William Asbury Williams

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

(May 30, 1854 – May 6, 1938) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and creationist writer.

Biography

Williams was born in

Beallsville, Ohio Beallsville ( ) is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Monroe County, Ohio, Monroe County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the village population was 409. The village gained national attention by losin ...

.Coyle, William. (1962)
''Ohio Authors and Their Books''
Cleveland: World Pub Co. pp. 692-693 He was the son of Elam Williams and Elizabeth Sarah McKitrick.McKitrick, Fred L. (1979). ''The McKitricks and Roots of Ulster Scots''. Gateway Press. pp. 118-120 He graduated from Franklin College in 1876 and

Western Theological Seminary Western Theological Seminary (WTS) is a private seminary located in Holland, Michigan. Established in 1866, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. ...

in 1880. He obtained his A. M. in 1879 and a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

degree from

Scio College Scio College ( ) was an institution of higher education in Ohio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Parts of it merged into Mount Union College, while its pharmacy school merged with what would become the University of Pittsburgh School of ...

in 1888.Leonard, John W. (1899)
''Who's Who in America, 1889-1900''
Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company. p. 799 In 1885, he was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry. He was Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Franklin College (1880–1887) and served as President (1887–1901). He was a pastor at

Powhatan Point, Ohio Powhatan Point is a village in southeastern Belmont County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,461 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Wheeling metropolitan area. While "Powhatan" likely memorializes the Native-Am ...

(1885–1896),

Moundsville, West Virginia Moundsville is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area. The population was 8,122 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. Th ...

(1896–1901) and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

(1908). From 1908 he resided in Philadelphia and after 1920 in Camden. Williams married Mary Elizabeth Lanning in 1877, they had three children. His son Frank Harry Mead Williams (1896–1972) was a math professor at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

Creationism

Williams was a Christian

young earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespr ...

who claimed to have mathematically disproven evolution.''Creationism Intellectual Origins, Cultural Context, and Theoretical Diversity''
Thomas Allen McIver, 1989. In 1925, Williams authored ''The Evolution of Man Scientifically Disproved: In 50 Arguments''. It was revised and republished in an edition of 20, 000 copies in 1928. The book was dismissed by mathematicians as a fundamentalist tract. Williams relied heavily on the Bible for his arguments. Williams' book gave the first presentation of the creationist probability argument against evolution which influenced the pseudoscientific

creation science Creation science or scientific creationism is a pseudoscientific form of Young Earth creationism which claims to offer scientific arguments for certain literalist and inerrantist interpretations of the Bible. It is often presented without ove ...

movement.

Glenn Branch Glenn Branch is the deputy director of the National Center for Science Education. He is a prominent critic of creationism and intelligent design and an activist against campaigns of suppressing teaching of evolution and climate change in school ed ...

deputy director of the

National Center for Science Education The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization in the United States whose stated mission is to educate the press and the public on the scientific and educational aspects of controversies surrounding t ...

has described Williams' arguments against evolution as "pseudomathematics"."A Justly Neglected Argument Redivivus"

. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

Selected publications

''Early American Families''
(1916)
''The Evolution of Man Scientifically Disproved: In 50 Arguments''
(1925, 1928)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, William A. 1854 births 1938 deaths People from Monroe County, Ohio Presbyterians from Ohio American Presbyterian ministers American Christian Young Earth creationists Doctors of Divinity Franklin College (New Athens, Ohio)