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The above however is something of a simplified stereotype. Scientifically literate creationists (who may also be YEC) recognise that a 'simple faith' position alone is not enough and that science cannot be ignored. They believe that if God made us in his image as rational beings, then true faith cannot be opposed to reason, so we should not expect to find science and the true revealed faith to be in conflict. Their position is that science does not support molecules-to-man evolution, and has been falsely represented as doing so by those who want a God-free world view. Serious and sustained attempts are made by many YEC to study the sciences of geology, astronomy, mathematics, biology, palaeontology etc. to show that the facts are compatible with and/or supportive of a YEC position, and that many |
repeatable scientific facts are not consistent with or completely contradictory of an evolutionary explanation. So although it is true to say that young earth creationists are looking in science for evidence to support their faith based world view, they would assert that (a) evolutionists are also seeking to use science to support their (godless) world view, and (b) 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. On our links page we provide access to the main YEC websites. |
The arguments used by creationists can be very briefly summarised as follows: 1) the things that we see in the living world (to say nothing of the universe) are too complicated, purposeful and beautiful to be accounted for by chance 2) the evidence put forward to support evolution by chance is inadequate to prove the case 3) there is reasonable historical evidence for the Judaeo Christian God narrative and above all for the acts and claims of Jesus including his ressurrection which has been described as the best documented fact in ancient history. (see God and Reason) 4) accepting evolution as an alternative creation story has have a negative effect on moral behaviour due to the loss of God-given moral absolutes. As well as damaging family life this has led to social interpretations of Darwinism including hard-line free market Capitalism, Marxism, and to some extent Nazism, which have devastated society and led to war, famine and tyranny on a scale far worse than the most extreme religious wars of history. Of course, each of these statements requires amplification and justification and this is attempted through the site and links. Science advances by asking questions and seeing if theories can be used to make predictions or if they can be disproved. Strongly held beliefs are often held on to firmly, regardless of arguments. Creationists hold that true religion and true science can never be in conflict, so if there appears to be a conflict it is due to a misunderstanding. In the case of Darwinistic evolution, creationists assert that the misunderstanding began with Darwin when he assumed that limited variation within created kinds could be extrapolated infinitely to lead to all living things from a single celled common ancestor. Creationists assert that this is widely believed for reasons other than true science. Theistic evolution is accepted by many Christians who believe in Jesus and the greater part of the Judaeo-Christian Biblical narrative, but who are unable or unwilling to reject the evolution they were taught as fact since early childhood. Theistic evolution essentially accepts the whole of the Darwin system but attributes the design and moving forward of life to the will of God. They therefore accept intelligent design at least to some extent, but also accept the idea of gradual change with increasing complexity and diversification over billions of years. This is seen by young earth creationists as an awkward compromise and by atheistic evolutionists as woolly mindedness. It seems to be a 'default position' held not with any great conviction but as being a way of holding on to the core beliefs of Christianity without going to war with science. The response of young earth creationists to this is that you don't have to go to war with science, only with evolutionist beliefs, which aren't the same thing at all. Scientific creationists dispute evolution by scientific argument. Scientific creationists assert that Darwin was factually incorrect to say that all living things developed by unguided evolutionary changes from a common ancestor, because his evidence simply did not allow this conclusion to be made. They assert that the mainstream scientific community has been led up the garden path so to speak by an unscientific and plain wrong interpretation of the data, for various reasons unconnected with pure science. They further point out that Darwin in 'Origin of Species' admitted he had no idea how the supposed common ancestor came into being, and neither do his followers today (see abiogenesis). —S. H. |
CREATIONISM (continued) |
