within evangelicalism, believe that “postmodern” science and scientists are part of a conspiracy to promote secularism, weaken Christianity, and turn the United States into a country of heathens. He examines the literature and leaders of the intelligent design movement, the ex-gay movement, the climate-change denial movement, and the bioethics movement. Each of these chapters would make excellent extract material for a more focused class. Altogether, they result in a triangulation of the evidence, making Alumkal’s case far stronger than if he had merely examined one of these movements.
Rather than discussing all four of these chapters in detail, allow me to just point out a few things that I found interesting. Firstly, Alumkal sheds some light on the personalities involved in these movements that people who don’t follow them closely wouldn’t necessarily know about. This seems particularly important for the intelligent design movement, which in many ways positions itself in direct opposition to the “New Atheism” movement that has a similar cult of personality around figures like Dawkins and Hitchens.
Secondly, I learned a lot more about the ex-gay movement than I knew going into the book! I had a vague awareness of “pray away the gay” conversion therapy outfits in the US. Alumkal furnishes the reader with a much more specific description of these ministries, their origins, and most importantly, how they have changed over the years. Ministries that began with highly optimistic promises of totally “curing” someone of homosexuality have walked back these claims. Now they only “reduce urges” but acknowledge a “lifelong struggle” for most people who seek these “cures”. Alumkal also points out, with no small note of irony, how many of the prominent people in this movement have later abandoned it, culminating in one of the most well-known ex-gay ministries, Exodus, completely changing its tune, apologizing for its harm, and stating it will reform and start promoting tolerance.
The chapter on bioethics—namely, the connections between the anti-abortion movement and the anti–stem-cell research movement—intrigued me, because to be honest, it’s the one I’m most sympathetic to. Evolution is a fact; climate change is real and caused by humans; gay people exist and have a right to be, you know, gay—but bioethics is such a grey area! And I’m not talking about abortion: women have a right to access to safe, unshamed abortions. I’m referring more to the germline editing of cells. Genetic engineering of humans (and to a lesser extent, animals) freaks me out, from an ethical and a practical perspective.
Of course, the difference between me and members of the evangelical right is that I am happy to exist within shades of grey. One of Paranoid Science’s overarching themes is this observation that evangelicalism largely eschews shades of grey. It presents its apologies for the Bible as the “truth” that sheds light on the confusion and lies perpetuated by science and other media. The exception, here, comes in the bioethics debates. Alumkal points out how the evangelical ministries are often less strident when it comes to matters like birth control, because, unlike the Catholic Church, their base isn’t so opposed to contraception. So the message turns from “science is ignoring what we know to be true because Bible” to “science is unclear on this one, please pray for your personal answer”.
Paranoid Science, overall, is a detailed and interesting look into the structure of these evangelical movements against and in suspicion of science. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for general consumption, just because I think most readers will find it drier than they like. This is definitely more aimed at scholars and others—I’m in that camp, but not in that mood at the moment, and that affected my enjoyment of the book despite my appreciation of its merits.
March 10, 2023
Much of my internal life is spent trying understand both the peril and promise of the American evangelicalism in which I was raised but with which I no longer identify. Alumkal's presentation of how the paranoid style imbues evangelical approaches to a scientific portrait of reality is a revelation. It both informs and consolidates my own thoughts on these issues, largely through an extensive and attentive reading of evangelical writings (and other media) on relevant issues. I plan to revisit this text in the future as I continue to try to understand and engage my evangelical loved ones within the context of our polarized cultural climate.
August 7, 2025
As you my friends might know from other reviews, I unfortunately had to go to a strict, Afrikaner, Christian Evangelical school.
Even though we are in different countries, you guys who grew up in that time in America and Aus, you know exactly what I mean by things like purity culture, shaming, The Silver Ring Thing, not being taught about evolution at all, as well as, maybe in a chat, a teacher finding it perfectly ok to tell you homosexuality is evil, telling you about ‘disgusting sodomy,’ as well as how great the world would be if we had Biblical law.
Since then, our government has made the more sensible decision that, in public schools there must not be religion and changed the curriculum quite a bit.
As many of you know, my reviews are not just a book, they often come with a story.
This story and how I got to this book is about homosexuality and transgender.
