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Abrahamic creationism

Creationism
Template proposed for deletion
Creation according to Genesis

Theistic realism

Abrahamic creationism

Creation science

Intelligent design

Creation-evolution controversy

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Creation is the theological doctrine that all material in the universe was created by a divine agency, such as God, out of nothingness (ex nihilo). In its most specific theological context, creation refers to the belief that the human soul is created by a divine agency, and in this sense, creation is opposed to traducianism, which holds that a child's soul is inherited from his or her parents. This article only addresses creation in the Abrahamic religions; Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Although the Hebrew Bible does not provide an account of creatio ex nihilo and does suggest different accounts of creation, some Jews and Christians use Genesis 1 to support their beliefs about creation.


Table of contents

Different Abrahamic creation myths

  • Flat Earth creationism — God created the world with a flat surface 6,000 years ago. All that modern science says about shape, size, and age of the Earth is wrong, and evolution does not occur. Very few people today maintain such a belief.
  • Modern geocentrism — 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.
  • God created the Earth only recently, but made it appear much older. This is the belief of a subgroup of Young Earth creationists, which is sometimes termed the Omphalos argument. This argument was first made by Philip Henry Gosse in 1857. He held that the universe is only about 6,000 years old, but that God faked the appearance of the world, and planted fake fossils, to fool humans into believing that the world is really much older. This, in his view, was done as a test of faith. This view is popular among some Ultra-Orthodox Jewish and Protestant Christian young earth creationists.
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). Another theory states that the Hebrew word was mistranslated, and it's supposed to be seven ages. Some adherents claim we are still living in the seventh age ("seventh day"), while opponents say that the seventh day of creation must be the same type of day as the Sabbath for the Sabbath command to make sense.
  • 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. This accepts most of modern physical science including the age of the earth, but rejects much of modern biology or looks to it for evidence that evolution by natural selection is incorrect.
  • Evolutionary creationism/Theistic evolutionism — the general belief 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.
  • Intelligent Design movement — The main proponents of Intelligent Design have intentionally distanced themselves from other forms of creationism, preferring to be known as wholly separate from creationism as a philosophy. Rather they claim to support an uncritical look at origins as a means to discover the inherent supernatural design of the natural and biological worlds. As this necessarily relies on a supernatural explanation for natural events, opponents claim it is another form of creationism redressed for a public relations show (see Wedge strategy).

Jewish creationism

Jewish creationism includes a continuum of views about creationism, on aspects including the origin of life and the role of evolution in the formation of species as debated in the creation-evolution controversy. In general, the major Jewish denominations accept evolutionary creationism or theistic evolution, with the exception of certain Orthodox Jewish groups. The general approach of Judaism is that the creation account in the Torah is not to be taken as a literal text, but rather as a symbolic or mythical work.

Christian creationism

Christian responses to science

The Roman Catholic Church and many Protestant demoninations reject fundamentalist forms of creationism, as they accept the findings of modern science that life has evolved over time. They do hold that God created the world, and that God created souls for humans, but hold that their religious texts should be interpreted in consonance with scientific findings about our world. As such, many Christians hold to some form of theistic evolution, in which they accept that evolution occurs, but hold that God has some role in this process. In some forms of theistic evolution the role of God is minimized to the point of Deism, and the understanding of evolution is the same as that held by strict evolutionists.

Many Christians reject those who reject evolution, and reject fundamentalist interpretations of Genesis. They do this not only in recognition of the validity of science, but also because they reject creationism as theologically unsound. In Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem, Episcopalian theologian George Murphy argues against the common Creationist 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."). Murphy argues that this view of God is incompatable with the Christian understanding of God as "the one revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus." The basis of this theology is Isaiah 45:15, "Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior." This verse inspired Pascal to write, "What meets our eyes denotes neither a total absence nor a manifest presence of the divine, but the presence of a God who conceals himself." In The Heidelberg Disputation, Martin Luther refered to the same Biblical verse to propose his "theology of the cross": "That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened ... He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross."

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. 2:2]. He sees and speaks of God’s glorious manifestation among the heathen, how his invisible nature can be known from the things which are visible [Cf. Rom. 1:20] and how he is present and powerful in all things everywhere.

For Murphy, Creationists are modern-day theologians of glory. Following Luther, Murphy argues that a true Christian cannot discover God from clues in creation, but only from the crucified Christ.

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. On the contrary, for the crucifixion to occur, God had to limit or "empty" Himself. It was for this reason that Paul wrote, in Philippians 2:5–8,

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

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. This enables us to understand the world on its own terms, but it also means that natural processes hide God from scientific observation.

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.

God is not to be found in the suffering, privation, and extinctions of the world, nor is God to be found in the beautiful and orderly things in the world — according to theologian Emil Brunner, "God does not wish to occupy the whole of space Himself, but that He wills to make room for other forms of existence ... In so doing, He limits Himself." It is where God has limited Himself that humans must use their own intelligence to understand the world — to understand the laws of gravity as well as evolution – without relying on God as an explanation. It is only through the cross and the resurrection that one may find God.

God as absolute origin

Creationists in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church assert that God is the origin, the first cause. The Church holds as an unchangeable tenet of Christian faith, that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". These words suggest that God created everything except himself, he did so by himself, everything exists thanks to God. This is known as the Holy Trinity.

