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143-481: The term is most often used by creationists to describe adherence to the scientific consensus on evolution as equivalent to a secular religion . The term is very seldom used within the scientific community, since the scientific position on evolution is accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Because evolutionary biology is the default scientific position, it is assumed that "scientists" or "biologists" are "evolutionists" unless specifically noted otherwise. In

286-433: 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

429-518: 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

572-417: 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

715-463: 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

858-402: 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

1001-477: 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

1144-461: A mistake to think that creation happened in six days, or in any set amount of time. Augustine of the late fourth century who was also a former neoplatonist argued that everything in the universe was created by God at the same moment in time (and not in six days as a literal reading of the Book of Genesis would seem to require); It appears that both Philo and Augustine felt uncomfortable with the idea of

1287-560: 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

1430-470: 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

1573-643: A popular compromise, and St. George Jackson Mivart was among those accepting evolution but attacking Darwin's naturalistic mechanism. Eventually it was realised that supernatural intervention could not be a scientific explanation, and naturalistic mechanisms such as neo-Lamarckism were favoured as being more compatible with purpose than natural selection. Some theists took the general view that, instead of faith being in opposition to biological evolution, some or all classical religious teachings about Christian God and creation are compatible with some or all of modern scientific theory, including specifically evolution; it

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1716-659: A series of court decisions ruling out the teaching of creationism in American public schools, and the Discovery Institute has run a series of campaigns to change school curricula. In Australia, where curricula are under the control of state governments rather than local school boards, there was a public outcry when the notion of ID being taught in science classes was raised by the Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson ;

1859-452: A seven-day creation because it detracted from the notion of God's omnipotence. In 1950, Pope Pius XII stated limited support for the idea in his encyclical Humani generis . In 1996, Pope John Paul II stated that "new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis," but, referring to previous papal writings, he concluded that "if the human body takes its origin from pre-existent living matter,

2002-439: 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,

2145-508: 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

2288-586: A spectrum ranging from extreme literal biblical creationism to materialist evolution, grouped under main headings. This was used in public presentations, then published in 1999 in Reports of the NCSE . Other versions of a taxonomy of creationists were produced, and comparisons made between the different groupings. In 2009 Scott produced a revised continuum taking account of these issues, emphasizing that intelligent design creationism overlaps other types, and each type

2431-537: 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

2574-418: A subset of scientism . Creationist Creationism is the religious belief that nature , and aspects such as the universe , Earth , life , and humans , originated with supernatural acts of divine creation . In its broadest sense, creationism includes a continuum of religious views, which vary in their acceptance or rejection of scientific explanations such as evolution that describe

2717-492: A type of old Earth creationism, is a metaphorical interpretation of the creation accounts in Genesis . It holds that the six days referred to in the Genesis account of creation are not ordinary 24-hour days, but are much longer periods (from thousands to billions of years). The Genesis account is then reconciled with the age of the Earth . Proponents of the day-age theory can be found among both theistic evolutionists, who accept

2860-483: A universe on the order of thousands of years old, criticism of radiometric dating through a technical argument about radiohalos , explanations for the fossil record as a record of the Genesis flood narrative (see flood geology ), and explanations for the present diversity as a result of pre-designed genetic variability and partially due to the rapid degradation of the perfect genomes God placed in " created kinds " or " baramins " due to mutations . Neo-creationism

3003-471: 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

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3146-492: A young Earth, or in a dogmatically literal interpretation of the Bible . Intelligent design (ID) is the pseudoscientific view that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." All of its leading proponents are associated with the Discovery Institute , a think tank whose wedge strategy aims to replace

3289-562: Is a pseudoscientific movement which aims to restate creationism in terms more likely to be well received by the public, by policy makers, by educators and by the scientific community . It aims to re-frame the debate over the origins of life in non-religious terms and without appeals to scripture. This comes in response to the 1987 ruling by the United States Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard that creationism

