Originally, the belief that God creates a soul for each human individual at conception or birth. It is now commonly applied to the belief that the Genesis account of creation in the Bible accurately describes the origins of the world and humanity. It is opposed to the theory of evolution, and some evangelical conservative Christians claim there is scientific evidence to support creationism, though this has not been supported by other scientists.
In many religious traditions, creationism is ideological support of the belief that humanity, life, the Earth, or the universe as a whole was specially created by a supreme being (often referred to specifically as God) or by other forms of supernatural intervention. Various forms of creationism are found;
Many who believe in a supernatural creation consider the idea to be an aspect of religious faith compatible with, or otherwise unaffected by, scientific descriptions.
Those who hold creationist views reject scientific theories which they feel contradict their religious texts. Such creationists often also reject the current scientific consensus regarding the origin of life, origin of the human species, geologic history of the Earth, formation of the solar system, and origin of the universe. Such Creationism is also separate from, and should not be confused with the separate Christian tradition of "Creation Spirituality" which draws upon the theology of Matthew Fox.
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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). The terms creationism and creationist have become particularly associated with beliefs conflicting with the theory of evolution by mechanisms acting on genetic variation. Many who consider themselves adherents of the Abrahamic denominations, however, believe in divine creation but accept evolution by natural selection, 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","evolutionary creationism" or "progressive creationism".
In a Christian context, many creationists adopt a literal interpretation of the Biblical 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 believe to be an eye-witness account of the origin of things (see Young Earth Creationism, for example). Opponents argue that this throws doubt upon scientific evidence as an empirical source for information on natural history, questioning the scientific nature of the literalistic Biblical view. Creationists take the position that neither theory is verifiable in the scientific sense, and that the scientific evidence conforms more closely to the creation model of origins than it does to the evolutionary model.
Almost all churches teach that God created the cosmos. Most contemporary Christian scholars from mainstream churches, such as Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran, reject reading the Bible as though it could shed light on the physics of creation instead of the spiritual meaning of creation. The Roman Catholic Church now explicitly accepts the theory of Evolution , as do pretty well all Anglican scholars Of which Rev Dr John Polkinghorne FRS is a paradigm, arguing that evolution is one of the principles through which God created living beings. Another example is that of Liberal theology, which assumes that Genesis is a poetic work, and that just as human understanding of God increases gradually over time, so does the understanding of His creation. In fact, both Jews and Christians have been considering the idea of the creation history as an allegory (instead of an historical description) long before the development of Darwin's theory of evolution.
However, many believers in a literal interpretation argue that once a poetic view of the creation account in Genesis is adopted, one begins to question the historicity of other central topics of that book.
Political context
In the secular sense, "creationism" refers to a political doctrine which asserts the validity and superiority of a particular religiously-based origin belief over those of other belief systems, including those in particular espoused through secular or scientific rationale (see Creation-evolution controversy). The meaning of the term "creationism" depends upon the context wherein it is used, as it refers to a particular origin belief within a particular political culture.
In the United States, more so than in the rest of the world, creationism has become centered in political controversy, in particular over public education, and whether teaching evolution in science classes conflicts unfairly with the creationist worldview.
Creation Science is a branch of creationism that aims to reconcile modern science with a creationist worldview. Advocates of Creation Science believe that scientific evidence best supports the Biblical account of creation. The scientific status of Creation Science is disputed by most of the scientific community as pseudoscience because Creation Science begins with a desired answer and attempts to interpret all evidence to fit in with this predetermined conclusion.
The most widely accepted postmodern irrationalistic philosophy of science was proposed by Thomas Kuhn and contrasts this rationalistic view. The scientific consensus is that this is not the case for either creation science or intelligent design. Yet, Kuhn's philosophy was partly welcomed and embraced by creation science and intelligent design proponents, since it lacks universal methodological rules that could rule out their views from science. (See Relevance of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions for details.)
History of the concept of creation
The history of creationism is tied to the history of religions.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, naturalists challenged the Biblical account of creation as to be in conflict with empirical observations of natural history from scientific inquiry.
The biblical account of history, cosmology and natural history was believed by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Islamic scholars preserved ancient Greek texts and developed their ideas, leading to the Renaissance which brought a questioning of Biblical cosmology.
While the concept of an ancient earth became widely accepted, Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection directly challenged belief in God's immediate involvement in creating species, and in response Creationism arose as a distinct movement aiming to justify and reassert the literal accuracy of sacred texts, particularly the words of Genesis.
The history of creationism has relevance to the creation-evolution controversy. Proponents of creationism claim that it has a rich heritage grounded in ancient recorded histories and consistent with scientific observation. Opponents, commonly refer to creationism as pseudosciences of creation science and intelligent design, and claim that these are a modern reactionary movement against science.
