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85-457: The Hebrew word behemoth has the same form as the plural of the Hebrew noun בהמה behemah meaning 'beast', suggesting an augmentative meaning 'great beast'. However, some theorize that the word might originate from an Egyptian word of the form pꜣ jḥ mw 'the water-ox' meaning ' hippopotamus ', altered by folk etymology in Hebrew to resemble behemah . However, this phrase with this meaning

170-410: A cedar ; The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are like tubes of bronze, His limbs like iron rods. He is the first of God’s works; Only his Maker can draw the sword against him. The mountains yield him produce, Where all the beasts of the field play. He lies down beneath the lotuses , In the cover of the swamp reeds. The lotuses embower him with shade; The willows of

255-433: A common primordial origin into the diverse forms observed in the fossil record and present today. Evolutionary theory remains the only explanation that fully accounts for all the observations, measurements, data, and evidence discovered in the fields of biology , ecology , anatomy , physiology , zoology , paleontology , molecular biology , genetics , anthropology , and others. As such, young Earth creationism

340-518: A " hyperbaric biosphere " intended to reproduce the atmospheric conditions before the Flood which could grow dinosaurs. The proprietor Carl Baugh says that these conditions made creatures grow larger and live longer, so that humans of that time were giants. As the term "dinosaur" was coined by Richard Owen in 1842, the Bible does not use the word "dinosaur". Some creationist organizations propose that

425-417: A 24-hour day or a long or unspecified time; but argue that, whenever the latter interpretation is used, it includes a preposition defining the long or unspecified period. In the specific context of Genesis 1 , since the days are both numbered and are referred to as "evening and morning", this can mean only normal-length days. Further, they argue that the 24-hour day is the only interpretation that makes sense of

510-463: A cedar"; the behemoth is described as ranking "first among the works of God" and as impossible to capture (vs. 24). Biblical scholars have alternatively identified the behemoth as either an elephant, a hippopotamus , or a bull, but some creationists have identified the behemoth with sauropod dinosaurs, often specifically the Brachiosaurus according to their interpretation of the verse "He

595-402: A day-age theory of indefinite 'days'. He subscribed to the latter theory (indefinite days) and found support from the side of Yale professor James Dwight Dana , one of the fathers of mineralogy , who wrote a paper consisting of four articles named 'Science and the Bible' on the topic. As many biblical scholars reinterpreted Genesis 1 in the light of Lyell's geological results with the support of

680-589: A form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespread version, YEC is based on the religious belief in the inerrancy of certain literal interpretations of the Book of Genesis . Its primary adherents are Christians and Jews who believe that God created

765-477: A metaphorical interpretation of the Genesis creation account. Since the mid-20th century, young Earth creationists—starting with Henry Morris (1918–2006)—have developed and promoted a pseudoscientific explanation called creation science as a basis for a religious belief in a supernatural, geologically recent creation, in response to the scientific acceptance of Charles Darwin 's Theory of Evolution , which

850-560: A more complete discussion. As a position that developed out of the explicitly anti-intellectual side of the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy in the early parts of the twentieth century, there is no single unified nor consistent consensus on how creationism as a belief system ought to reconcile its adherents' acceptance of biblical inerrancy with empirical facts of the Universe. Although young Earth creationism

935-470: A number of renowned (Christian) scientific scholars, Developmentalism, a form of theistic evolution based on Darwin's Natural selection, grew in acceptance. This 19th century trend was contested. The scriptural geologists and later the founders of the Victoria Institute opposed the decline of support for a biblically literal young Earth. The rise of fundamentalist Christianity early in

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1020-439: A similar question in 2019, 40 percent of US adults held the view that "God created [human beings] in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years." Among the biggest young Earth creationist organizations are Answers in Genesis , Institute for Creation Research and Creation Ministries International . Young Earth creationists have claimed that their view has its earliest roots in ancient Judaism, citing, for example,

1105-508: A sound scientific basis... then the entire evolutionary cosmology, at least in its present neo-Darwinian form, will collapse. This in turn would mean that every anti-Christian system and movement (communism, racism, humanism , libertarianism , behaviorism , and all the rest) would be deprived of their pseudo-intellectual foundation", "It [evolution] has served effectively as the pseudo-scientific basis of atheism , agnosticism, socialism, fascism, and numerous faulty and dangerous philosophies over