I am not gay.
I am ashamed though due to these reasons.
I told you the kind of school we went to.
I knew no gay people.
Of course we were a democratic society, but the internet was quite new and slow per minute charges, and it was at home.
School didn’t even have it.
Our reading material was very restricted to whatever books the library for the blind put into braille and audio.
I have no idea if they even had any LGBT books at that time.
The problem is, unfortunately, even if they had, because we taught at school that every single thing in the Bible was literally true, I wouldn’t have read them.
I unfortunately joined in singing songs at school that were against gay people, to be called a gay was an insult.
In Afrikaans the song would be about ‘die stupid moffie,’ which translates as ‘The stupid gay.’
Instead of correcting, a certain teacher who heard us, laughed.
So I went right through and even finished High School thinking that being gay was abnormal and that it was disgusting.
On a very important side-note, let me tell you something that an Atheist does not understand.
Have you ever heard an Atheist say that the best weapon the Atheist has to turn Christians into Atheists is to get the Christian to read through the Bible?
This just isn’t true for many people.
Anything nasty that the Bible has in it, even God commanding the genocide of little babies, can be totally justified by the brainwashed Evangelical Christian fanatic.
Indeed, the more self-righteous and sadistic the Christian sometimes is, the more he loves the wrathful, mostly merciless God.
Those are very few though. Others just think we all deserve every evil anyway and are just spared from an eternal fire by grace.
So you are maybe wondering what happened to your friend? How did he change and understand?
What does this boring long story have to do with this book?
When I finished school, I still didn’t feel connected to God and be the ‘real Christian’ I wanted to be.
I thought studying Theology would help.
I am just incredibly lucky what happened.
Instead of enrolling in a Fundamentalist Theological school, without me knowing what would happen, I just enrolled in a luckily, academically, proper institution of a Protestant denomination.
There I started learning about proper Bible scholarship, how the creation stories weren’t true and so on.
And it was also there that two of the best professors I ever had taught us to be inclusive of gay people.
When I realized after the first year that Theologians couldn’t even agree about the Bible and God, I left.
I did my degree in IR and Politics, and then Law, but it was also at that university where other things changed.
As a blind person at a university, totally blind, you often do not choose your friends, your friends choose you. What I mean is, you don’t just walk up to students you think you’ll connect with, they have to do that.
And a Lesbian couple did.
Many things opened up.
I went to my first movie featuring a same-sex couple loving each other (it took a few times for the reflexes in my brain to make themselves eventually not tell me this is weird.)
Our library for the blind started getting LGB books, and I borrowed and read some.
The internet was also getting faster, and we could also start getting Audible.
By the time I left uni, yet another community was starting to be recognized, the Transgender community.
So now at last we get to the book.
How did I find it, and why is my want-to-read shelf full of some LGBT books?
The answer is Conversion Therapy.
I have always heard the term and that it is harmful, and I have always wondered what exactly do they do to those people?
I now hear American news tell me that some states want transexuals and gay people to have conversion therapy, and not gender-affirming care, and I hear the stress and anger from the parents of those children. America is crazy at the moment.This book was one of the recommended titles.
If you have ever read a book like The Warfare between Science and Theology, you know how the church held back science.
In one of those ‘what if’ games, I always wonder if I would have been born normal or my optics wouldn’t have been damaged if priests hadn’t ruled during the Middle Ages by forbidding experiments on the body.
All the areas I have talked about in my review, Paranoid Science covers.
It is worth reading.
The unfortunate scary scenario is this.
We have seen now how the spineless universities got bullied by trump.
This book is published by New York University.
Let us somehow hope that, in the future, an Evangelical nutcase doesn’t occupy the Whitehouse and start bullying universities to publish ‘correct’ scientific research, or to study only ‘suitable’ areas of science.
But this even happens in the Southern states.
Some scientists at the University of Kentucky wanted to research more about my condition, but they weren’t allowed to because they wanted to use aborted fetuses.
It is such a pity that the country with the most money and resources is governed so much by morons.
At least scientific research is being carried on in other countries without the interference of no-nothing, culture warrior idiots.But this book really shows you how these people try get science to match their interpretation of the Bible, not the other way round.
