Creationism

"Creationism" can also refer to creation myths, or to an unrelated concept about the origin of the soul.
For the movement in Spanish literature, see Creationism (literature movement).

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Creationism

Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation.[1][2] In its broadest sense, creationism includes a continuum of religious views,[3][4] which vary in their acceptance or rejection of scientific explanations such as evolution that describe the origin and development of natural phenomena.[5][6]

The term creationism most often refers to belief in special creation: the claim that the universe and lifeforms were created as they exist today by divine action, and that the only true explanations are those which are compatible with a Christian fundamentalist literal interpretation of the creation myth found in the Bible's Genesis creation narrative.[7] Since the 1970s, the most common form of this has been Young Earth creationism which posits special creation of the universe and lifeforms within the last 10,000 years on the basis of flood geology, and promotes pseudoscientific creation science. From the 18th century onward, Old Earth creationism accepted geological time harmonized with Genesis through gap or day-age theory, while supporting anti-evolution. Modern old-Earth creationists support progressive creationism and continue to reject evolutionary explanations.[8] Following political controversy, creation science was reformulated as intelligent design and neo-creationism.[9][10]

Mainline Protestants and the Catholic Church reconcile modern science with their faith in Creation through forms of theistic evolution which hold that God purposefully created through the laws of nature, and accept evolution. Some groups call their belief evolutionary creationism.[5] Less prominently, there are also members of the Islamic[11][12] and Hindu[13] faiths who are creationists. Use of the term "creationist" in this context dates back to Charles Darwin's unpublished 1842 sketch draft for what became On the Origin of Species,[14] and he used the term later in letters to colleagues.[15] In 1873, Asa Gray published an article in The Nation saying a "special creationist" who held that species "were supernaturally originated just as they are, by the very terms of his doctrine places them out of the reach of scientific explanation."[16]

  1. ^ Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary says that creationism is 'the belief that the universe and living organisms originated from specific acts of divine creation.'"
  2. ^ Brosseau, Olivier; Silberstein, Marc (2015). "Evolutionism(s) and Creationism(s)". In Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Lecointre, Guillaume; Silberstein., Marc (eds.). Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 881–96. ISBN 9789401790147.
  3. ^ Brosseau, Olivier; Silberstein, Marc (2015). "Evolutionism(s) and Creationism(s)". In Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Lecointre, Guillaume; Silberstein., Marc (eds.). Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 881, 884. ISBN 9789401790147. Creationism is not a single homogenous doctrine ... Evolution, as a process, is a tool God uses to continually create the world. Here we have arrived at another sub-category of creationism called 'evolutionist creationism'
  4. ^ Haarsma 2010, p. 168, "Some Christians, often called 'Young Earth creationists,' reject evolution in order to maintain a semi-literal interpretation of certain biblical passages. Other Christians, called 'progressive creationists,' accept the scientific evidence for some evolution over a long history of the earth, but also insist that God must have performed some miracles during that history to create new life-forms. Intelligent design, as it is promoted in North America is a form of progressive creation. Still other Christians, called theistic evolutionists' or 'evolutionary creationists,' assert that the scientific theory of evolution and the religious beliefs of Christianity can both be true."
  5. ^ a b Eugenie Scott (13 February 2018). "The Creation/Evolution Continuum". NCSE. Retrieved 6 May 2019. creationism comes in many forms, and not all of them reject evolution
  6. ^ "creationism: definition of creationism in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)". Oxford Dictionaries (Definition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 656668849. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-05. The belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, as in the biblical account, rather than by natural processes such as evolution.
  7. ^ (Scott 2009, pp. 57, 97–98)
  8. ^ Eugenie Scott (13 February 2018). "The Creation/Evolution Continuum". NCSE. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  9. ^ "What is "Intelligent Design" Creationism?". NCSE. 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  10. ^ Campbell, Duncan (February 20, 2006). "Academics fight rise of creationism at universities". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-07.
  11. ^ Chang, Kenneth (November 2, 2009). "Creationism, Without a Young Earth, Emerges in the Islamic World". The New York Times.
  12. ^ al-Azami, Usaama (2013-02-14). "Muslims and Evolution in the 21st Century: A Galileo Moment?". Huffington Post Religion Blog. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  13. ^ "Creationism: The Hindu View". www.talkorigins.org. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  14. ^ Numbers 1998, p. 50 "Since at least the early 1840s Darwin had occasionally referred to 'creationists' in his unpublished writings, but the epithet acquired little public currency." – sketch written in 1842 – "if this had happened on an island, whence could the new forms have come,—here the geologist calls in creationists."
  15. ^ Darwin, Charles (July 5, 1856). "Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D." Darwin Correspondence Project. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Library. Letter 1919. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
    • Darwin, Charles (May 31, 1863). "Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa". Darwin Correspondence Project. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Library. Letter 4196. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  16. ^ Numbers 1998, p. 50 "In 1873 Asa Gray described a 'special creationist' (a phrase he placed in quotation marks) as one who maintained that species 'were supernaturally originated just as they are'," – The Nation. J.H. Richards. October 16, 1873. p. 260.