Evolutionism

Evolutionism is a term, often used in a derogatory sense, for the theory of evolution, whose meaning has shifted considerably over time. In the nineteenth century it referred to the belief that organisms deliberately improved themselves through progressive inherited change, a teleological reading that was also applied to theories of cultural and social evolution. Because evolutionary biology is now the mainstream scientific consensus, working scientists rarely use the term, but it remains common among creationist organizations, such as the Institute for Creation Research, which group evolution with worldviews like atheism and humanism rather than treating it as empirical science, and among groups such as the BioLogos Foundation, which distinguish accepting evolutionary biology from what they call evolutionism, an atheistic worldview they see as often accompanying it in public discourse.