1190-485: A strong stand on the age of the Earth, special creation, or even the identity of the designer. Young Earth creationists disagree with the methodological naturalism that is part of the scientific method . Instead, they assert the actions of God as described in the Bible occurred as written and therefore only scientific evidence that points to the Bible being correct can be accepted. See Creation–evolution controversy for

1275-450: A whole year. As a result, weak animals live in safety away from the reach of wild animals. This mythical phenomenon is shown as an example of divine mercy and goodness. Without Behemoth's roar, traditions narrate, animals would grow more wild and ferocious, and hence go around butchering each other and humans. Modern interpretations of Behemoth tend to fall into several categories: Additionally, some creationist fundamentalists , such as

1360-471: A young Earth creationist viewpoint. Langdon Gilkey writes: ... no distinction is made between scientific theories on the one hand and philosophical or religious theories on the other, between scientific questions and the sorts of questions religious beliefs seek to answer... It is, therefore, no surprise that in their theological works, as opposed to their creation science writings, creationists regard evolution and all other theories associated with it, as

1445-509: Is a demon that resembles a round-bellied humanoid elephant . He works as the infernal watchman for Satan and oversees the banquets in Hell while having a good singing voice. The Behemoth is also mentioned in the opera, Nixon in China , composed by John Adams , and written by Alice Goodman . At the beginning of the first act, the chorus sings "The people are the heroes now, Behemoth pulls

1530-560: Is dismissed by the academic and the scientific communities. One 1987 estimate found that "700 scientists ... (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) ... give credence to creation-science". An expert in the evolution-creationism controversy, professor and author Brian Alters , states that "99.9% of scientists accept evolution". A 1991 Gallup poll found that about 5 per cent of American scientists (including those with training outside biology) identified themselves as creationists. For their part, young Earth creationists say that

1615-615: Is higher in the U.S. than in most of the rest of the Western world . A 2012 Gallup survey reported that 46 per cent of Americans believed in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years, a statistic which has remained essentially the same since 1982; for those with a postgraduate education, only 25 per cent believed in the creationist viewpoint. About one third of Americans believed that humans evolved with God's guidance and 15 per cent said humans evolved , but that God had no part in

1700-462: Is known as Megalania ( Varanus priscus ). However, Megalania was a gigantic species of monitor lizard , and not a dinosaur, as its discoverer, Richard Owen , realized that the skeletal remains were that of a lizard , and not an archosaur . Some creationists believe that Mokele-mbembe , a cryptid said to dwell deep in the Congo rainforest, may be a living sauropod, though the scientific consensus

1785-595: Is one of the most stridently literalist positions taken among professed creationists, there are also examples of biblical literalist adherents to both geocentrism and a flat Earth . Conflicts between different kinds of creationists are rather common, but three in particular are of particular relevance to YEC: Old Earth Creationism , Gap creationism , and the Omphalos hypothesis . Young Earth creationists reject old Earth creationism and day-age creationism on textual and theological grounds. In addition, they claim that

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1870-562: Is possible given the geological evidence for much longer timescales. The Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College has identified two major types of YEC belief systems: Young Earth creationists regard the Bible as a historically accurate, factually inerrant record of natural history. As Henry Morris, a leading young Earth creationist, explained it, "Christians who flirt with less-than-literal readings of biblical texts are also flirting with theological disaster." According to Morris, Christians must "either ... believe God's Word all

1955-439: Is that this is extremely unlikely. In a 2019 issue of Skeptical Inquirer science author Philip J. Senter details many 16th and 17th century hoaxes who constructed composite dragons which Senter calls the "Piltdown Men of Creationism" stating that many young Earth creationists believe these hoaxes even though "the fakes don't even resemble the very animals the creationist authors claim they are". Other more recent hoaxes such as

2040-536: Is the chief of the ways of God" implying that the behemoth is the largest animal God created. The leviathan is another creature referred to in the Bible's Old Testament that some creationists argue is actually a dinosaur. Alternatively, more mainstream scholars have identified the Leviathan ( Job 41 ) with the Nile crocodile or, because Ugarit texts describe it as having seven heads, a purely mythical beast similar to