3432-540: Is 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

3575-489: Is a grouping of various beliefs and positions. The revised diagram is labelled to shows a spectrum relating to positions on the age of the Earth , and the part played by special creation as against evolution. This was published in the book Evolution Vs. Creationism: An Introduction , and the NCSE website rewritten on the basis of the book version. The main general types are listed below. Young Earth creationists such as Ken Ham and Doug Phillips believe that God created

3718-434: Is also known as "evolutionary creation." In Evolution versus Creationism , Eugenie Scott and Niles Eldredge state that it is in fact a type of evolution. It generally views evolution as a tool used by God, who is both the first cause and immanent sustainer/upholder of the universe; it is therefore well accepted by people of strong theistic (as opposed to deistic ) convictions. Theistic evolution can synthesize with

3861-735: Is an inherently religious concept and that advocating it as correct or accurate in public-school curricula violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. One of the principal claims of neo-creationism propounds that ostensibly objective orthodox science, with a foundation in naturalism , is actually a dogmatically atheistic religion . Its proponents argue that the scientific method excludes certain explanations of phenomena, particularly where they point towards supernatural elements, thus effectively excluding religious insight from contributing to understanding

4004-560: 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

4147-575: Is fair enough, most of the history of the Christianity there's been an awareness that a belief that everything depends on the creative act of God, is quite compatible with a degree of uncertainty or latitude about how precisely that unfolds in creative time." Leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have made statements in favor of evolutionary theory, as have scholars such as the physicist John Polkinghorne , who argues that evolution

4290-615: 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

4433-475: Is highly correlated with fundamentalist thinking, unlike in Europe. Most contemporary Christian leaders and scholars from mainstream churches, such as Anglicans and Lutherans , consider that there is no conflict between the spiritual meaning of creation and the science of evolution. According to the former archbishop of Canterbury , Rowan Williams , "for most of the history of Christianity, and I think this

Evolutionism - Misplaced Pages Continue

4576-462: 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

4719-545: Is not a matter of religious teaching, and must stand or fall on its own scientific merits. Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church are not in conflict. The Catechism of the Catholic Church comments positively on the theory of evolution, which is neither precluded nor required by the sources of faith, stating that scientific studies "have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of

4862-457: Is not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," and hence cannot be taught as an alternative to evolution in public school science classrooms under the jurisdiction of that court. This sets a persuasive precedent , based on previous US Supreme Court decisions in Edwards v. Aguillard and Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), and by the application of

5005-595: 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

5148-531: Is one of the principles through which God created living beings. Earlier supporters of evolutionary theory include Frederick Temple , Asa Gray and Charles Kingsley who were enthusiastic supporters of Darwin's theories upon their publication, and the French Jesuit priest and geologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin saw evolution as confirmation of his Christian beliefs, despite condemnation from Church authorities for his more speculative theories. Another example

5291-562: 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

5434-451: Is radically creationist, but in a totally different sense. It is rooted in a belief that everything depends upon God, or better, all is a gift from God. While supporting the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science, the proponents of theistic evolution reject the implication taken by some atheists that this gives credence to ontological materialism . In fact, many modern philosophers of science, including atheists, refer to

5577-456: Is that of Liberal theology , not providing any creation models, but instead focusing on the symbolism in beliefs of the time of authoring Genesis and the cultural environment. Many Christians and Jews had been considering the idea of the creation history as an allegory (instead of historical) long before the development of Darwin's theory of evolution. For example, Philo , whose works were taken up by early Church writers, wrote that it would be

5720-439: 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

5863-536: 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

Evolutionism - Misplaced Pages Continue

6006-515: Is widely used, but the term evolutionism is not used in the scientific community to refer to evolutionary biology as it is redundant and anachronistic. However, the term has been used by creationists in discussing the creation–evolution controversy . For example, the Institute for Creation Research , in order to imply placement of evolution in the category of 'religions', including atheism , fascism , humanism and occultism , commonly uses

6149-699: 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

6292-650: 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

6435-460: The Garden of Eden . This story is the basis of creationist cosmology and biology. The Genesis flood narrative (Genesis 6–9) tells how God destroys the world and all life through a great flood, saving representatives of each form of life by means of Noah's Ark . This forms the basis of creationist geology, better known as flood geology . Recent decades have seen attempts to de-link creationism from

