[Reference] Theory Of Creation
Written by: Aisha Adeoye
The theory of ceation also known as CREATIONISM is the religion fundamentalist belief that the earth as well as living things in it, and the universe did not come through a physical process but were created by a supernatural being, in a singgle creation event. This opposed scientific view of gradual evolution of the earth and species in it.
The first use of the term creationist to describe a proponent of creationism is found in an 1856 letter of Charles Darwin describing those who objected on religious grounds to the emerging science of evolution. Fundamentalist creationists usually base their beliefs on the Genesis creation narrative, other religions have different deity creation myths while different members of individual faith vary in their acceptnace of scientific findings.
Proponents of creation science are called creationists because they explain the existence of the universe as the result of a sudden creation event that occurred over the course of six 24-hour days as described in the book of Genesis. The premise of creation science is that the biblical account of the earths origins and the Noah flood can be supported by scientific evidence. Creationists have insisted that what they used to call creation science and now call intelligent design (ID) is a valid scientific explanation of the earths origins. Theyve argued that in the interest of fairness, a balanced view should be offered in public schools: If evolution is taught as science, then creationism should also be taught as science. Sounds fair, doesnt it? But ID isnt science at all, for the simple reason that creationists insist that their view is absolute and infallible. Therefore, creationism isnt a hypothesis that can be tested, nor is it amenable to falsification. And because hypothesis testing is the basis of all science, creationism, by its very nature, cannot be considered science.
Since the 1970s, creationists have become increasingly active in local school boards and state legislatures, promoting laws that mandate the teaching of creationism in public schools. However, state and federal
courts have consistently overruled these laws because they violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This statement guarantees the separation of church and state, and it means that the government can neither promote nor inhibit the practice of any religion. Therefore, the use of public institutions (including schools) paid for by taxes to promote any particular religion is unconstitutional. Of course, this doesnt mean that individuals cant have private religious discussions or pray in publicly funded institutions; but it does mean that such places cant be used for organized religious events. This hasnt stopped creationists, who encourage teachers to claim academic freedom to teach creationism. To avoid objections based on the guarantee of separation of church and state, proponents of ID claim that they dont emphasize any particular religion. But this argument doesnt address the essential point that teaching anyreligious views in a way that promotes them in publicly funded schools is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. It is curious that the biological process that has led to the appearance of millions of plants and animals on our planet should generate such controversy. Our current understanding of evolution is directly traceable to developments in intellectual thought over the past 400 years. Many people contributed to this shift in perspective, and weve named only a few to provide a short historical view. It is quite likely that in the next 20 years, scientists will identify many of the secrets of our evolutionary past through advances in genetic technologies and the continued discovery of fossil material. For evolutionary science, the early twenty-first century is indeed an exciting time.
At a broad level,a creationist is someone who believes in God who is the absolute creator of heaven and earth, out of nothing, by an action of frre will. Such a diety is generally thought to be contstantly involved (immanent) in the creation, ready to intervene as neccessary, and without whose constant concern the creation would cease or dissapear. Muslims, Christains and Jews are all creationists in this sense; and generally, they are called THEISTS.
TYPES OF CREATIONISM
*Old medieval creationism
*Modern Science
*Progressive Creationism
*Intelligent Design
*Islam
*Chrisatainity
*Huduism
1) Old medieval creationism: This 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 earth are as descibed by astronomers and geologists, but that details of modern evolutionary theory are questionable.
2) Modern Science: This emerged from several scientific ways of explaining evolution, part of which is the creation science. This emerged in the 1960s in an attempt to present scientific evidence interpreted with Genesis axioms that suports the claim of evolutionism. Various claims of scientists creation include the universe being in a few thousand years old based on the science of radiometric dating, explanations for fossil records; as a result of the destruction of the global flood and explanation for the present diversity of species.
3) Progressive Creationism: This holds the idea that species have changed or evolved in a process contionously guilded by God with various ideas as to how the process operated. Though it is generally taken that God directly intervened in the natural order at the key moments in the Earth or Life history. This view accepts most of the modern physical science including the age of Earth, but rejects much of modern evolutionary biology or looks to it for evidence thay evolution by natural selection alone is incorrect.