2125-496: Is unattested at any stage of Egyptian. The Hebrew word behemoth is only mentioned once in Biblical text, in a speech from the mouth of God in the Book of Job . It is a primeval creature created by God and so powerful that only God can overcome him: Take now behemoth, whom I made as I did you; He eats grass, like the cattle. His strength is in his loins, His might in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stand up like

2210-699: The Cardiff Giant , the Silverbell artifacts , the Burdick tracks and the Acámbaro figures are still being cited as proof of a young earth even though some of the hoaxers confessed. Young Earth creationists according to Senter are quick to point out the embarrassing forgeries that some scientists believed for years, such as the Piltdown Man . Senter continues "But it is also somewhat hypocritical, for

2295-661: The Christian organization Answers in Genesis , claim that the Behemoth is some species of sauropod or other dinosaur based on the comparison of the tail to a cedar tree . The 17th-century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes named the Long Parliament 'Behemoth' in his book Behemoth . It accompanies his book of political theory that draws on the lessons of English Civil War , the rather more famous Leviathan . The Dictionnaire Infernal version of Behemoth

2380-650: The Early Modern Period (1500–1800) referenced an Earth that was few thousands of years old. For example William Shakespeare : ...The poor world is almost 6,000 years old. Beginning in the 18th century, support for a young Earth declined among scientists and philosophers as new knowledge including discoveries of the Scientific Revolution and philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment . In particular, discoveries in geology required an Earth that

2465-653: The Great Flood on the shape of the Earth. Although not an accredited geologist, Price's writings, which were based on reading geological texts and documents rather than field or laboratory work, provide an explicitly fundamentalist perspective on geology. The book attracted a small following, with its advocates almost all being Lutheran pastors and Seventh-day Adventists in North America. Price became popular with fundamentalists for his opposition to evolution, though they continued to believe in an ancient Earth. In

2550-535: The Hebrew word tanniyn (תנין, pronounced [tanˈnin] ), mentioned nearly thirty times in the Old Testament , should be considered a synonym. In English translations, tanniyn has been translated as "sea monster" or "serpent", but most often it is translated as "dragon". Additionally, in the Book of Job , a " behemoth " ( Job 40:15–24 ) is described as a creature that "moves his tail like

2635-906: The Lernaean Hydra . A subset of adherents of the pseudoscience of cryptozoology promote young Earth creationism, particularly in the context of so-called "living dinosaurs". Science writer Sharon A. Hill observes that the young Earth creationist segment of cryptozoology is "well-funded and able to conduct expeditions with a goal of finding a living dinosaur that they think would invalidate evolution." Anthropologist Jeb J. Card says that "Creationists have embraced cryptozoology and some cryptozoological expeditions are funded by and conducted by creationists hoping to disprove evolution." Young Earth creationists occasionally claim that dinosaurs survived in Australia, and that Aboriginal legends of reptilian monsters are evidence of this, referring to what

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2720-606: The Sabbath command in Exodus 20:8–11. YECs argue that it is a glaring exegetical fallacy to take a meaning from one context (yom referring to a long period of time in Genesis 1) and apply it to a completely different one ( yom referring to normal-length days in Exodus 20). Hebrew scholars reject the rule that yôm with a number or an "evening and morning" construct can only refer to 24-hour days. Hugh Ross has pointed out that

2805-542: The Simurgh . Augmentative Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 549795256 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:46:16 GMT Young Earth creationism Young Earth creationism ( YEC ) is

2890-554: The 1950s, Price's work came under severe criticism, particularly by Bernard Ramm in his book The Christian View of Science and Scripture . Together with J. Laurence Kulp , a geologist and in fellowship with the Plymouth Brethren , and other scientists, Ramm influenced Christian organizations such as the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) in not supporting flood geology . Price's work

2975-555: The 19th century suggesting 20,000 BC. The Protestant reformation hermeneutic inclined some of the Reformers, including John Calvin and Martin Luther , and later Protestants toward a literal reading of the Bible as translated. This means they believed that the "days" referred to in Genesis correspond to ordinary days, in contrast to reading the "days" as standing in for a longer period of time. Famous poets and playwrights of

3060-405: The 20th century brought rejection of evolution among fundamentalists who explained an ancient Earth through belief in the gap or in the day-age interpretation of Genesis . In 1923, George McCready Price , a Seventh-day Adventist , wrote The New Geology , a book partly inspired by the book Patriarchs and Prophets in which Seventh-day Adventist prophet Ellen G. White described the impact of