For their literal Bible they don’t hesitate even to ruin the world for everyone.
For example, climate change? Who cares? God is ultimately going to destroy the world and create a new earth for us anyway.
Yes, human stupidity has no limits, especially when some pastors can get involved and people who are wiser just follow along for political self-interest.
Depressing.Ok and now for our song.
https://youtu.be/zKNQNTCqNeE?si=UGjgZ...
Even though we are in different countries, you guys who grew up in that time in America and Aus, you know exactly what I mean by things like purity culture, shaming, The Silver Ring Thing, not being taught about evolution at all, as well as, maybe in a chat, a teacher finding it perfectly ok to tell you homosexuality is evil, telling you about ‘disgusting sodomy,’ as well as how great the world would be if we had Biblical law.
Since then, our government has made the more sensible decision that, in public schools there must not be religion and changed the curriculum quite a bit.
As many of you know, my reviews are not just a book, they often come with a story.
This story and how I got to this book is about homosexuality and transgender.
I am not gay.
I am ashamed though due to these reasons.
I told you the kind of school we went to.
I knew no gay people.
Of course we were a democratic society, but the internet was quite new and slow per minute charges, and it was at home.
School didn’t even have it.
Our reading material was very restricted to whatever books the library for the blind put into braille and audio.
I have no idea if they even had any LGBT books at that time.
The problem is, unfortunately, even if they had, because we taught at school that every single thing in the Bible was literally true, I wouldn’t have read them.
I unfortunately joined in singing songs at school that were against gay people, to be called a gay was an insult.
In Afrikaans the song would be about ‘die stupid moffie,’ which translates as ‘The stupid gay.’
Instead of correcting, a certain teacher who heard us, laughed.
So I went right through and even finished High School thinking that being gay was abnormal and that it was disgusting.
On a very important side-note, let me tell you something that an Atheist does not understand.
Have you ever heard an Atheist say that the best weapon the Atheist has to turn Christians into Atheists is to get the Christian to read through the Bible?
This just isn’t true for many people.
Anything nasty that the Bible has in it, even God commanding the genocide of little babies, can be totally justified by the brainwashed Evangelical Christian fanatic.
Indeed, the more self-righteous and sadistic the Christian sometimes is, the more he loves the wrathful, mostly merciless God.
Those are very few though. Others just think we all deserve every evil anyway and are just spared from an eternal fire by grace.
So you are maybe wondering what happened to your friend? How did he change and understand?
What does this boring long story have to do with this book?
When I finished school, I still didn’t feel connected to God and be the ‘real Christian’ I wanted to be.
I thought studying Theology would help.
I am just incredibly lucky what happened.
Instead of enrolling in a Fundamentalist Theological school, without me knowing what would happen, I just enrolled in a luckily, academically, proper institution of a Protestant denomination.
There I started learning about proper Bible scholarship, how the creation stories weren’t true and so on.
And it was also there that two of the best professors I ever had taught us to be inclusive of gay people.
When I realized after the first year that Theologians couldn’t even agree about the Bible and God, I left.
I did my degree in IR and Politics, and then Law, but it was also at that university where other things changed.
As a blind person at a university, totally blind, you often do not choose your friends, your friends choose you. What I mean is, you don’t just walk up to students you think you’ll connect with, they have to do that.
And a Lesbian couple did.
Many things opened up.
I went to my first movie featuring a same-sex couple loving each other (it took a few times for the reflexes in my brain to make themselves eventually not tell me this is weird.)
Our library for the blind started getting LGB books, and I borrowed and read some.
The internet was also getting faster, and we could also start getting Audible.
By the time I left uni, yet another community was starting to be recognized, the Transgender community.
So now at last we get to the book.
How did I find it, and why is my want-to-read shelf full of some LGBT books?
The answer is Conversion Therapy.
I have always heard the term and that it is harmful, and I have always wondered what exactly do they do to those people?
I now hear American news tell me that some states want transexuals and gay people to have conversion therapy, and not gender-affirming care, and I hear the stress and anger from the parents of those children. America is crazy at the moment.This book was one of the recommended titles.
If you have ever read a book like The Warfare between Science and Theology, you know how the church held back science.
