Creationism

For the more commonly used term, as seen in, for example, the Creation-evolution controversy see Abrahamic creationism.

Creationism or creation theology may refer to all or to a particular cultural origin belief; typically stressing the importance and holiness of a spiritual explanation over a strictly empirical one.

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—i.e. "creationism versus evolution." Hence 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.

Creationism commonly encompasses the claim that human beings, the world, and the universe were "created" (e.g. ex nihilo) by the deliberate actions of a supreme being, or deity. The term "supreme being" refers to any mytho-theistic personification, to whom the most supreme supernatural powers, and the most ancient origins are attributed (see demiurge).

Context

The term creationism is most often used to describe the belief that creation occurred literally as described in the book of Genesis (for Jews and Christians) or literally as described in the Qur'an (for Muslims.) See the articles on creation according to Genesis and Abrahamic creationism.

The terms Creationism and Creationist have become particularly associated with beliefs conflicting with the theory of evolution by natural selection. This conflict is most obvious in the United States, where there has been sustained creation-evolution controversy in the public arena. On the other hand, many faiths which believe in divine creation 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 evolutionary creationism, though others call them "theistic evolution".

Types of creationism

There are many types of creation beliefs. Followers of the Abrahamic religions have suggested many varied beliefs, as have followers of other convictions.

In principle, creationism does not necessarily require the belief in a currently-existing deity. Deism conceives of a God who designed and created the universe, but then ceased to actively interfere in its operation, perhaps ceasing to exist at all. In practice, however, most creationists believe that God both created the universe, and still exists, and is still in process with the universe.

Abrahamic creationism

Jews and Christians draw their ideas about the creation of the universe from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the book of Genesis. Although Genesis does not explicitly describe creation ex nihilo, the majority of Jewish and Christian commentators have understood Genesis in this way. Although the Hebrew Bible suggests different stories of creation, many Jews and most Christians have traditionally interpreted Genesis 1 as a literal account of the creation of the world. Today that view has changed among many (though not all) Jews and Christians, and they no longer hold it to be literally true.

Muslims see Genesis as a corrupted version of God's message, but the creation accounts in the Qu'ran are more vague than Genesis, and allow for a range of interpretations similar to those in the other Abrahamic religions.

Contemporary Jewish creationism, Christian creationism, and Islamic creationism takes a variety of forms which have been described as a continuum of types from Flat Earth creationism, Modern geocentrism, Young-Earth Creationism, Old-Earth Creationism including Gap creationism, Day-age creationism and Progressive creationism to Evolutionary creationism (also known as Theistic evolutionism). The Intelligent Design movement is considered by opponents to be covertly creationist.

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.

Non-divine creation

Not all stories of the creation of humanity, life or the universe rely on divine intervention. These are mostly scientific hypotheses that haven't been conclusively tested:

• Raelism – the belief that scientifically advanced extraterrestrials created life on Earth through genetic engineering. Raelism is often considered to be a cult.

• Panspermia – the belief that life on Earth was seeded here by meteors carrying primitive microbes and bacteria. Life then evolved further. This scientific hypothesis relies on the notion that life could have survived in these meteors for extremely extended periods. Panspermia is often considered to be improbable.

Other creation myths

Some of the descriptions of these myths may not be accurate, as many are not based on ancient written material, but have been pieced together from many different accounts.

• American Indian creationism – refers to hundreds of stories of creation. A common tread in many of them is that many claim that originally there was no essential difference between people and animals, that giant people and megafauna once coexisted, and that people and animals shrank in stature after the golden age came to an end with the earth being ravaged by fire from volcanism.

• The Navajo, for example, believed that in the beginning there were Holy People, supernatural and sacred, who lived below ground in twelve lower worlds. A great flood underground forced the Holy People to crawl to the surface of the earth through a hollow reed, where they created the world. Changing Woman gave birth to the Hero Twins, called "Monster Slayer" and "Child of the Waters" who had many adventures. Earth Surface People, mortals, were created, and First Man and First Woman were formed from ears of white and yellow corn.

• Quiche mayan creationism – the gods spoke the world into being, then tried creating humanity. Their first attempt failed, as people made of mud crumbled. Their second attempt failed too, as people of wood had no hearts. These people are the predecessors of monkeys. Finally, men made of corn meal and water were a success. To prevent these people from becoming gods, their vision was limited.

This story was recorded in the Popul Vu in the middle of the 16th century.

• Greek creation story – The Greek account of creation begins with a period of Chaos, when air, water, and matter were combined in a formless mixture. On this floated a Cosmic Egg, from which arose Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). These deities created the earth and its creatures and the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

• Norse creation story – the belief that the gods themselves were born from a man who was formed from a block of ice, which was licked by a mythical cow. The gods killed the ice giant Ymir, and made the Earth out of him, and the seas out of his blood.

This story was recorded in the Prose Edda by the Icelandic Snorri Sturluson.

• Japanese creation story – Izanami and Izanagi gave birth to the islands of Japan, and to the gods. Izanagi died while giving birth to the fire god. Enraged, Izanami killed the firegod. When he finished, he found Izanagi's rotting body, giving birth to the gods of thunder. Revolted, Izanami pulled back, which angered Izanagi. The resulting power struggle was ended only when a large boulder was placed between the land of the living and the land of the dead.

This story was recorded in 712 CE by O No Yasumaro.

• Hindu creation story – The universe was first given a purpose by the indiscernible Divine Self-existent. He created the waters with a thought and placed his seed, which became a golden egg, in them. From this egg, Brahma, progenitor of the world, was born. The heaven and earth, the mind, the soul and the five senses were created then, and are the basis for all beings.

This story was recorded in the Manavadharmashastra also known as the Manusmriti.