6578-653: 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

6721-535: 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

6864-596: The Islamic and Hindu 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 , and he used the term later in letters to colleagues. 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

7007-579: The Lemon test , that creates a legal hurdle to teaching intelligent design in public school districts in other federal court jurisdictions. In astronomy , the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, or the Ptolemaic system), is a description of the cosmos where Earth is at the orbital center of all celestial bodies. This model served as the predominant cosmological system in many ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece . As such, they assumed that

7150-906: 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

7293-606: 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

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7436-451: The age of the Earth or universe can be taken as reliable. Various supporters of Young Earth creationism have given different explanations for their belief that the universe is filled with false evidence of the universe's age, including a belief that some things needed to be created at a certain age for the ecosystems to function, or their belief that the creator was deliberately planting deceptive evidence. The idea has seen some revival in

7579-452: The age of the Earth , some tenets of biology such as microevolution as well as archaeology to make its case. In this view creation occurred in rapid bursts in which all "kinds" of plants and animals appear in stages lasting millions of years. The bursts are followed by periods of stasis or equilibrium to accommodate new arrivals. These bursts represent instances of God creating new types of organisms by divine intervention. As viewed from

7722-482: The creation–evolution controversy , creationists often call those who accept the validity of the modern evolutionary synthesis "evolutionists" and the theory itself "evolutionism". Before its use to describe biological evolution, the term "evolution" was originally used to refer to any orderly sequence of events with the outcome somehow contained at the start. The first five editions of Darwin's in Origin of Species used

7865-568: The scientific consensus on evolution , and progressive creationists , who reject it. The theories are said to be built on the understanding that the Hebrew word yom is also used to refer to a time period, with a beginning and an end and not necessarily that of a 24-hour day. The day-age theory attempts to reconcile the Genesis creation narrative and modern science by asserting that the creation "days" were not ordinary 24-hour days, but actually lasted for long periods of time (as day-age implies,

8008-402: The scientific method with "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions" which accepts supernatural explanations. It is widely accepted in the scientific and academic communities that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and is sometimes referred to as "intelligent design creationism." ID originated as a re-branding of creation science in an attempt to avoid

8151-476: The universe . This leads to an open and often hostile opposition to what neo-creationists term " Darwinism ", which they generally mean to refer to evolution , but which they may extend to include such concepts as abiogenesis , stellar evolution and the Big Bang theory. Unlike their philosophical forebears, neo-creationists largely do not believe in many of the traditional cornerstones of creationism such as

8294-446: The "days" each lasted an age). According to this view, the sequence and duration of the creation "days" may be paralleled to the scientific consensus for the age of the earth and the universe . Progressive creationism is the religious belief that God created new forms of life gradually over a period of hundreds of millions of years. As a form of old Earth creationism, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological estimates for

8437-554: 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

8580-590: 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. Following political controversy , creation science

8723-555: 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

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8866-405: 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

9009-409: The 20th century by some modern creationists, who have extended the argument to address the "starlight problem" . The idea has been criticised as Last Thursdayism , and on the grounds that it requires a deliberately deceptive creator. Theistic evolution, or evolutionary creation, is a belief that "the personal God of the Bible created the universe and life through evolutionary processes." According to

9152-528: The American Scientific Affiliation: A theory of theistic evolution (TE) – also called evolutionary creation – proposes that God's method of creation was to cleverly design a universe in which everything would naturally evolve. Usually the "evolution" in "theistic evolution" means Total Evolution – astronomical evolution (to form galaxies, solar systems,...) and geological evolution (to form

9295-463: The Bible and recast it as science; these include creation science and intelligent design . To counter the common misunderstanding that the creation–evolution controversy was a simple dichotomy of views, with "creationists" set against "evolutionists", Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education produced a diagram and description of a continuum of religious views as