Progressive creationism can be held in conjuction with hermeneutic approaches to the Genesus creation narrative such as the day-age creationism or framework/metaphoric /poetic views.
4)Intelligent Design: This claims that certain features of the universe of living things are best explained by an intelligent course not an indirect 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 the scientific method with "a science consonant with Christain and theistic convictions" which accepts the supernatural explanations. It is widely accepted in the scientific and academic communities that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and it is sometimes referred to as INTELLIGENT DESIGN CREATIONISM.
ID originated as a rebranding of creation science in an attempt to avoid 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.
5) Islam: Islamic creationism believes that the universe was created by God as explained in the Qur'an. Most Muslims accept the scientific explanation on the age of the earth and the age of the universe. However, Islam has its own school on theistc evolution which holds that mainstream analysis of the origin of the universe is supported by the Qur'an. This set of Muslims mostly belong to liberal movement within Islam. There are several lessons in the Qur'an which modern writers have interpreted as being compatible with the explanation of the universe and the Big Bang Theory. For example, Qur'an 21:30 says that "the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder". Following this big explosion, Allah "turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.'They said: We come (together) in willing obedience'" Qur'an 41:11
.....and the Qur'an further stated in 21:33 that Allah created the sun, the moon, and the planents, each with their own individual courses or orbits. "It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all ( the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course"
Also, the Qur'an does not completely rule out the idea that the universe is continuing to expand. "With power did We construct the heaven. Verily, We are able to extend the vastness of space thereof. Qur'an 51:47
6) Christainity: Many christains and Jews have long considered the theory of creation as an allegory instead of historical. Early church writers such as Philo of Alexandria wrote that it would be a mistake to think creation happened in six days or in any set amount of time. St Augustine in the late 4th century argued that everything in the universe was created by God at the same moment.
As of 2006, most Christians around the world accepted evolution as the most likely explanation for the origins of the species, and did not take a literal view of the Genesis creation myth. The United States is an exception where belief in religion 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 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. Leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have made statements in favor of evolutionary theory, as have scholars such as the physicist John Pokinghorne, who argues that evolution 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.
Another example is that of the 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.
7) Hinduism: According to Hindu creationism, all species on the earth including humans have "devolved" or come down from a high state of pure consciousness. Hindu creationists state that species of plants and animals are material forms adopted by pare consciousness which live an endless cycle of birth and re-birth. According to Hindu creationist, the universe may be older than billions of years and that humans appeared fully formed several millions of years ago. Hindu creationism is a form of old Earth creationism. Its views are based on the Vedas, the creation myths of which depict an extreme antiquity of the universe and history of the Earth.
OPPOSITION TO EVOLUTION
One hundred and fifty years after the publication of Origin of Species; the debate over evolution is far from over, especially in the United States and, increasingly, in several Muslim countries. For most biologists, evolution is indisputable. The genetic evidence for it is solid and accumulating daily. Anyone who appreciates and understand genetic mechanisms cannot avoid the conclusion that populations and species evolve. What's more, the majority of the christians do not believe that biblical depictions should be taken literally. But at the same time, some surveys show that about half of all Americans do not believe that evolution occurs. There are a number of reasons for this. The mechanisms of evolution are complex and do not lend themselves to simple explanations. Understanding them requires some familarity with genetics and biology, a familarity that most people do not have unless they took related courses in school. What is more, many people want definitive, clear-cut answers to complex questions.But science doesnt always provide definitive answers to questions; it does not prove facts. Another thing to consider is that regardless of their culture, most people are raused in belief systems that do not emphasize biological continuity between species or offer scientific explanations for natural phenomena. The relationship between science and religion has never been easy, even though they both serve to explain natural phenomena. Scientific explanations are based on data based analysis,hypothesis testing, and interpretation. Religion, meanwhile, is a system of faith-based beliefs. A major difference between science and religion is that religious beliefs and explanations arent amenable to scientific testing.
