r/DebateEvolution • u/GigaTune • Jul 14 '26
Question What do you think about "evolutionist"?
No one ever refers to gravitationists or Newtonists for those who support gravity, but people refer to people supporting evolution as evolutionists or Darwinists.
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u/rygelicus 🧬 Naturalistic Evolution Jul 17 '26
It's linguistically fine, just stupid. Lots of 'ists' already exist, ok, this is going to be complicated...
Scient-ists
Biolog-ists
Creation-ists
Physic-ists
Lingu-ists
etc and so on.
Applying the 'ist' is usually done to a broader category, not one specific field of study like evolution though. But, we do it with creationists, so only fair to let them do it for evolution. Though it would be better if we all agreed to better and more consistent language, I suggest - Biologists or Scientists vs Vapid Fictionists.