In one of those ‘what if’ games, I always wonder if I would have been born normal or my optics wouldn’t have been damaged if priests hadn’t ruled during the Middle Ages by forbidding experiments on the body.
All the areas I have talked about in my review, Paranoid Science covers.
It is worth reading.
The unfortunate scary scenario is this.
We have seen now how the spineless universities got bullied by trump.
This book is published by New York University.
Let us somehow hope that, in the future, an Evangelical nutcase doesn’t occupy the Whitehouse and start bullying universities to publish ‘correct’ scientific research, or to study only ‘suitable’ areas of science.
But this even happens in the Southern states.
Some scientists at the University of Kentucky wanted to research more about my condition, but they weren’t allowed to because they wanted to use aborted fetuses.
It is such a pity that the country with the most money and resources is governed so much by morons.
At least scientific research is being carried on in other countries without the interference of no-nothing, culture warrior idiots.But this book really shows you how these people try get science to match their interpretation of the Bible, not the other way round.
For their literal Bible they don’t hesitate even to ruin the world for everyone.
For example, climate change? Who cares? God is ultimately going to destroy the world and create a new earth for us anyway.
Yes, human stupidity has no limits, especially when some pastors can get involved and people who are wiser just follow along for political self-interest.
Depressing.Ok and now for our song.
https://youtu.be/zKNQNTCqNeE?si=UGjgZ...
October 19, 2021
It’s not exactly news that science is under attack by the Christian Right. That’s been happening for decades. Antony Alumkal, an associate professor of the sociology of religion at the United Methodist seminary in Denver, describes the four main sources of the Christian anti-scientism: intelligent design, the ex-gay movement, conservative bioethics, and climate change denial. These are what he calls the paranoid science movements.
Richard Hofstadeter’s classic description of the paranoid style applies to all four of the Religious Right movements, which are advancing paranoid science along with pseudoscience, Alumkal contends. Embracing a dualistic worldview, they also imagine a vast and sinister conspiracy that undermines and destroys a way of life. Apocalyptic conspiracy theories travel more rapidly nowadays via social media. They typically use the either/or fallacy, the slippery slope fallacy, and the straw man fallacy
Fundamentalist resistance to the theory of evolution led to the Scopes Monkey trial in the 1920s. Creation science emerged for a few decades before petering out. The intelligent design movement started in the 1990s. The most prominent proponent is Philip E. Johnson, a law professor who has written seven books critiquing evolution and arguing for an intelligent designer of life.
Johnson writes that Darwinism is not based upon evidence but upon a naturalistic philosophy promoted by atheists. Consequently, he argues, true Christians cannot embrace evolution and its naturalistic philosophy that nature is all there is. It is consistent with the paranoid style to take a dualistic view and to warn of a vast conspiracy to remove God from education. Is intelligent design science or religion? The intelligent design movement is hampered by “its incompatible goals of mobilizing religious conservatives and gaining scientific respectability.”
The ex-gay movement has largely lost credibility, and evangelical pastors preach about it less frequently than they used to. Nonetheless, many evangelicals believe that same-sex sexual orientation can be changed by therapy and prayer. Proponents of therapy to “cure” gays contend the medical establishment conceals the scientific truth about homosexuality.
Exodus International, founded in 1976, was the primary organization promoting so-called reparative or conversion therapy. One leader of Exodus resigned after he started an affair with a man. Meanwhile, Exodus revised its mission to reducing same-sex attraction instead of its earlier claim of converting gays to straight States started to ban ex-gay therapy on minors in 2012. In 2013, Exodus was closed, and the organization’s president apologized to the gay and lesbian community, pledging not to oppose same-sex marriage.
The Christian Right’s movement to promote conservative bioethics is lower profile than its battles over homosexuality and abortion. Their agenda addresses treatment of embryos, germline human genetic engineering, and euthanasia.
A human embryo is a human life, asserts the Christian Right, and therefore has human rights and deserves protection, both from abortion and from being destroyed for its stem cells. But personhood is a legal and ethical matter, not just a biological one. There is no consensus that personhood and all the rights that go with it begins at conception.
