Elsberry became interested in the political controversy between creationism and science in February 1986, when he attended a lecture by a Young-Earth Creationist geologist. He found it superficially convincing and the lecturer gave him a copy of "The Scientific Case for Creation" by Henry M. Morris. Elsberry later recalled; "As I read that book, I started highlighting things that were pretty obviously counterfactual", and by 1977 only about five pages lacked highlighting. He said "I was just appalled at what I was reading. I came to believe that to stand by and not say anything about what he was doing to science and to religion would have made me complicit in that." Using his knowledge of biology and computer science, Elsberry became heavily involved in online discussions on the topic.