Creationism

From Theopedia

Creationism, in its most general form, is the belief that a supernatural intelligence was involved in the creation of the universe and the origin of life. Creationism is a broad category, and specific forms of creationism vary considerably. The word "creationism" is usually applied just to those groups who actively reject evolution, but is also used to describe all groups who believe that a supernatural being created the universe:

[edit] Overview

The term creationism is most often used to describe the belief that creation occurred literally as described in the book of Genesis (for both Jews and Christians) or the Qur'an (for Muslims). Although the Hebrew Bible may be translated to implicitly deny "creation out of nothing" (creatio ex nihilo) and, according to some scholars, may even suggest differing accounts of creation, some Jews and Christians use Genesis exclusively as a support of their beliefs about origins. Refer to creation according to Genesis.

The terms creationism and creationist have become particularly associated with beliefs conflicting with the theory of biological evolution. This conflict is most prevalent in the United States, where there has been sustained creation-evolution controversy in the public arena. On the other hand, many faiths, including Abrahamic denominations, which believe in divine creation, accept biological evolution, as well as, to a greater or lesser extent, scientific explanations of the origins and development of the universe, the Earth, and life – such beliefs have been given the name "theistic evolution" or "evolutionary creationism".

In a Christian context, many creationists adopt a literal interpretation of creation narratives, and say that the Bible provides a factual account, given from the perspective of the only one who was there at the time to witness it: God. They seek to harmonize science with what they take to be an eye-witness account of the origin of things (see Young Earth Creationism, for example). However, scientific evidence as an empirical source for information on natural history is usually interpreted as contradictory to the Bible, but can be interpreted as supporting it, depending on the presuppositions that are held.

Almost all churches teach that God created the cosmos, but many Christian scholars (Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran), now reject reading the Bible as though it could shed light on what the events of creation were, which they now conclude are best understood in a naturalistic way. Liberal theology assumes that Genesis is a poetic work, and that human understanding of God increases gradually over time; and just as understanding of God grows, human understanding of God's will and of the world also grows, and has grown since Biblical times.

However, many believers in a literal interpretation argue that once a poetic view of the creation account in Genesis has been adopted, it leads one to question the historicity of other central topics of that book. Furthermore, the liberal approach suggests, sometimes outright, that Jesus as seen in the New Testament, or the writers of the Bible, had a mistaken understanding of the reliability of the Bible, and erroneously believed the book of Genesis to be literal history: a proposition that, if adopted, has radical implications for Christian faith and the reliability of the Bible.

[edit] Types of creationism

Creationism covers a spectrum of beliefs which have been categorized into the broad types listed below. Not all creationists are in dispute with scientific theories, though very few modern scientists are creationists.

Young-Earth Creationism: The belief that the Earth was created by God a few thousand years ago, literally as described in Creation according to Genesis, within the approximate timeframe of the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar (~6,000 years) or somewhat more according to interpretation of potential gaps in biblical genealogies (~10,000 years). They may or may not believe that the Universe is the same age. It rejects not only radiometric and isochron dating of the age of the Earth, arguing that they are based on debatable assumptions, but also approaches such as ice core dating and dendrochronology. Instead, it interprets the geologic record largely as a result of a global flood. This view is held by many Protestant Christians in the USA, and by many Haredi Jews. For Christian groups promoting this view, see the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), El Cajon, California, USA, and the Creation Research Society (CRS), Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA.

Because Young Earth creationists believe in the literal truth of the description in Genesis of divine creation of every "kind" of plant and creature during a week 6,000-10,000 years ago, they dispute the theory of evolution which describes all species developing from a common ancestor over billions of years without a need for divine intervention. Different young-earth creationists offer different explanations for the fossil record, which gives the appearance that the Earth is much older:

Modern geocentrism: The view that God recently created a spherical world, and placed it in the center of the universe. The Sun, planets and everything else in the universe revolve around it. All scientific claims about the age of the Earth are lies; evolution does not occur. Very few people today maintain such a belief. See, for example, the Creation Science Association for Mid-America, in Cleveland, MO, USA.