3145-597: The 2nd century BC Book of Enoch ( 60:7–10 ), Behemoth is the unconquerable male land-monster, living in an invisible desert ( Duidain ) east of the Garden of Eden , as Leviathan is the primeval female sea-monster, dwelling in " the Abyss ", and Ziz the primordial sky-monster. Similarly, in the most ancient section of the Second Book of Esdras ( 6:47–52 ), written around AD 100 ( 3:1 ), the two are described as inhabiting

3230-462: The Bible is the actual word of God and should be interpreted literally, a statistic which had fallen slightly from the late 1970s. Some 54 per cent of those who attended church weekly and 46 per cent of those with a high school education or less took the Bible literally. The common belief of young Earth creationists is that the Earth and life were created in six 24-hour periods, 6,000–10,000 years ago. However, there are different approaches to how this

3315-706: The Controversy ) alongside or in replacement of the theory of evolution. Young Earth creationism has not had as large an impact in the less literalist circles of Christianity. Some churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches , accede to the possibility of theistic evolution ; though some individual church members support young Earth creationism and do so without those churches' explicit condemnation. Adherence to young Earth creationism and rejection of evolution

3400-486: The Earth in six literal days. This is in contrast with old Earth creationism (OEC), which holds literal interpretations of Genesis that are compatible with the scientifically determined ages of the Earth and universe, and theistic evolution , which posits that the scientific principles of evolution , the Big Bang , abiogenesis , solar nebular theory , age of the universe , and age of Earth are compatible with

3485-429: The Earth was deteriorating from a primal state, he maintained that the Earth was infinitely old. Hutton stated that: the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now … No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle. Hutton's main line of argument was that the tremendous displacements and changes he

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3570-551: The Reverends William Buckland , Adam Sedgwick and other early geologists had abandoned their earlier ideas of catastrophism related to a biblical flood and confined their explanations to local floods. By the 1830s, the scientific consensus had abandoned a young Earth as a serious hypothesis. John H. Mears was one of several scholars proposing Biblical interpretations ranging from a series of long or indefinite periods interspersed with moments of creation to

3655-552: The United States held the view that "God created humans in their present form at some time within the last 10,000 years or so" when asked for their views on the origin and development of human beings, which Gallup noted was the lowest level in 35 years. It was suggested that the level of support could be lower when poll results are adjusted after comparison with other polls with questions that more specifically account for uncertainty and ambivalence. Gallup found that, when asking

3740-454: The United States inclined to the view that "God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" when asked for their views on the origin and development of human beings, which Gallup noted was the lowest level in 35 years. Reasons for the higher rejection of evolution in the U.S. include the abundance of fundamentalist Christians compared to Europe. A 2011 Gallup survey reported that 30 per cent of Americans said

3825-581: The YEC literature is replete with cases in which its own authors have fallen for taxidermic 'dragon' hoaxes". Young Earth creationism is most famous for an opposition to the theory of evolution , but believers also are on record opposing many measurements, facts, and principles in the fields of physics and chemistry , dating methods including radiometric dating , geology , astronomy , cosmology , and paleontology . Young Earth creationists do not accept any explanation for natural phenomena which deviates from

3910-507: The age and some of whom reject it. Several early Jewish scholars, including Philo , followed an allegorical interpretation of Genesis. The most accepted and popular date of creation among young Earth creationists is 4004 BC because this specific date appears in the Ussher chronology . This chronology was included in many Bibles from 1701 onwards, including the authorized King James Version . The youngest ever recorded date of creation within

3995-485: The age of the Earth into the millions of years – still much younger than commonly accepted by modern scientists, but much older than the young Earth of less than 10,000 years in which Biblical literalists believed. Hutton's ideas, called uniformitarianism or gradualism , were popularized by Sir Charles Lyell in the early 19th century. The energetic advocacy and rhetoric of Lyell led to the public and scientific communities largely accepting an ancient Earth. By this time,

4080-486: The beautiful skin of the Leviathan, God will construct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the meat of the Behemoth and the Leviathan amid great joy and merriment." In the Haggadah , Behemoth's strength reaches its peak on the summer solstice of every solar year (around 21 June). At this time of year, Behemoth lets out a loud roar that makes all animals tremble with fear, and thus renders them less ferocious for

