Creationist kerfuffle in South Korea

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Park Seong-jin, nominated to head the newly created ministry of small and medium venture business in South Korea, is in the news on account of his affliation with the Korea Association for Creation Research, reports the Korea Times (August 29, 2017).

A professor of engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology and a start-up entrepreneur, Park reportedly resigned as director of the creationist association the day before he was nominated for the post. The Korea Times quoted him as telling reporters, "As a Christian, I have a faith in a religion based on creation, but I do not believe creation as a science ... I've never individually studied creation science either." The Korea Association for Creation Research, however, explicitly espouses creation science by name on its website and declares that "the results of creation by God recorded in Genesis are scientific facts."

Jeong Jae-seung, a professor at KAIST (formerly the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), was quoted as lamenting, "Supporting creation science is not a religious choice. It is a denial of the scientific achievements of ... humankind so far."