Types of creationism
Creationism covers a spectrum of beliefs which have been categorized into the broad types listed below. As a matter of popular belief and characterizations by the media, most people labeled "creationists" are those who object to specific parts of science for religious reasons, though many (if not most) people who believe in a divine act of creation do not categorically reject those parts of science.
Young Earth creationism
The belief that the Earth was created by God within the last ten thousand years, literally as described in Genesis, within the approximate timeframe of biblical genealogies (detailed for example in the Ussher chronology).
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 about 6,000 years ago, they dispute parts of evolution (specifically Universal Common Ancestry) which describes all species developing from a common ancestor, independent of divine intervention, by random chance, over a much longer time.
Modern geocentrism
The view that God recently created a spherical world, and placed it in the center of the universe.
Omphalos hypothesis
The Omphalos hypothesis argues that in order for the world to be functional, God must have created the Earth with mountains and canyons, trees with growth rings, and that therefore no evidence that we can see of the presumed age of the earth and universe can be taken as reliable.
Creation science
The technical arm of the creationist movement, most adherents to creation science believe that God created the Earth only recently, and the scientific evidence supports their interpretation of scripture. Various claims of these creation scientists include such ideas as creationist cosmologies which accommodate a universe on the order of thousands of years old, explanations for the fossil record as a record of the destruction of the global flood recorded in Genesis (see flood geology), and explanations for the present diversity as a result of rapid degradation of the perfect genomes God placed in "created kinds" (see creation biology).
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.
Old-Earth creationism itself comes in at least three types:
Gap creationism
Also called "Restitution creationism" this is the view that life was immediately created on a pre-existing old Earth.
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).
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 evolution by natural selection 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 evolution
Also known as "evolutionary creationism", this is the general view that, instead of faith being in opposition to biological evolution, some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of modern scientific theories, including specifically evolution. It generally views evolution as a tool used by God, and can synthesize with gap or day-age creationism, although most adherents consider that Genesis should not be interpreted as history at all, rather having a spiritual meaning. 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. George Coyne, (Vatican's chief astronomer between 1978 and 2006):
While supporting the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science, the proponents of theistic evolution reject the implication taken by some atheists that this gives credence to ontological materialism.
Many creationists (in the strict sense) would deny that the position is creationism at all, while on the other hand many scientists support such faiths which allow a voice to their spiritual side.
Neo-Creationism
Neo-Creationists intentionally distance themselves 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. Unlike their philosophical forebears, Neo-Creationists largely do not believe in many of the traditional cornerstones of creationism such a young Earth, or in a dogmatically literal interpretation of the Bible.
Intelligent design
Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Its leading proponents, all of whom are affiliated with the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank , claim that intelligent design is a scientific theory that stands on equal footing with, or is superior to, current scientific theories regarding the origin of life.
Jewish creationism
Judaism has a continuum of views about creation, the origin of life and the role of evolution in the formation of species. The major Jewish denominations, including many Orthodox Jewish groups, accept evolutionary creationism or theistic evolution.
Christian God as absolute origin
Nearly all denominations of Christianity assert that God is the origin, the first cause. Here, creation is described as an absolute beginning, which includes the assertion that the very existence of the universe is contingent upon a necessary higher being, God, who is not Himself created. Therefore the doctrine of biblical creation places the knowledge of God central in the pursuit of the knowledge of anything, for everything comes from God.
Prevalence of creationism
United States
According to a 2006 Gallup poll, about 46% of Americans believe in strict creationism, concurring with the statement that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years," and 36% believe that God guided the process of evolution. Belief in creationism is inversely correlated to education; of those with post-graduate degrees, only 22% believe in strict creationism.
In 1987, Newsweek reported: "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who ascribed to Biblically literal creationism."
In 2000, a People for the American Way poll estimated that:
20% of Americans believe public schools should teach evolution only; 29% of Americans believe that Creationism should be discussed in science class as a 'belief,' not a scientific theory; 13% of Americans believe that Creationism and evolution should be taught as 'scientific theories' in science class; 16% of Americans believe that only Creationism should be taught;According to a study published in Science, between 1985 and 2005 the number of adult Americans who accept evolution declined from 45 to 40%, the number of adults who reject evolution declined from 48 to 39% and the number of people who were unsure increased from 7% to 21%. (See the chart)
Less-direct anecdotal evidence of the popularity of creationism is reflected in the response of IMAX theaters to the availability of Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, an IMAX film which makes a connection between human DNA and microbes inside undersea volcanoes. "Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution."
The western world outside the United States
Most vocal creationists are from the United States, and creationist views are much less common elsewhere in the western world.
According to a PBS documentary on evolution, Australian Young Earth Creationists claimed that “five percent of the Australian population now believe that Earth is thousands, rather than billions, of years old.” The documentary further states that “Australia is a particular stronghold of the creationist movement.” Taking these claims at face value, Young Earth Creationism is very much a minority position in Western countries.