4165-461: The brook surround him. He can restrain the river from its rushing; He is confident the stream will gush at his command. Can he be taken by his eyes? Can his nose be pierced by hooks? The passage later pairs Behemoth with the sea-monster Leviathan , both composite mythical creatures with enormous strength that humans could not hope to control, yet both are reduced to the status of divine pets. In Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha , such as

4250-433: The commentary on Genesis by Ibn Ezra (c. 1089–1164). That said, Shai Cherry of Vanderbilt University notes that modern Jewish theologians have generally rejected such literal interpretations of the written text, and that even Jewish commentators who oppose some aspects of science generally accept scientific evidence that the Earth is much older. Some controversy has arisen among Ultra-Orthodox Jews, some of whom accept

4335-458: The days of the Messiah. A Jewish rabbinic legend describes a great battle that will take place between them at the end of time: "they will interlock with one another and engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore with strength, the fish [Leviathan] will leap to meet him with his fins, with power. Their Creator will approach them with his mighty sword [and slay them both];" then, "from

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4420-576: The dinosaurs with him in the ark, and that they only began to disappear as a result of a different post-flood environment. The Creation Museum in Kentucky portrays humans and dinosaurs coexisting before the Flood while the California roadside attraction Cabazon Dinosaurs describes dinosaurs as being created the same day as Adam and Eve. The Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas , has

4505-447: The earliest reference to this rule dates back to young Earth creationist literature in the 1970s and that no reference to it exists independent of the young Earth movement. The "gap theory" acknowledges a vast age for the universe, including the Earth and solar system, while asserting that life was created recently in six 24-hour days by divine fiat. Genesis 1 is thus interpreted literally, with an indefinite "gap" of time inserted between

4590-422: The first two verses. (Some gap theorists insert a "primordial creation" and Lucifer 's rebellion into the gap.) Young Earth creationist organizations argue that the gap theory is unscriptural, unscientific, and not necessary, in its various forms. Many young Earth creationists distinguish their own hypotheses from the "Omphalos hypothesis", today more commonly referred to as the apparent age concept, put forth by

4675-406: The flood described in Genesis 6–9 did occur, was global in extent, and submerged all dry land on Earth. Some young Earth creationists go further and advocate a kind of flood geology which relies on the appropriation of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century arguments in favor of catastrophism made by such scientists as Georges Cuvier and Richard Kirwan . This approach which was replaced by

4760-403: The genealogy. Differences of opinion exist regarding whether the genealogies should be taken as complete or abbreviated, hence the 6,000 to 10,000 year range usually quoted for the Earth's age. In contrast, Old Earth Creationists tend to interpret the genealogies as incomplete, and usually interpret the days of Genesis 1 figuratively as long periods of time. Young Earth creationists believe that

4845-461: The historic Jewish or Christian traditions is 3616 BC, by Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen . Some proponents of young Earth creationism have proposed dates that are several thousands of years earlier by theorizing significant gaps in the genealogies in chapters 5 and 11 of the Book of Genesis, such as 6984 BC by Alfonso X of Castile , Harold Camping with 11,013 BC, and Christian Charles Josias Bunsen in

4930-404: The intellectual source for and intellectual justification of everything that is to them evil and destructive in modern society. For them all that is spiritually healthy and creative has been for a century or more under attack by "that most complex of godless movements spawned by the pervasive and powerful system of evolutionary uniformitarianism", "If the system of flood geology can be established on

5015-481: The judge could not conceive how "a loose knit group of independent thinkers in all the varied fields of science could, or would, so effectively censor new scientific thought". A 1985 study also found that only 18 out of 135,000 submissions to scientific journals advocated creationism. Morris' ideas had a considerable impact on creationism and fundamentalist Christianity. Armed with the backing of conservative organizations and individuals, his brand of "creation science"

5100-407: The lack of support for their beliefs by the scientific community is due to discrimination and censorship by professional science journals and professional science organizations. This viewpoint was explicitly rejected in the rulings from the 1981 United States District Court case McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education as no witness was able to produce any articles that had been refused publication and

