[Home]Creationism

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The term creationism describes beliefs that animal and plant species were created directly by God through supernatural means, rather than through purely natural forces as accepted by science (Evolution and Natural Selection). Generally, Creationism refers to a Christian, Jewish or Islamic God as the creator, but Hindus also believe in creationism.

The best known version of Creationism is Sudden Creationism (the idea that all major plant and animal species were created in a short time by God). This idea is sometimes held to represent Creationism as a whole, however Intelligent Design proponents are also creationist, albeit with a different set of secondary suppositions.

Who believes in creationism?

In the United States, most people prefer creationist models. According to a Gallup poll, 47% of Americans believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so, another 40% believe that God guided the development of human beings from less advanced forms of life over millions of years, and only 9% believe that God played no part in the development of human beings.

Despite the significant number of people subscribing to Creationist opinions in the USA, such views are generally believed to be much less common in other Western countries, although there is little more than anecdotal information supporting how widely the non-creationist views are held. In Catholic-majority countries, Papal acceptance of evolution has essentially ended debate on the matter for most people. The United States Christian community has no real parallels (in terms of numbers, prominence, and political influence) elsewhere in the Western world, and because most vocal creationists are from the United States, it is generally assumed that creationist views are not as common elsewhere. The fact that the German language has no equivalent translation of the term "creationism", may be held in support of this thesis.

Creationism and evolution

Creationism refers to more than just the belief that God created the universe; it refers to the belief that He did so in such a way that evolution did not occur, as accepted by science. One can also believe that God guided the process of evolution (Intelligent Design), and Darwinists will not object so long as this is not put forward as a scientific explanation. It is also possible to believe that God created the universe and still accept Darwin's theory of evolution; although very few religious believers hold to this view. Generally speaking, this is related to a deistic conception. Deism, while in no way required by the theory of evolution, is not incompatible with it. (For discussion of the belief that God created the universe, see Creation.)

Current creationist thinking embraces natural selection and small changes in species, which is sometimes termed microevolution. Creationists do not, however, agree that the major divisions of life were derived through the same process (macroevolution). Typically, they do not believe that all life is derived from a single-celled ancestor, that mammals are descendents of reptiles?, or that man and apes? descended from common ancestors. A common argument made is that all solid examples of evolution are in fact examples solely of microevolution. Rather than using the term "species", they use the term "created kinds" to describe the boundaries they believe evolution does not cross, but they offer no rigorous (or operational) definition of what a "created kind" is, just as the term 'species' was not rigorously defined for many years.

Sudden Creationism is generally considered an expression of religious literalism. Sudden Creationists oppose evolution on the grounds that it conflicts with the account of creation given in Genesis, where it is recorded that the Earth was created by God in six days. Based on various interpretations of the Genesis accounts, "Young Earth" creationists believe that the account given is of the creation of the earth, while "Old Earth" creationists believe it only refers to the creation of life on a pre-existing Earth.

Many Christians hold that these passages are not to be interpreted literally, but are rather a symbolic or poetic account of the creation of the universe. Others believe that they are based on the prevailing scientific ideas of the time they were written, and that only the moral and religious, as opposed to the scientific, content of the Bible is inspired. Some, in an attempt to harmonize science with biblical literalism, hold that the six days referred to are not ordinary 24 hour days, but rather much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years); the Genesis account is then interpreted as an account of the process of evolution. There are some Christians who believe the six day period refers to the time spent by light traveling from the center of the universe at the time and point of creation.

Young Earth creationists who interpret the Bible literally believe that the Earth is somewhere around 6,000 years old (according to Bishop Ulster's dating) and reject other scientific theories such as the Big Bang (which is related to creation of the universe, not creation of species on earth). In doing so, they refer to a relatively small number of scientific findings which do appear to contradict an old earth and therefore evolution itself, but reject the much larger set of scientific findings which support both a very old earth and evolution.

Creationists defend their views not only on religious grounds, but with the rise of so-called 'scientific creationism' (or [Intelligend Design]?) defend them on scientific grounds as well. They argue that the scientific evidence does not support evolution, and that creation of each species of life by God provides a better scientific explanation.

The significant debate on creationism entails a debate on what constitutes scientific evidence, and what kinds of facts are acceptable as proof. Most scientists do not accept the sudden creationists' evaluation of the evidence, and reject creation by God as being a valid scientific hypothesis, arguing that it is a religious hypothesis. Most creationists argue that many evolutionary proofs, are unfalsifiable, and promoted by scientists who hold an anti-religious bias. This is countered by those who state that creationists are thereby resorting to a more philosophical argument (that evolutionary theory is as rooted in faith as their own views are), ignoring the essential disagreement on what constitutes scientific evidence.

See also Scopes Trial, creation


The term Creationism can also refer to the belief that each soul is created individually by God, as opposed to traducianism, which holds that the souls of infants are derived from those of their parents. Another theory of the soul is known as Pre-existence.

External links:

The Belief Spectrum: Who Believes What? http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/sides.html


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Edited December 4, 2001 1:06 am by Ed Poor (diff)
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