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(For simplicity's sake we refer only to the Christian view rather than Islamic or other creationist views) What is creationism? Like evolution, the word can be defined in more than one way, which can lead to confusion. Here are some broad sketches and comments. This site contains links to several mainstream creationist sites for further study if required. As you would expect, it does contain some religion and Bible quotes, not in an attempt to 'convert' the reader but to set out as fairly as possible a brief summary of what creationists believe and why (see also Intelligent Design). Within contemporary Christian creationism there are at least two main schools of thought, "young earth creationism" (YEC) and "long age creationism" (LAC), and within these there are many differences of opinion. Furthermore, as Professor Michael Behe spelled out in his evidence in the USA Kansas court case, intelligent design and creationism are NOT the same thing. This can be confusing, but life is often messy and the presence of varying schools of thought is normal. Evolutionists have changed their minds many times, argue over differences of opinion and admit there are many unanswered questions. The important thing is to be aware that a word can be loaded with different meanings, sometimes as part of a deliberate attempt to smear or confuse, so it is important to be sure we know what we mean when we use a word, especially one as emotive as 'creationism', which Professor Richard Dawkins refers to as a 'contagion' and 'tantamount to child abuse' — hardly suitable language for a 'professor of public understanding of science'. Creationism has religious and philosophical implications, but so does evolution. That must not prevent our evaluating both positions on the basis of facts and reason. In fact, evolution can be held by some people as a faith position which may not be challenged, questioning which may be regarded as 'unpardonable heresy'. Many are prepared to ‘bend’ their observations to fit with it, denying contradictory evidence a hearing since the alternative is so unacceptable to them. We should not reject a theory that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it, or hold on to one we do like if the evidence is against. Creationists are accused of holding on to their 'fantasy' beliefs because they find comfort in them so refuse to hear the evidence against, but exactly the same charge can be put against evolutionists. Committed secular humanists do not want there to be a God, and this colours their thinking, leading to the ruling out of the possibility of God even when evidence is presented which severely challenges naturalistic explanations for life. |
YEC believe that as Genesis chapter one says that God made everything by His divine wisdom and power in 6 days, this should be accepted at face value as a matter of faith since the Bible is shown to be reliable by historical and theological means, and above all because Jesus can be trusted. If the first book of the Bible is unreliable, how can we trust the rest of it? This could be stereotyped with some fairness as saying "That old time religion's good enough for me and I don't care what the scientists say, I'll stick with Jesus and |
the Bible, and God can decide between me and them." This position is consistent with the belief that God made an excellent mature creation with everything good, but then man sinned and this ruined everything, including our intellects which are therefore apt to be deceived and reach wrong conclusions. Due to our fallen sinful natures, our desires and thoughts are corrupted and we fear, even hate, God and hide from him just as Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden after they sinned by disobeying God. Hiding from God intellectually involves deceiving ourselves, and so the theory of evolution is seen from the Biblical creationist perspective as being a false belief which we have set up, rather like an idol, in defiance of God. We do this because, like Adam and Eve, we choose autonomy rather than a relationship with God which requires our obedience. They quote the genealogies in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew ch 1, Luke ch 3) which trace the ancestry of Jesus of Nazareth right back to Adam, and also mention that whenever Jesus quoted the book of Genesis, he always did so as though it were actual history, which is what his Jewish listeners would have expected and understood. YEC see a continuous narrative from Genesis to Revelation, beginning to end, with the whole history of Noah, Abraham and the Jewish people being planned by God to bring their history and destiny to the point where it would be the right time for Jesus to emerge and become the Redeemer of mankind and Saviour of the world. This sort of creationism can rightly be termed 'fundamentalist', since adherents take the Bible as their fundamental text as a matter of faith, believe that it is completely and reliably true in every aspect, so that if anything else appears to criticise or disagree with the Bible, that something else must be wrong, or there is some misunderstanding but the Bible is still right. Asked to defend such a view of the Bible, YEC, along with other Bible believing Christians, will use historic arguments to assert the validity of the Bible, including fulfilled Biblical prophecies, and, centrally, the life and work of Jesus. They will also point to the inadequacies as they see it of all other attempts to make sense of the universe, and will also testify of life-changing experience of God on a personal level through prayer and communion with God through the Holy Spirit. These cannot of course be scientifically tested, but quality of life and well-being measures can be tested, and Christians seem to do better in many measurable ways. Biblical creationists believe that true science and true religion are perfectly compatible, as you would expect if God is the Great Maker of all things, including the laws of the universe that we can discover through honest scientific exploration. |
CREATIONISM |