The Christian Right warns about a dystopian brave new world unless legal limits are adopted, such as a comprehensive ban on cloning. Regardless of whether a ban ever happens, there will be a new era of eugenics, as parents with money will want to give their offspring every genetic advantage. This could lead to a new human species. It’s not just the religious right making this prediction. Yuval Noah Harari in his best-selling book, Sapiens, writes that the creation of superhumans is inevitable. “Our ability to modify genes is outpacing our capacity for making wise and far-sighted use of this skill.”
Opponents of legalized euthanasia, aka physician assisted suicide, warn of a slippery slope once physicians see their role as ending life. They favor keeping alive patients even in persistent vegetative states. Alumkal points out that the slippery slope is a commonly used argument, buts it’s not a reliable predictor of social change. A police force need not inevitably become a Gestapo, taxation need not become confiscation, and same-sex marriage has not so far led to polygamy.
When it comes to the environment, evangelicals are split. Those on the left and some from the center favor creation care, contending that human beings have an obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation. This approach has been endorsed by leading megachurch pastors Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. Those on the right, however, are organized against the environmental movement under an organization called the Cornwall Alliance, which has funding linked to the fossil fuel industry
They raise doubts about anthropogenic climate change, denying that rising Co2 levels cause harm. As with evolution and sexuality, the religious right mistrusts mainstream science, accusing it of political bias. They claim God made the earth robust and resistant to harm from human activity, and that God will prevent catastrophes. More incendiary spokesmen tie environmentalism to Satan, describing the “green religion” as incompatible with Christianity and hostile to humanity. This reflects the familiar Manichean, good-and-evil, dualistic worldview.
Alumkal asserts that “no one had yet written a comparison of these four movements.” It seems to me, however, that he overlooks BROKEN WORDS: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics by Jonathan Dudley (Crown, 2011). Dudley also examines four scientific areas of evangelical attack, three of which are the same as Alumkal and the fourth one, abortion, overlaps with conservative bioethics. It’s no surprise that the Dudley book does not appear in Alumkal’s references.
Paranoid Science does a good job of describing the leading religious right activists in each of the four areas covered. If the book has a weakness, it is the depiction of the conservative side as completely wrong. The religious right has “nothing of substance to contribute to bioethical debates.” Arguments on social issues typically do not break down with one side being totally right and the other totally wrong. Issues appear black and white to ideologues, but reality is that both sides have weaknesses and make mistakes, not just the side we oppose, and both have something to contribute to the debate. ###
Richard Hofstadeter’s classic description of the paranoid style applies to all four of the Religious Right movements, which are advancing paranoid science along with pseudoscience, Alumkal contends. Embracing a dualistic worldview, they also imagine a vast and sinister conspiracy that undermines and destroys a way of life. Apocalyptic conspiracy theories travel more rapidly nowadays via social media. They typically use the either/or fallacy, the slippery slope fallacy, and the straw man fallacy
Fundamentalist resistance to the theory of evolution led to the Scopes Monkey trial in the 1920s. Creation science emerged for a few decades before petering out. The intelligent design movement started in the 1990s. The most prominent proponent is Philip E. Johnson, a law professor who has written seven books critiquing evolution and arguing for an intelligent designer of life.
Johnson writes that Darwinism is not based upon evidence but upon a naturalistic philosophy promoted by atheists. Consequently, he argues, true Christians cannot embrace evolution and its naturalistic philosophy that nature is all there is. It is consistent with the paranoid style to take a dualistic view and to warn of a vast conspiracy to remove God from education. Is intelligent design science or religion? The intelligent design movement is hampered by “its incompatible goals of mobilizing religious conservatives and gaining scientific respectability.”
The ex-gay movement has largely lost credibility, and evangelical pastors preach about it less frequently than they used to. Nonetheless, many evangelicals believe that same-sex sexual orientation can be changed by therapy and prayer. Proponents of therapy to “cure” gays contend the medical establishment conceals the scientific truth about homosexuality.
Exodus International, founded in 1976, was the primary organization promoting so-called reparative or conversion therapy. One leader of Exodus resigned after he started an affair with a man. Meanwhile, Exodus revised its mission to reducing same-sex attraction instead of its earlier claim of converting gays to straight States started to ban ex-gay therapy on minors in 2012. In 2013, Exodus was closed, and the organization’s president apologized to the gay and lesbian community, pledging not to oppose same-sex marriage.
