亨利·莫里斯

Henry Madison Morris (October 6, 1918 – February 25, 2006) was an American young Earth creationist, Christian apologist and engineer. He was one of the founders of the Creation Research Society and the Institute for Creation Research. He is considered by many to be "the father of modern creation science". He coauthored The Genesis Flood with John C. Whitcomb in 1961.

Morris adhered to both biblical literalism and inerrancy. Accordingly, he opposed the billions-of-years time scales of evolution, the age of the Earth and the age of the Universe. Morris's influential approach, while adopted widely by the modern creationist movement, continues to be rejected by the mainstream scientific community, as well as by old Earth creationists, intelligent design advocates and theistic evolutionists.

Early life, education and personal life

Morris was born in Dallas on October 6, 1918, grew up in Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, and graduated from Rice University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1939. He married Mary Louise on January 24, 1940, and they later had six children. They were married until Morris's death in 2006.

While Morris was religiously indifferent during his youth, shortly after his graduation from Rice in 1939, Morris became a Christian and accepted the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, as the infallible and literal word of God.

Career

After graduating in 1939, Morris served as a hydraulic engineer working with the International Boundary and Water Commission (1939–1942). He returned to Rice, teaching civil engineering from 1942 until 1946, where he also wrote a short book, That You Might Believe (1946). Attempting to answer the claims of evolution, he found the works of Harry Rimmer in his book, Theory of Evolution and the Facts of Science, "which more than any other work convinced him 'once and for all that evolution was false.'" From 1946 to 1951, he studied at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master's degree in hydraulics (1948) and a PhD in hydraulic engineering (1950). In 1949, he joined the American Scientific Association as a correspondent in an attempt to change the views of the association. In 1951, he became a professor and chair of civil engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and served as the Acting Dean of Engineering in the fall of 1956. Morris then served as a professor of applied science at Southern Illinois University in 1957.

In 1959, Morris moved to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) to serve as Professor of Civil Engineering in the area of hydraulics and to serve as department chairman for civil engineering. There, Morris co-authored an advanced text on engineering hydraulics with J.M. Wiggert that was used in many universities, and under a decade of leadership, the department became one of the country's largest civil engineering departments. While Morris' religious views and writings were controversial among university biology and geology faculty, and in the broader debate, it has been reported that Morris "kept his own counsel on [them], unless... pressed", such that his university engineering colleagues respected Morris as "a good administrator" and his religious views "because they never influenced his [administration]".

In 1961, Morris coauthored The Genesis Flood with John C. Whitcomb, which some regard as the first significant attempt in the 20th century to offer a systematic scientific explanation for creationism. The book was very influential on modern creationist thought, and Stephen Jay Gould, a critic of Morris, called it "the founding document of the creationist movement."

In 1963, while at Virginia Tech, Morris and nine others founded the Creation Research Society, and Morris continued his creationist writing and speaking. Morris eventually left his faculty position at Virginia Tech in 1970 to focus on his work in creationism, after university interactions with a new engineering dean who directed Morris not to list creationist works alongside his engineering publications, viewing his non-engineering writings and increasing persona to be "too controversial." Morris is quoted as having said that these directions "seemed like... the handwriting on the wall that they didn't want me to stay..." and that "[Dean Willis] Worchester was happy... when I submitted my resignation".

In 1970, Morris co-founded the Christian Heritage College in Santee, California, which led to the formation of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) in 1972. He served as President of Christian Heritage College from 1978 to 1980. Additionally, Morris served as President of ICR from 1970 to 1995, and as President Emeritus from 1996 to 2006. His son, John D. Morris, took over the presidency of ICR when his father retired.

On February 1, 2006, Morris suffered a minor stroke and was hospitalized. Morris was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility near his son's home (and ICR) in Santee, California where he died.

Reception

Morris has been called "the father of modern creation science", and "arguably the most influential creationist of the 20th century." Morris helped create the modern school of thought based on a belief in biblical inerrancy and a literal interpretation of Genesis. It is a system Morris called "Scientific Creationism" that opposes the mainstream scientific community regarding the history of the earth and the universe. Morris found an audience among preachers and homeschool teachers all over the US, where 46% of the public holds some form of creationist belief.

Morris was the primary source for much of the argumentation used by young Earth creationists when rejecting primary ideas in mainstream science, from the expanding universe to plate tectonics to biological evolution to genetics.

Morris's book, The Genesis Flood, coauthored by John C. Whitcomb, was very influential on modern creationist belief, and by the time of Morris's death, it was in its 44th printing and sold 250,000 English copies.