Religion and science concern different aspects of the human experience, but they arent inherently mutually exclusive approaches. That is, belief in God doesnt exclude the possibility of biological evolution; and acknowledgment of evolutionary processes doesnt preclude the existence of God. Whats more, evolutionary theories arent rejected by all religions or by most forms of Christianity.
Some years ago, the Vatican hosted an international conference on human volution; in 1996, Pope John Paul II issued a statement that fresh knowldge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just an hypothesis. Today, the official position of the Catholic Church is that evolutionary processes do occur, but that the human soul is of divine creation and not subject to evolutionary processes. Likewise, mainstream Protestants dont generally see a conflict. Unfortunately, those who believein an absolutely literal interpretation of the Bible (called fundamentalists) accept no compromise.
There are historical reasons for the opposition to teaching of evolution in the United States. Reacting to rapid cultural change after World War I, conservative Christians in the United States sought a revival of what they considered traditional values. In their view, one way to achieve this was to prevent any mention of Darwinism in public schools. One result of this effort was a state law passed in Tennessee in 1925 that banned the teaching of any theory (particularly evolution) that did not support the biblical version of the creation of humankind. To test the validity of this law, the American Civil Liberties Union persuaded a high school teacher named John Scopes to submit to being arrested and tried for teaching evolution . Although most states didnt actually forbid the teaching of evolution, Arkansas, Tennessee, and a few others continued to prohibit any mention of it until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ban against teaching evolution in public schools. (One coauthor of this textbook remembers when her junior high school science teacher was fired for mentioning evolution in Little Rock, Arkansas.) As coverage of evolution in textbooks increased by the mid-1960s, Christian fundamentalists renewed their campaign to eliminate evolution from public school curricula or to introduce antievolutionary material into public school classes. Out of this effort, the creation sciencemovement was born.
REFERENCES
* Essentials of physical anthropology,Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan.
* Haarsma 2010,p.168
*Ruse, Michael(1982). "Creation Science is not science"
Science, Technology,& Human values.
7 (40): 72-78.
* Richard F. Carlson, Tremper Longman III, Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins, p.25
* NAS 1999, p.R9
The theory of ceation also known as CREATIONISM is the religion fundamentalist belief that the earth as well as living things in it, and the universe did not come through a physical process but were created by a supernatural being, in a singgle creation event. This opposed scientific view of gradual evolution of the earth and species in it.
The first use of the term creationist to describe a proponent of creationism is found in an 1856 letter of Charles Darwin describing those who objected on religious grounds to the emerging science of evolution. Fundamentalist creationists usually base their beliefs on the Genesis creation narrative, other religions have different deity creation myths while different members of individual faith vary in their acceptnace of scientific findings.
Proponents of creation science are called creationists because they explain the existence of the universe as the result of a sudden creation event that occurred over the course of six 24-hour days as described in the book of Genesis. The premise of creation science is that the biblical account of the earths origins and the Noah flood can be supported by scientific evidence. Creationists have insisted that what they used to call creation science and now call intelligent design (ID) is a valid scientific explanation of the earths origins. Theyve argued that in the interest of fairness, a balanced view should be offered in public schools: If evolution is taught as science, then creationism should also be taught as science. Sounds fair, doesnt it? But ID isnt science at all, for the simple reason that creationists insist that their view is absolute and infallible. Therefore, creationism isnt a hypothesis that can be tested, nor is it amenable to falsification. And because hypothesis testing is the basis of all science, creationism, by its very nature, cannot be considered science.