5185-400: The mid-nineteenth century almost entirely by uniformitarianism was adopted most famously by George McCready Price and this legacy is reflected in the most prominent YEC organizations today. YEC ideas to accommodate the massive amount of water necessary for a flood that was global in scale included inventing such constructs as an orbiting vapor canopy which would have collapsed and generated

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5270-420: The mountains and the seas, respectively, after being separated from each other, due to the sea's insufficiency to contain them both. Likewise, in the contemporary Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch ( 29:4 ), it is stated that Behemoth will come forth from his seclusion on land, and Leviathan out of the sea, and that the two gigantic monsters, created on the fifth day, will serve as food for the elect, who will survive in

5355-434: The naturalist and science writer Philip Henry Gosse . Omphalos was an unsuccessful mid-19th century attempt to reconcile creationism with geology. Gosse proposed that just as Adam had a navel ( omphalos is Greek for navel), evidence of a gestation he never experienced, so also the Earth was created ex nihilo complete with evidence of a prehistoric past that never actually occurred. The Omphalos hypothesis allows for

5440-480: The necessary extreme rainfall or a rapid movement of tectonic plates causing underground aquifers or tsunamis from underwater volcanic steam to inundate the planet. The young Earth creationist belief that the age of the Earth is 6,000 to 10,000 years old conflicts with the age of 4.54 billion years measured using independently cross-validated geochronological methods including radiometric dating . Creationists dispute these and all other methods which demonstrate

5525-462: The occasionally out-of-order sequence of fossils that are shown to be due to thrust faults made it impossible to prove any one fossil was older than any other. His "law" that fossils could be found in any order implied that strata could not be dated sequentially. He instead proposed that essentially all fossils were buried during the flood and thus inaugurated flood geology . In numerous books and articles he promoted this concept, focusing his attack on

5610-417: The past century. A 2006 joint statement of InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP) by 68 national and international science academies enumerated the many scientific facts that young Earth creationism contradicts, in particular that the universe, the Earth, and life are billions of years old, that each has undergone continual change over those billions of years, and that life on Earth has evolved from

5695-471: The peasants' plow" several times. The Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov used a demonic cat with the name Behemoth as a character in his novel The Master and Margarita . In the book the cat could speak, walk on two legs and was part of the entourage of Woland who represented Satan . The webnovel Worm features the Endbringers, a trio of city-destroying monsters named Behemoth, Leviathan, and

5780-494: The process. A 2009 poll by Harris Interactive found that 39 per cent of Americans agreed with the statement that "God created the universe, the earth, the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and the first two people within the past 10,000 years", yet only 18 per cent of the Americans polled agreed with the statement "The earth is less than 10,000 years old". A 2017 Gallup creationism survey found that 38 per cent of adults in

5865-484: The record of the rocks becomes a tremendous witness... to the holiness and justice and power of the living God of Creation!" This became the foundation of a new generation of young Earth creationist believers, who organized themselves around Morris' Institute for Creation Research . Sister organizations such as the Creation Research Society have sought to re-interpret geological formations within

5950-447: The results of physical anthropology and human evolution and instead insist that Adam and Eve were the universal ancestors of every human to have ever lived. Noah's flood as reported in the book of Genesis is said to have killed all humans on Earth with the exception of Noah and his sons and their wives, so young Earth creationists also argue that all humans alive today are descended from this single family. The literal belief that

6035-649: The rock strata which contain fossils of once-living creatures as subsequent to Adam's fall", attributing most to the flood. He added that humans and dinosaurs had lived together, quoting Clifford L. Burdick for the report that dinosaur tracks had supposedly been found overlapping a human track in the Paluxy River bed Glen Rose Formation . He was subsequently advised that he might have been misled, and Burdick wrote to Morris in September 1962 that "you kind of stuck your neck out in publishing those Glen Rose tracks." In

6120-418: The scientific data in geology and astronomy point to a young Earth, against the consensus of the general scientific community. Young Earth creationists generally hold that, when Genesis describes the creation of the Earth occurring over a period of days, this indicates normal-length 24-hour days, and cannot reasonably be interpreted otherwise. They agree that the Hebrew word for "day" ( yôm ) can refer to either