Omphalos hypothesis: God created the Earth only recently, but made it appear much older. This is the belief of a small subgroup of Young Earth creationists, which is sometimes termed the Omphalos hypothesis. This argument was first made by Philip Henry Gosse in 1857. He held that because the world operates in cycles (chicken to egg to chicken on so on), certain physical and biological processes need the appearance of age to function. It is termed the Omphalos hypothesis because it is based on the question of whether or not Adam (or Adam and Eve for that matter) had a navel (given that they were created as adults rather than born, they can be assumed to have never possessed an umbilical cord). Gosse postulated that Adam did have a navel because it is how humans are formed. So the appearance of history (the belly button) is there, even though he was just created. He likewise postulated that for the earth to work, it must have been established with the appearance of age to function correctly. While many creationists hold this view for some smaller aspects of creation, for example the existence of the fossil record, the argument has been largely superseded.

Flood geology: The view that God created the Earth only recently, and the fossil record is the record of the destruction of the global flood recorded in Genesis. The present diverse land animals are all descendants of the animals on Noah's Ark, having heavily diversified after the flood. A variety of mechanisms is suggested to be involved, including genomic modularity -- the ability for animals to reorganize their genome in response to stress or other outside influence, heterozygous fractionation (heterozygous genes in parents can lead to speciation by having multiple homozygous genes in children), and standard evolution.

Old-Earth Creationism: The view that the physical universe was created by God, but that the creation event of Genesis is not to be taken strictly literally. This group generally believes that the age of the Universe and the age of the Earth are as described by astronomers and geologists, but that details of the evolutionary theory are questionable.

Old-Earth creationism itself comes in at least three types:

Gap creationism, also called "Restitution creationism": The view that life was immediately created on a pre-existing old Earth. This group generally translates Genesis 1:2 as "The earth became without form and void," indicating a destruction of the original creation by some unspecified cataclysm. This was popularized in the Scofield Reference Bible, but has little support from Hebrew scholars.

Day-age creationism: The view that the "six days" of Genesis are not ordinary twenty-four-hour days, but rather much longer periods (for instance, each "day" could be the equivalent of millions of years of modern time). This theory often states that the Hebrew word "yôm", in the context of Genesis 1, can be properly interpreted as "age." Some adherents claim we are still living in the seventh age ("seventh day").

Progressive creationism: The view that species have changed or evolved in a process continuously guided by God, with various ideas as to how the process operates (often leaving room for God's direct intervention at key moments in Earth/life's history). This view accepts most of modern physical science including the age of the earth, but rejects much of modern evolutionary biology or looks to it for evidence that biological evolution alone is incorrect. This view can be, and often is, held in conjunction with other Old-earth views such as Day-age creationism or framework/metaphoric/poetic views.

Theistic evolutionism, also known as "evolutionary creationism": Theistic evolution isn't a view proclaiming opposition to biological evolution, but the general view that some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of the scientific theory of evolution. It views evolution as a tool used by God and can synthesize with gap or day-age creationism, although most adherents deny that Genesis was meant to be interpreted as history at all. It can still be described as "creationism" in holding that divine intervention brought about the origin of life or that divine Laws govern formation of species, but in the creation-evolution controversy its proponents generally take the "evolutionist" side while disputing that some scientists' methodological assumption of materialism can be taken as ontological as well. Many creationists would deny that this is creationism at all, and should rather be called "theistic evolution", just as many scientists allow voice to their spiritual side. In particular, this view rejects the doctrine of special creation and other doctrines. For example, evolutionary theory assumes death is a natural part of life and it had an integral part in the formation of life, but the Bible teaches that only Life begets life and that death is a result of sin.

Intelligent Design movement.: The Intelligent Design movement intentionally distances itself from other forms of creationism, preferring to be known as wholly separate from creationism as a philosophy. Its goal is to restate creationism in terms more likely to be well received by the public, education policy makers and the scientific community. It aims to re-frame the debate over the origins of life in non-religious terms and without appeals to scripture, and to bring the scientific debate before the public. One of its principal claims is that ostensibly objective orthodox science is actually a dogmatically atheistic religion. Its proponents argue that the scientific method excludes certain explanations of phenomena, particularly where they point towards supernatural elements. This effectively excludes religious insight from contributing to understanding the universe. Intelligent Design proponents also argue that science, as an "atheistic enterprise", is at the root of many of contemporary society's ills (social unrest, family breakdown). Unlike their philosophical forebears, Intelligent Design largely does not believe in many of the traditional cornerstones of creationism such a young Earth, or in a dogmatically literal interpretation of the Bible. Common to all forms of Intelligent Design proponents is a rejection of naturalism, usually made together with a tacit admission of supernaturalism, and an open and often hostile opposition to what they term "Darwinism", which generally is meant to refer to classic atheistic evolution.