Since the 1970s, creationists have become increasingly active in local school boards and state legislatures, promoting laws that mandate the teaching of creationism in public schools. However, state and federal
courts have consistently overruled these laws because they violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This statement guarantees the separation of church and state, and it means that the government can neither promote nor inhibit the practice of any religion. Therefore, the use of public institutions (including schools) paid for by taxes to promote any particular religion is unconstitutional. Of course, this doesnt mean that individuals cant have private religious discussions or pray in publicly funded institutions; but it does mean that such places cant be used for organized religious events. This hasnt stopped creationists, who encourage teachers to claim academic freedom to teach creationism. To avoid objections based on the guarantee of separation of church and state, proponents of ID claim that they dont emphasize any particular religion. But this argument doesnt address the essential point that teaching anyreligious views in a way that promotes them in publicly funded schools is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. It is curious that the biological process that has led to the appearance of millions of plants and animals on our planet should generate such controversy. Our current understanding of evolution is directly traceable to developments in intellectual thought over the past 400 years. Many people contributed to this shift in perspective, and weve named only a few to provide a short historical view. It is quite likely that in the next 20 years, scientists will identify many of the secrets of our evolutionary past through advances in genetic technologies and the continued discovery of fossil material. For evolutionary science, the early twenty-first century is indeed an exciting time.
At a broad level,a creationist is someone who believes in God who is the absolute creator of heaven and earth, out of nothing, by an action of frre will. Such a diety is generally thought to be contstantly involved (immanent) in the creation, ready to intervene as neccessary, and without whose constant concern the creation would cease or dissapear. Muslims, Christains and Jews are all creationists in this sense; and generally, they are called THEISTS.
TYPES OF CREATIONISM
*Old medieval creationism
*Modern Science
*Progressive Creationism
*Intelligent Design
*Islam
*Chrisatainity
*Huduism
1) Old medieval creationism: This 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 earth are as descibed by astronomers and geologists, but that details of modern evolutionary theory are questionable.
2) Modern Science: This emerged from several scientific ways of explaining evolution, part of which is the creation science. This emerged in the 1960s in an attempt to present scientific evidence interpreted with Genesis axioms that suports the claim of evolutionism. Various claims of scientists creation include the universe being in a few thousand years old based on the science of radiometric dating, explanations for fossil records; as a result of the destruction of the global flood and explanation for the present diversity of species.
3) Progressive Creationism: This holds the idea that species have changed or evolved in a process contionously guilded by God with various ideas as to how the process operated. Though it is generally taken that God directly intervened in the natural order at the key moments in the Earth or Life history. This view accepts most of the modern physical science including the age of Earth, but rejects much of modern evolutionary biology or looks to it for evidence thay evolution by natural selection alone is incorrect.
Progressive creationism can be held in conjuction with hermeneutic approaches to the Genesus creation narrative such as the day-age creationism or framework/metaphoric /poetic views.
4)Intelligent Design: This claims that certain features of the universe of living things are best explained by an intelligent course not an indirect 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 the scientific method with "a science consonant with Christain and theistic convictions" which accepts the supernatural explanations. It is widely accepted in the scientific and academic communities that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and it is sometimes referred to as INTELLIGENT DESIGN CREATIONISM.
ID originated as a rebranding of creation science in an attempt to avoid 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.
5) Islam: Islamic creationism believes that the universe was created by God as explained in the Qur'an. Most Muslims accept the scientific explanation on the age of the earth and the age of the universe. However, Islam has its own school on theistc evolution which holds that mainstream analysis of the origin of the universe is supported by the Qur'an. This set of Muslims mostly belong to liberal movement within Islam. There are several lessons in the Qur'an which modern writers have interpreted as being compatible with the explanation of the universe and the Big Bang Theory. For example, Qur'an 21:30 says that "the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder". Following this big explosion, Allah "turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.'They said: We come (together) in willing obedience'" Qur'an 41:11
.....and the Qur'an further stated in 21:33 that Allah created the sun, the moon, and the planents, each with their own individual courses or orbits. "It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all ( the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course"
Also, the Qur'an does not completely rule out the idea that the universe is continuing to expand. "With power did We construct the heaven. Verily, We are able to extend the vastness of space thereof. Qur'an 51:47
6) Christainity: Many christains and Jews have long considered the theory of creation as an allegory instead of historical. Early church writers such as Philo of Alexandria wrote that it would be a mistake to think creation happened in six days or in any set amount of time. St Augustine in the late 4th century argued that everything in the universe was created by God at the same moment.