9438-462: 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

9581-633: 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

9724-431: 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

9867-527: The Earth and the universe were created with the appearance of age , so that the world appears to be much older than it is, and that this appearance is what gives the geological findings and other methods of dating the Earth and the universe their much longer timelines . The Christian organizations Answers in Genesis (AiG), Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and the Creation Research Society (CRS) promote young Earth creationism in

10010-434: The Earth is only a few thousand years old. It is based on the religious belief that the universe was created by a divine being, within the past six to ten thousand years (in keeping with flood geology ), and that the presence of objective, verifiable evidence that the universe is older than approximately ten millennia is due to the creator introducing false evidence that makes the universe appear significantly older. The idea

10153-403: The Earth was "without form and void." This allows an indefinite gap of time to be inserted after the original creation of the universe, but prior to the Genesis creation narrative , (when present biological species and humanity were created). Gap theorists can therefore agree with the scientific consensus regarding the age of the Earth and universe, while maintaining a literal interpretation of

10296-429: 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

10439-544: The Earth within the last ten thousand years, with a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, within the approximate time-frame of biblical genealogies. Most young Earth creationists believe that the universe has a similar age as the Earth. A few assign a much older age to the universe than to Earth. Young Earth creationism gives the universe an age consistent with the Ussher chronology and other young Earth time frames. Other young Earth creationists believe that

10582-512: The Gap Theory ) is a form of old Earth creationism that posits that the six- yom creation period, as described in the Book of Genesis , involved six literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, which the theory states explains many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth . Thus, the six days of creation (verse 3 onwards) start sometime after

10725-445: The Genesis creation narrative such as the day-age creationism or framework /metaphoric/poetic views. Creation science, or initially scientific creationism, is a pseudoscience that emerged in the 1960s with proponents aiming to have young Earth creationist beliefs taught in school science classes as a counter to teaching of evolution. Common features of creation science argument include: creationist cosmologies which accommodate

10868-551: 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

11011-628: The Study of Creation promotes similar ideas. Old Earth creationism holds that the physical universe was created by God, but that the creation event described in the Book of Genesis is to be taken figuratively. This group generally believes that the age of the universe and the age of the Earth are as described by astronomers and geologists , but that details of modern evolutionary theory are questionable. Old Earth creationism itself comes in at least three types: Gap creationism (also known as ruin-restoration creationism , restoration creationism , or

11154-562: The Sun and the Moon are due to their actual motions around the Earth rather than due to the rotation of the Earth about its axis. For example, Joshua 10:12–13 where the Sun and Moon are said to stop in the sky, and Psalms 93:1 where the world is described as immobile. Contemporary advocates for such religious beliefs include Robert Sungenis , co-author of the self-published Galileo Was Wrong: The Church Was Right (2006). These people subscribe to

11297-507: The Sun, Moon, stars, and naked eye planets circled Earth, including the noteworthy systems of Aristotle (see Aristotelian physics ) and Ptolemy . Articles arguing that geocentrism was the biblical perspective appeared in some early creation science newsletters associated with the Creation Research Society pointing to some passages in the Bible, which, when taken literally, indicate that the daily apparent motions of

11440-552: 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

11583-454: 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

11726-642: The United States. Carl Baugh 's Creation Evidence Museum in Texas , United States AiG's Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky , United States were opened to promote young Earth creationism. Creation Ministries International promotes young Earth views in Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Among Roman Catholics , the Kolbe Center for

11869-581: 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

12012-455: 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

12155-485: 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,

12298-402: The archaeological record, progressive creationism holds that "species do not gradually appear by the steady transformation of its ancestors; [but] appear all at once and "fully formed." The view rejects macroevolution , claiming it is biologically untenable and not supported by the fossil record , as well as rejects the concept of common descent from a last universal common ancestor . Thus

12441-454: The biblical text. Some gap creationists expand the basic version of creationism by proposing a "primordial creation" of biological life within the "gap" of time. This is thought to be "the world that then was" mentioned in 2 Peter 3:3–6. Discoveries of fossils and archaeological ruins older than 10,000 years are generally ascribed to this "world that then was," which may also be associated with Lucifer's rebellion . Day-age creationism,