In Europe, creationism is a less well-defined phenomenon, and regular polls are not available. In the United Kingdom the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (previously the Vardy Foundation), which runs three government-funded 13 to 19 schools in the north of England (out of several thousand in the country) and plans to open several more, teaches that creationism and evolution are equally valid “faith positions”.
According to a study published in Science, a survey over the United States, Japan and Europe showed that public acceptance of evolution is most prevalent in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden at 80% of the population. (See the chart)
Of particular note for Eastern Europe, Serbia suspended the teaching of evolution for one week in 2004, under education minister Ljiljana Čolić, only allowing schools to reintroduce evolution into the curriculum if they also taught creationism. Čolić resigned after the government said that she had caused “problems that had started to reflect on the work of the entire government.”
In the United Kingdom a 2006 poll on the “origin and development of life” asked participants to choose between three different perspectives on the origin of life: 22% chose creationism, 17% opted for intelligent design, 48% selected evolution theory and the rest did not know.
Criticism of creationism
Scientific critique of creationism
Since the origins of modern geology in the 18th and 19th centuries, forms of creationism have become increasingly separated from mainstream science. As modern science called into question the literal interpretations of biblical account of creation in Genesis, creationists (especially Young Earth creationists) began to actively oppose the scientific consensus on questions of origins.
There is a fundamental difference between the scientific approach to explaining the natural world and the creationist approach.
Creationism, on the other hand, works by taking theologically conservative interpretations of scripture as the primary or only source of information about origins. Creationists believe that since the Creator created everything and also revealed scriptures, the scriptures have pre-eminence as a kind of evidence.
Certain adherents to creationism have declared that there exist versions of creationism (namely creation science) that are based on the scientific method. It was such claims that were the basis for the legal arguments that creationism deserved equal-time in the science classroom. Skeptical critics charge that creation science is not a theory that has come about through a systematic and scientific accumulation of evidence. It is predominantly based on the assumption of a literal interpretation of religious scripture and the emphasis of the authority of scripture over other sources of knowledge is evident in creation science literature.
All scientific theories are falsifiable; Since creationism rests on an article of faith, its construction assumes that the narrative accounts of origins can never be shown falsified, no matter how strong the evidence is to the contrary.
Evolutionary modern synthesis is the theory that fits all known biological and genetic evidence while being backed up by overwhelming evidence in the fossil record.
In the last ten years, DNA analysis techniques applied to many organisms have demonstrated the genetic relationship between all forms of known life (humans share 50% of their DNA with yeast, 96% with chimpanzees). Even if the theory of evolution was disproved, this would not imply separate human creation, which is the main feature of creationism in the Abrahamic religions. It is exclusively in the public sphere, where young Earth creationists (especially in the U.S.) have fought for recognition of their world view, that the debate about creationism and evolution continues.
The Christian critique of creationism
In "Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem", George Murphy argues against the common view that life on Earth in all its forms is direct evidence of God's act of creation (Murphy quotes Phillip Johnson's claim that he is speaking "of a God who acted openly and left his fingerprints on all the evidence.").
Luther opposes his theology of the cross to what he called the "theology of glory":
A theologian of glory does not recognize, along with the Apostle, the crucified and hidden God alone [I Cor.Murphy observes that the execution of a Jewish carpenter by Roman authorities is in and of itself an ordinary event and did not require Divine action.
Murphy concludes that,
Just as the son of God limited himself by taking human form and dying on the cross, God limits divine action in the world to be in accord with rational laws God has chosen.For Murphy, a theology of the cross requires that Christians accept a methodological naturalism, meaning that one cannot invoke God to explain natural phenomena, while recognizing that such acceptance does not require one to accept a metaphysical naturalism, which proposes that nature is all that there is.
In March 2006, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, reported that he was opposed to teaching creationism in schools. "My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it," Williams explained. Archbishop Williams also explained that creationism was "a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories." 66-73 Aryeh Kaplan, Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View, Ktav, NJ, in association with the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, NY, 1993
Organizations
Talk.origins maintains an extensive list of general links relevant to creationism and a full list of creationist websites. The following are links to the main organizations espousing a variety of viewpoints:
Young Earth Creationism
In the Beginning - Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood By Walt Brown Answers in Genesis A group promoting Young-Earth Creationism. Headquarters in Australia The Biblical Calendar of History Institute for Creation Research "A Christ-Focused Creation Ministry" The Creation Research Society The True.Origin Archive CreationWikiOld Earth Creationism
Reasons to Believe led by Hugh Ross Answers In Creation led by Greg NeymanIntelligent design
Access Research Network Discovery Institute Center for Science and CultureEvolutionary creationism
Faith of a scientist: a personal witnessEvolution
talk.origins Archive National Center for Science Education Evolution Sciences versus Doctrines of Creationism and Intelligent Design A pro-evolution or anti-creationism link directory The EvoWiki
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