Criticism of creationism

It is important to understand from the outset that Creationism is not based upon scientific findings or upon a scientific approach to uncovering the origins of life. Indeed, many of the more modern forms of (particularly fundamentalist christian) creationism were born directly out of the conflict that occurred when Evolution became scientific orthodoxy, as a means of defending the literal truth of the biblical account of creation in genesis. Many modern creationists are widely regarded as 'anti evolutionists' rather than as people putting forward an honest alternative to explain the origins of life.

As such, it is appropriate to make note of the fundamentally differing approach between the two methodologies, and to highlight the overwhelming evidence in favour of evolution, as opposed to the total lack of positive evidence for creationism. Many Creationist and anti-evolutionist arguments are directed in the form of attacks towards Evolutionary theories.

The conceptual differences in approach between scientific models and religious models are also very revealing. Science uses the Scientific Method as a means of discovering information about the natural world. Scientists use observations, hypotheses and deductions to propose explanations for natural phenomena in the form of theories. Predictions from these theories are tested by experiment. If a prediction turns out to be correct, the theory survives. This is a meritocratic form of systematic enquiry, where the best ideas supported by evidence and positive experimental results survive. All scientific theories are falsifiable; that is, if evidence that contradicts any given theory comes to light, or if the theory is proven to no longer fit with the evidence, the theory itself is shown to be invalid. Evolution is a theory that fits in with all known biological evidence, fits in with all known genetic evidence, and is backed up by overwhelming evidence in the fossil record. It is also important to note that there is no 'debate' within scientific circles as to whether evolution is a fact or not. It is only in the public sphere, where young earth creationists (especially in America) have fought for recognition of their world view, that the debate about creationism and evolution rages.

Creationists sometimes minimize the explanatory power and validity of evolution theory by criticizing it as being "just a theory" implying that the word "theory" is synonymous with "conjecture" or "speculation", instead of the technical, scientifically accepted use of the word "theory" to mean a model of the world (or some portion of it) from which falsifiable hypotheses can be generated and be verified through empirical observation. In this sense, evolution is a very powerful theory.

Creationism is not a theory that has come about through a similar systematic accumulation of evidence. It is based on a literal interpretation of religious scripture and little more. Creationism also fails the criteria of falsifiability and parsimony. No evidence can be brought to prove that creationism is invalid, because creationism is a belief and not a scientific theory. The belief can persist in spite of the evidence.

It should also be noted that throughout human history there have been huge numbers of origin myths that attempt to explain the origins of humanity and of life in general. The form of creationism advocated by young earth creationists is simply a literal interpretation of one religion's beliefs of creation, as described in Genesis and in the Quran, which in itself is just one of a large number of origin myths which pre-date modern science. For these reasons, and simply because of the overwhelming evidence for evolution, creationism is not respected as a serious theory explaining the origins of life. Creationist responses to the success and prevalence of evolution range from belief in a world-wide atheistic conspriracy that has managed to successfully hoodwink almost everyone in the scientific community (including the vast number of scientists who identify themselves as being Christian), to the acceptance of some or even most of the relevant facts (regarding the age of the earth and theories of common descent, for instance).

The motivation behind the aggressive hostility of the fundamentalist Christian versions of Creationism towards evolution stems from their belief that the first chapter of Genesis should be understood as a literal description of the origin of the universe and everything in it. These Creationists believe that to deny the validity of a literal reading of Genesis is to deny the validity of the entire (Christian) Bible, and therefore to deny the validity of Christianity itself. Because the theory of evolution is incompatible with a literal reading of the first chapter of Genesis, Creationists therefore insist that evolution is an intrinsically atheistic theory. Moreover, they assert that evolution and Evolutionism are one and the same thing, and therefore that the theory of evolution (via Evolutionism) excuses and even promotes atheism and immorality. Although this view is most prevalent, and most explicitly promoted, in the more extreme varieties of Creationism (Young-Earth Creationism in particular), it is the driving force behind all anti-evolution movements that define themselves as Christian in origin, including the Intelligent Design movement.

Etymology

The word creation comes from the Latin word, creatio.

See also

• Evolution
• Abrahamic religions
• Creation evolution controversy

References

• Ian Barbour When Science Meets Religion, 2000, Harper SanFrancisco
• Ian Barbour Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues, 1997, Harper SanFrancisco.
• Stephen Jay Gould Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the fullness of life, Ballantine Books, 1999
• Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham Leading scientists still reject God in Nature, Vol. 394, No. 6691 (1998), p. 313. Online at http://www.freethought-web.org/ctrl/news/file002.html
• Scott, Eugenie C., 1999 (Jul/Aug). The creation/evolution continuum. Reports of the National Center for Science Education 19(4): 16–17,21–23.

References (historical)

• Gosse, Henry Philip, 1857. Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot. J. Van Voorst, London

References (Christian)

• Murphy, George L., 2002, "Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem," in Covalence: the Bulletin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology 4(2)

References (Jewish)

• Aviezer, Nathan. In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science. Ktav, 1990. Hardcover. ISBN 0–881253–28–6
• Carmell, Aryeh and Domb, Cyril, eds. Challenge: Torah Views on Science New York: Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists/Feldheim Publishers, 1976. ISBN 0873061748
• 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
• Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams In a Beginning...: Quantum Cosmology and Kabbalah, Tikkun, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 66–73
• Schroeder, Gerald L. The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom Broadway Books, 1998, ISBN 0–767903–03-X
• Jeffrey H. Tigay, Genesis, Science, and "Scientific Creationism", Conservative Judaism, Vol. 40(2), Winter 1987/1988, p.20–27, The Rabbinical Assembly

External links

• Creation Links and theory A site with links, facts, theories in more than 40 languages.

• Japanese Creation Myth
• Popul Vuh – Mayan
• Norse Creation Myth
• Indian cosmology