12584-433: 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

12727-498: The concept of unilineal (social) evolution used during the later part of what Trigger calls the Antiquarianism-Imperial Synthesis period (c1770-c1900). The term evolutionism subsequently came to be used for the now discredited theory that evolution contained a deliberate component, rather than the selection of beneficial traits from random variation by differential survival . The term evolution

12870-474: The cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man." Roman Catholic schools teach evolution without controversy on the basis that scientific knowledge does not extend beyond the physical, and scientific truth and religious truth cannot be in conflict. Theistic evolution can be described as "creationism" in holding that divine intervention brought about the origin of life or that divine laws govern formation of species, though many creationists (in

13013-401: The day-age creationist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative; however most adherents consider that the first chapters of the Book of Genesis should not be interpreted as a "literal" description, but rather as a literary framework or allegory. From a theistic viewpoint, the underlying laws of nature were designed by God for a purpose, and are so self-sufficient that the complexity of

13156-521: 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

13299-447: 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

13442-483: The earth's geology) plus chemical evolution (to form the first life) and biological evolution (for the development of life) – but it can refer only to biological evolution. Through the 19th century the term creationism most commonly referred to direct creation of individual souls , in contrast to traducianism . Following the publication of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation , there

13585-409: The entire physical universe evolved from fundamental particles in processes such as stellar evolution , life forms developed in biological evolution, and in the same way the origin of life by natural causes has resulted from these laws. In one form or another, theistic evolution is the view of creation taught at the majority of mainline Protestant seminaries. For Roman Catholics, human evolution

13728-560: The evidence for macroevolution is claimed to be false, but microevolution is accepted as a genetic parameter designed by the Creator into the fabric of genetics to allow for environmental adaptations and survival. Generally, it is viewed by proponents as a middle ground between literal creationism and evolution. Organizations such as Reasons To Believe , founded by Hugh Ross , promote this version of creationism. Progressive creationism can be held in conjunction with hermeneutic approaches to

13871-422: 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

14014-406: 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

14157-403: 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

14300-410: 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

14443-437: The human species as having evolved from a primitive form to modern man, but that the capacity to form human intelligence was always in existence. Buddhism denies a creator deity and posits that mundane deities such as Mahabrahma are sometimes misperceived to be a creator. While Buddhism includes belief in divine beings called devas , it holds that they are mortal, limited in their power, and that none of them are creators of

14586-404: 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

14729-481: 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"

14872-407: 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

15015-468: The laws of nature, and the book makes several references to "creation," though he later regretted using the term rather than calling it an unknown process. In America, Asa Gray argued that evolution is the secondary effect, or modus operandi , of the first cause, design, and published a pamphlet defending the book in theistic terms, Natural Selection not inconsistent with Natural Theology . Theistic evolution, also called, evolutionary creation, became

15158-467: The long-standing convention in the scientific method that observable events in nature should be explained by natural causes, with the distinction that it does not assume the actual existence or non-existence of the supernatural. There are also non-Christian forms of creationism, notably Islamic creationism and Hindu creationism . In the creation myth taught by Bahá'u'lláh , the Bahá'í Faith founder,

15301-400: 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

15444-614: The minister quickly conceded that the correct forum for ID, if it were to be taught, is in religious or philosophy classes. In the US, teaching of intelligent design in public schools has been decisively ruled by a federal district court to be in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In Kitzmiller v. Dover , the court found that intelligent design

15587-402: The most likely explanation for the origins of species, and did not take a literal view of the Genesis creation narrative. The United States is an exception where belief in religious fundamentalism is much more likely to affect attitudes towards evolution than it is for believers elsewhere. Political partisanship affecting religious belief may be a factor because political partisanship in the US

15730-434: 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

15873-480: 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

16016-462: 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

16159-428: The origin and development of natural phenomena. 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 . Since

