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Last year, Ham says, AiG sent out 5 million pieces of literature from its Kentucky warehouse, including books, tracts, and DVDs. That much material, along with AiG's conferences and the work of other creation ministries, is having an impact on the general culture, Ham says.

Looy says AiG is not a political organization. "We believe the culture can be best changed at the grassroots level, and then those people in their communities affect the local school boards." Still, AiG sees its ministry having political impact. "We basically just disseminate information," says Ham. "But those people get on school boards and in politics. We're an indirect influence."

In fact, says Terry Mortenson, an AiG lecturer and researcher, creation ministries were a major influence in last year's ID curriculum battles. "The creation movement has been developing for three decades before the leaders of the ID movement even realized this was something they should study. So without the creation movement, I don't think ID would be getting any attention."

"I would venture to guess," says Mortenson, "that it would be very likely that the majority of people who are trying to influence the schools are creationists rather than ID [proponents]." ID, he says, was seen as a way to challenge evolution without violating court rulings on the separation of church and state.

"ID is perceived as a midway point between these two radical views of naturalistic evolution and fundamentalist creationism that has gained such popularity in a short period of time," says Mortenson.

But six-day creationists, such as AiG, aren't so enthusiastic about ID.

ID isn't opposed to evolution, says Ham; it's really just opposed to naturalism. Not only that, says Mortenson, ID proponents say they're not even interested in the Bible.

"So you've got this group that's not about the Bible," says Ham. "You've got the secular press saying this is just a way to get the Bible back in the schools, because many of the Christians who think ID is great think it is a way to get the Bible back into schools. [At the same time] the ID movement's trying to divorce themselves from that saying it's not [about the Bible]. The secular press is saying yes it is. And many of the Christians who are behind them are really doing it because they are Christians."

But Christians are being duped, Mortensen says. "Most if not all of the ID books are published by evangelical Christian publishers, which are marketing to an evangelical audience. And our concern is that [although] in those books there are good design arguments, there are statements sprinkled in them implying or stating openly that Genesis isn't important."

"We're concerned about the influence it's having on the church," says Mortenson, "causing Christians to not be concerned about what Genesis says."

This can weaken Christians' faith, says Ham. "Those of us who believe in a literal Genesis have a history, a history concerning the Fall, a history concerning the Flood. So when we look at this world, we're looking at a fallen world. It's not God's fault there are tsunamis. … Death is not God's fault." However, by only discussing an unnamed designer, Ham says, flaws in creation must be attributed to that designer.

"The intelligent being has spoken," says Mortenson. "To ignore his word is a serious problem."

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April (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50