Page - 56 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/02

56 | Larissa Carneiro www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/2, 53–64 and devices that most succinctly express a line of argument, so succinctly that the argument can be created almost automatically by creating the figure”.9 Based on the work of fahnestock, this article compares forms of visual argu- mentation in the scientific study of evolution and Young-Earth Creationism. I ar- gue that secular forms of scientific representations have affected the way Crea- tionism is visually constructed by its proponents. In order to do that, I will first discuss common forms of visual representations (graphics and illustrations) as strategies for reasoning in the construction of the evolutionary theory. then i will turn to demonstrate how Creationism, emulating secular rhetorical strate- gies, creates a competing scientific model by visual means. But before I proceed, it is important to clarify the object of my study. Young- earth Creationism, Creation science, or flood Geology is, like intelligent design, one of the major creationist schools of thought. According to Creation Science, what is narrated in the first chapter of the Christian Bible is literally true. Ac- cording to Creationism’s core principles, (1) the universe, the earth, and human- kind were created from nothing in six literal days by nothing but God’s words; (2) biological life did not evolve according to natural processes as asserted by darwinism, but was supernaturally created by God; (3) all the major transforma- tions that have occurred in this planet originated from the 371-day period of the deluge and its aftermath; and, finally, (4) the age of the universe is not 14 billion years, as argued by mainstream science, but no more than 10,000 years. No less important, according to the creationist view, the factual accuracy of these principles can be scientifically demonstrated by a wealth of geological and pale- ontological investigations, all of which confirm what is described in the opening of the Book of Genesis. THE VISUAL (DE)CONSTRUCTION of darWiNist rePreseNtatioNs an illustration composed of a sequence of four bird heads and beaks appeared in the published edition of the diary that Charles darwin wrote during the voy- age of hMs Beagle to the Galápagos islands. the drawing had a clear rhetori- cal purpose. By repeating and arranging the same motif with subtle differences (one bird’s beak is shorter, another’s beak is longer), the visual alliteration of finch heads aimed to illustrate Darwin’s speculations about evolutionary theo- ry.10 With this simple diagram, the naturalist aimed to convert the scientific com- munity from the prevailing view that all separate species were created distinctly by divine intervention to his own theory. 9 ibid., 40. 10 robin 1992, 32.