16302-417: 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

16445-494: 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

16588-406: 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

16731-447: 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

16874-649: 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

17017-418: 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

17160-492: 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

17303-412: The spiritual soul is immediately created by God." In the US, Evangelical Christians have continued to believe in a literal Genesis. As of 2008 , members of evangelical Protestant (70%), Mormon (76%) and Jehovah's Witnesses (90%) denominations were the most likely to reject the evolutionary interpretation of the origins of life. Young Earth creationism Young Earth creationism ( YEC )

17446-522: The strict sense) would deny that the position is creationism at all. In the creation–evolution controversy , its proponents generally take the "evolutionist" side. This sentiment was expressed by Fr. George Coyne , (the Vatican 's chief astronomer between 1978 and 2006): ...in America, creationism has come to mean some fundamentalistic, literal, scientific interpretation of Genesis. Judaic-Christian faith

17589-444: 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

17732-503: 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

17875-562: The universe has "neither beginning nor ending," and that the component elements of the material world have always existed and will always exist. With regard to evolution and the origin of human beings, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave extensive comments on the subject when he addressed western audiences in the beginning of the 20th century. Transcripts of these comments can be found in Some Answered Questions , Paris Talks and The Promulgation of Universal Peace . 'Abdu'l-Bahá described

18018-528: The universe. In the Saṃyutta Nikāya , the Buddha also states that the cycle of rebirths stretches back hundreds of thousands of eons, without discernible beginning. Major Buddhist Indian philosophers such as Nagarjuna , Vasubandhu , Dharmakirti and Buddhaghosa , consistently critiqued Creator God views put forth by Hindu thinkers. As of 2006 , most Christians around the world accepted evolution as

18161-506: 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

18304-400: The very terms of his doctrine places them out of the reach of scientific explanation." The basis for many creationists' beliefs is a literal or quasi-literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis . The Genesis creation narratives (Genesis 1–2) describe how God brings the Universe into being in a series of creative acts over six days and places the first man and woman ( Adam and Eve ) in

18447-433: The view that a plain reading of the Bible contains an accurate account of the manner in which the universe was created and requires a geocentric worldview. Most contemporary creationist organizations reject such perspectives. The Omphalos hypothesis is one attempt to reconcile the scientific evidence that the universe is billions of years old with a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, which implies that

18590-435: 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

18733-400: The word "evolved", but the word "evolution" was only used in its sixth edition in 1872. By then, Herbert Spencer had developed the concept theory that organisms strive to evolve due to an internal "driving force" ( orthogenesis ) in 1862. Edward B. Tylor and Lewis H Morgan brought the term "evolution" to anthropology though they tended toward the older pre-Spencerian definition helping to form

18876-469: The words evolutionism and evolutionist to describe the consensus of mainstream science and the scientists subscribing to it, thus implying through language that the issue is a matter of religious belief. The BioLogos Foundation , an organization that promotes the idea of theistic evolution , uses the term "evolutionism" to describe "the atheistic worldview that so often accompanies the acceptance of biological evolution in public discourse." It views this as

19019-471: 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

19162-467: 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

19305-428: Was interest in ideas of Creation by divine law . In particular, the liberal theologian Baden Powell argued that this illustrated the Creator's power better than the idea of miraculous creation, which he thought ridiculous. When On the Origin of Species was published, the cleric Charles Kingsley wrote of evolution as "just as noble a conception of Deity." Darwin's view at the time was of God creating life through

19448-402: 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

19591-524: Was named after the title of an 1857 book, Omphalos by Philip Henry Gosse , in which Gosse argued that in order for the world to be functional God must have created the Earth with mountains and canyons, trees with growth rings, Adam and Eve with fully grown hair, fingernails, and navels (ὀμφαλός omphalos is Greek for "navel"), and all living creatures with fully formed evolutionary features, etc..., and that, therefore, no empirical evidence about

19734-408: 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

19877-529: 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

20020-468: Was reformulated as intelligent design and neo-creationism . 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 . Less prominently, there are also members of

20163-435: 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

20306-501: 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

20449-425: 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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