The Christian Right’s movement to promote conservative bioethics is lower profile than its battles over homosexuality and abortion. Their agenda addresses treatment of embryos, germline human genetic engineering, and euthanasia.
A human embryo is a human life, asserts the Christian Right, and therefore has human rights and deserves protection, both from abortion and from being destroyed for its stem cells. But personhood is a legal and ethical matter, not just a biological one. There is no consensus that personhood and all the rights that go with it begins at conception.
The Christian Right warns about a dystopian brave new world unless legal limits are adopted, such as a comprehensive ban on cloning. Regardless of whether a ban ever happens, there will be a new era of eugenics, as parents with money will want to give their offspring every genetic advantage. This could lead to a new human species. It’s not just the religious right making this prediction. Yuval Noah Harari in his best-selling book, Sapiens, writes that the creation of superhumans is inevitable. “Our ability to modify genes is outpacing our capacity for making wise and far-sighted use of this skill.”
Opponents of legalized euthanasia, aka physician assisted suicide, warn of a slippery slope once physicians see their role as ending life. They favor keeping alive patients even in persistent vegetative states. Alumkal points out that the slippery slope is a commonly used argument, buts it’s not a reliable predictor of social change. A police force need not inevitably become a Gestapo, taxation need not become confiscation, and same-sex marriage has not so far led to polygamy.
When it comes to the environment, evangelicals are split. Those on the left and some from the center favor creation care, contending that human beings have an obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation. This approach has been endorsed by leading megachurch pastors Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. Those on the right, however, are organized against the environmental movement under an organization called the Cornwall Alliance, which has funding linked to the fossil fuel industry
They raise doubts about anthropogenic climate change, denying that rising Co2 levels cause harm. As with evolution and sexuality, the religious right mistrusts mainstream science, accusing it of political bias. They claim God made the earth robust and resistant to harm from human activity, and that God will prevent catastrophes. More incendiary spokesmen tie environmentalism to Satan, describing the “green religion” as incompatible with Christianity and hostile to humanity. This reflects the familiar Manichean, good-and-evil, dualistic worldview.
Alumkal asserts that “no one had yet written a comparison of these four movements.” It seems to me, however, that he overlooks BROKEN WORDS: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics by Jonathan Dudley (Crown, 2011). Dudley also examines four scientific areas of evangelical attack, three of which are the same as Alumkal and the fourth one, abortion, overlaps with conservative bioethics. It’s no surprise that the Dudley book does not appear in Alumkal’s references.
Paranoid Science does a good job of describing the leading religious right activists in each of the four areas covered. If the book has a weakness, it is the depiction of the conservative side as completely wrong. The religious right has “nothing of substance to contribute to bioethical debates.” Arguments on social issues typically do not break down with one side being totally right and the other totally wrong. Issues appear black and white to ideologues, but reality is that both sides have weaknesses and make mistakes, not just the side we oppose, and both have something to contribute to the debate. ###
June 12, 2017
Cogently argued, Antony Alumkal invokes Richard Hofstadter’s “paranoid style” to analyze the Christian Right's approach to selective scientific topics. He argues that the Christian Right develops conspiratorial views of science, particularly when its members perceive a potential threat to their faith. As he notes, “The Christian Right’s battle against science is a selective one.” The Christian Right is also often willing to use outdated scientific knowledge when it supports their views. The book gives a sense that the relationship between the Christian Right and science has more to do with rhetoric than with science, which requires more positively testable criteria than hypotheses that there might be an Intelligent Designer who we cannot rule out. This is a timely book.
August 29, 2019
A timely and necessary read on the paranoia of the Christian Right.
January 4, 2025
From my limited point of view, this book represents solid, well-researched work. Great application and demonstration of Hofstadter's paranoid style analysis to the Evangelical movement. Yet, because it cannot convince believers, and exposes relatively obvious (to scientific minded readers) unscientific thinking from Evangelicals, I wonder who the book is for. Then again, while I loved Hofstadter, I was left with the same feeling after reading his main pieces... So it's interesting, but perhaps mostly for sociologists?
May 3, 2025
Excellent read
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