6205-492: The sequence of the geologic time scale as "the devil's counterfeit of the six days of Creation as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis." Today, many young Earth creationists still contend that the fossil record can be explained by the global flood. In The Genesis Flood (1961) Henry M. Morris reiterated Price's arguments, and wrote that because there had been no death before the Fall of Man, he felt "compelled to date all

6290-444: The third printing of the book this section was removed. Following in this vein, many young Earth creationists, especially those associated with the more visible organizations, do not deny the existence of dinosaurs and other extinct animals present in the fossil record . Usually, they claim that the fossils represent the remains of animals that perished in the flood. A number of creationist organizations further propose that Noah took

6375-559: The timescale of geologic history in spite of the lack of scientific evidence that there are any inconsistencies or errors in the measurement of the Earth's age. Between 1997 and 2005, a team of scientists at the Institute for Creation Research conducted an eight-year research project entitled RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) to assess the validity and accuracy of radiometric dating techniques. While they concluded that there

6460-506: The veracity of a plain reading of the Bible, whether it be the origins of biological diversity , the origins of life , the geological, atmospheric, and oceanic history of Earth , the origins of the Solar System and Earth , formation of the earliest chemical elements or the origins of the universe itself . This has led some young Earth creationists to criticize other creationist proposals such as intelligent design , for not taking

6545-435: The way, or not at all." Young Earth creationists consider the account of creation given in Genesis to be a factual record of the origin of the Earth and life, and that Bible-believing Christians must therefore regard Genesis 1–11 as historically accurate. Young Earth creationists interpret the text of Genesis as strictly literal. Young Earth creationists reject allegorical readings of Genesis and further argue that if there

6630-471: The world's linguistic variety originated with the tower of Babel is pseudoscientific , sometimes called pseudolinguistics, and it is contrary to what is known about the origin and history of languages . Young Earth creationists reject the geologic evidence that the stratigraphic sequence of fossils proves the Earth is billions of years old. In his Illogical Geology , expanded in 1913 as The Fundamentals of Geology , George McCready Price argued that

6715-467: Was developed over the previous century. Contemporary YEC movements arose in protest to the scientific consensus , established by numerous scientific disciplines, which demonstrates that the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years, the formation of the Earth and Solar System happened around 4.6 billion years ago, and the origin of life occurred roughly 4 billion years ago. A 2017 Gallup creationism survey found that 38 percent of adults in

6800-402: Was much older than thousands of years, and proposals such as Abraham Gottlob Werner 's Neptunism attempted to incorporate what was understood from geological investigations into a coherent description of the Earth's natural history. James Hutton , now regarded as the father of modern geology, went further and opened up the concept of deep time for scientific inquiry. Rather than assuming that

6885-408: Was not a literal Fall of Man , Noah's Ark , or Tower of Babel this would undermine core Christian doctrines like the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ . The genealogies of Genesis record the line of descent from Adam through Noah to Abraham. Young Earth creationists interpret these genealogies literally, including the old ages of the men. For example, Methuselah lived 969 years according to

6970-529: Was overwhelming evidence for over 500 million years' worth of radioactive decay, they claimed to have found other scientific evidence to prove a young Earth. They therefore proposed that nuclear decay rates were accelerated by a factor of one billion during the Creation week and at the time of the Flood. However, when subjected to independent scrutiny by non-affiliated experts, their analyses were shown to be flawed. Young Earth creationists reject almost all of

7055-435: Was seeing did not happen in a short period of time by means of catastrophe, but that the incremental processes of uplift and erosion happening on the Earth in the present day had caused them. As these processes were very gradual, the Earth needed to be ancient, in order to allow time for the changes to occur. While his ideas of Plutonism were hotly contested, scientific inquiries on competing ideas of catastrophism pushed back

7140-501: Was subsequently adapted and updated by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb Jr. in their book The Genesis Flood in 1961. Morris and Whitcomb argued that the Earth was geologically recent and that the Great Flood had laid down most of the geological strata in the space of a single year, reviving pre-uniformitarian arguments. Given this history, they argued, "the last refuge of the case for evolution immediately vanishes away, and

7225-425: Was widely promoted throughout the United States and overseas, with his books being translated into at least ten different languages. The inauguration of so-called "young Earth creationism" as a religious position has, on occasion, impacted science education in the United States , where periodic controversies have raged over the appropriateness of teaching YEC doctrine and creation science in public schools (see Teach

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