Here, clearly, creation is described as an absolute beginning, which includes the assertion that the very existence of the universe is contingent upon a necessary, uncreated being, a God who is not himself created. Therefore the doctrine of creation places the knowledge of God central in the pursuit of the knowledge of anything, for everything comes from God. The "supernatural" refers ultimately to God alone. Nature is denied to have divinity.

Although phrased differently, this doctrine of creation is common in many branches of other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the many branches of Protestantism, as well as the Roman Catholic Church. The strictness to which adherents are required to accept these views, and the sense in which these definitions are official, vary widely.

In his work The Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim), Saint Augustine (354-430), embarrassed by Christians who would not accept this implication of the Doctrine of Creation, wrote against them. This translation is by J. H. Taylor in Ancient Christian Writers, Newman Press, 1982, volume 41.

"Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, [..] and this knowledge he holds as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?" [1 Timothy 1.7]

In philosophy derived from the old testament, the doctrines of creation are the centripetal force, by which the centrifugal force of science is welded to the center, which is God. That is to say, the doctrine of creation is always in tension against science, preventing its movement away from God. The same doctrine pushes against science, to keep it from collapsing into magic and superstition, crashing in upon the center where God is alone. This analogy to the physics of a hub and spokes is inadequate, because in reality the struggle between science and God, with theology connecting the two, takes place where all of the complications of human nature are involved, and the progress of understanding bears no resemblance to the fluid motions of a wheel.

The Soul

The soul according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit — particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being.

Many Jews and Christians believe that the soul is an extension of God, while others hold that it cannot be an extension of God, as God is indivisible.

While most creationists believe that God creates each soul, a subset, called Traducians claim that creationism violates:

  • God’s creation having finished (Genesis 2:2). Thus no new souls are created directly, but are instead transmitted by natural generation just as the body is.
  • God created all things "very good" (Gen. 1:31), yet according to some Christians the Bible teaches that after the fall, all are sinful at birth (Job 14:1–4, 15:14, Psalm 58:3, John 3:6) and indeed from conception (Psalm 51:5). Since God would not have created something sinful, it follows that souls are not created directly but are generated.

Traducianists believe that the soul is inherited from the parents.

According to Catholic creationists, the physical generation of souls (as proposed by corporeal Traducianists) conflicts with the essential simplicity and the spirituality of the soul, and the only intelligible source of the soul's existence is God. Since the characteristic and exclusive act of the Divine Cause is creation, the soul must owe its origin to that operation. As regards the time when the individual soul is created, philosophical speculation varies. The ancient Platonic doctrine asserts the pre-natal existence of souls and their subsequent incarceration in bodies whereas the ancient hypothesis of transmigration predominates in Buddhism and Theosophy.

Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle's embryology, taught that the human fetus passes through progressive stages of formation. The soul is created when the body is ready for it, though some time is required after birth before the sensory organs are sufficiently developed to assist in the functions of intelligence. In this view the embryonic history of man is a recapitulation of the progressive stages of biological evolution through which human life evolved.

On the other hand, most Neo-Scholastics hold that the rational soul is created and infused into the being at the moment of conception. It should be noted that under the doctrine of creationism, the soul is not a miracle, but a law of nature, not an interference with life.

Prevalence of creationism

United States

In the United States, creationism is popular among the general Christian population, and unpopular in the academic and scientific communities. According to a 2001 Gallup evolution poll on the origins of humans, 72% of Americans believe in some form of creationism (as defined above). About 45% of Americans ascribe to the more Biblically literal creationism, believing that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.".

Among the scientific community, the Big Bang, abiogenesis, and biological evolution are overwhelmingly considered to be the correct description of the origins of the universe and life on Earth. According to a 1997 Gallup poll, 55% of scientists ascribe to a completely atheistic evolution, with a total rejection of any deistic involvement. 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 found that:

20% of Americans believe public schools should teach evolution only;
17% of Americans believe that only evolution should be taught in science classes — religious explanations should be taught in another class;
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;

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. The film's distributor reported that the only U.S. states with theaters which chose not to show the film were Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina:

We've got to pick a film that's going to sell in our area. If it's not going to sell, we're not going to take it," said the director of an IMAX theater in Charleston that is not showing the movie. "Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution." [1]

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. However, evolution is taught as scientific fact in most schools. In countries with a Roman Catholic majority, papal acceptance of evolution as worthy of study has essentially ended debate on the matter for many people. Nevertheless, creationist groups such as the German Studiengemeinschaft Wort und Wissen (Study group 'word and knowing')[2] are actively lobbying in Germany. In the United Kingdom the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (previously the Vardy Foundation), which owns two colleges 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". In Italy, the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wanted to retire evolution from schools in the middle level; after one week of massive protests, he reversed his opinion. [3]

Of particular note for Eastern Europe, Serbia suspended the teaching of evolution for one week in 2004, under education minister Ljiljana Colic, only allowing schools to reintroduce evolution into the curriculum if they also taught creationism. [4] "After a deluge of protest from scientists, teachers and opposition parties," says the BBC report, Ms Colic's deputy made the statement, "I have come here to confirm Charles Darwin is still alive," and announced that the decision was reversed. [5] Ms. Colic resigned after the government said that she had caused "problems that had started to reflect on the work of the entire government". [6]


History of the concept of creation

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.


Creationism and naturalism

Creationists believe that life was created by a devine power, and as such has special status, while naturalists believe life came into being through natural means. These opposing views have led to the debate commonly known as the creation evolution debate.

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.


See also

External links

Websites supporting creationism

Websites opposing creationism

Etymology

The word creation comes from the Latin word, creatio.








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