As of 2006, most Christians around the world accepted evolution as the most likely explanation for the origins of the species, and did not take a literal view of the Genesis creation myth. The United States is an exception where belief in religion 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 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. Leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have made statements in favor of evolutionary theory, as have scholars such as the physicist John Pokinghorne, who argues that evolution 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.
Another example is that of the 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.
7) Hinduism: According to Hindu creationism, all species on the earth including humans have "devolved" or come down from a high state of pure consciousness. Hindu creationists state that species of plants and animals are material forms adopted by pare consciousness which live an endless cycle of birth and re-birth. According to Hindu creationist, the universe may be older than billions of years and that humans appeared fully formed several millions of years ago. Hindu creationism is a form of old Earth creationism. Its views are based on the Vedas, the creation myths of which depict an extreme antiquity of the universe and history of the Earth.
OPPOSITION TO EVOLUTION
One hundred and fifty years after the publication of Origin of Species; the debate over evolution is far from over, especially in the United States and, increasingly, in several Muslim countries. For most biologists, evolution is indisputable. The genetic evidence for it is solid and accumulating daily. Anyone who appreciates and understand genetic mechanisms cannot avoid the conclusion that populations and species evolve. What's more, the majority of the christians do not believe that biblical depictions should be taken literally. But at the same time, some surveys show that about half of all Americans do not believe that evolution occurs. There are a number of reasons for this. The mechanisms of evolution are complex and do not lend themselves to simple explanations. Understanding them requires some familarity with genetics and biology, a familarity that most people do not have unless they took related courses in school. What is more, many people want definitive, clear-cut answers to complex questions.But science doesnt always provide definitive answers to questions; it does not prove facts. Another thing to consider is that regardless of their culture, most people are raused in belief systems that do not emphasize biological continuity between species or offer scientific explanations for natural phenomena. The relationship between science and religion has never been easy, even though they both serve to explain natural phenomena. Scientific explanations are based on data based analysis,hypothesis testing, and interpretation. Religion, meanwhile, is a system of faith-based beliefs. A major difference between science and religion is that religious beliefs and explanations arent amenable to scientific testing.
Religion and science concern different aspects of the human experience, but they arent inherently mutually exclusive approaches. That is, belief in God doesnt exclude the possibility of biological evolution; and acknowledgment of evolutionary processes doesnt preclude the existence of God. Whats more, evolutionary theories arent rejected by all religions or by most forms of Christianity.
Some years ago, the Vatican hosted an international conference on human volution; in 1996, Pope John Paul II issued a statement that fresh knowldge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just an hypothesis. Today, the official position of the Catholic Church is that evolutionary processes do occur, but that the human soul is of divine creation and not subject to evolutionary processes. Likewise, mainstream Protestants dont generally see a conflict. Unfortunately, those who believein an absolutely literal interpretation of the Bible (called fundamentalists) accept no compromise.
There are historical reasons for the opposition to teaching of evolution in the United States. Reacting to rapid cultural change after World War I, conservative Christians in the United States sought a revival of what they considered traditional values. In their view, one way to achieve this was to prevent any mention of Darwinism in public schools. One result of this effort was a state law passed in Tennessee in 1925 that banned the teaching of any theory (particularly evolution) that did not support the biblical version of the creation of humankind. To test the validity of this law, the American Civil Liberties Union persuaded a high school teacher named John Scopes to submit to being arrested and tried for teaching evolution . Although most states didnt actually forbid the teaching of evolution, Arkansas, Tennessee, and a few others continued to prohibit any mention of it until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ban against teaching evolution in public schools. (One coauthor of this textbook remembers when her junior high school science teacher was fired for mentioning evolution in Little Rock, Arkansas.) As coverage of evolution in textbooks increased by the mid-1960s, Christian fundamentalists renewed their campaign to eliminate evolution from public school curricula or to introduce antievolutionary material into public school classes. Out of this effort, the creation sciencemovement was born.
REFERENCES
* Essentials of physical anthropology,Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan.
* Haarsma 2010,p.168
*Ruse, Michael(1982). "Creation Science is not science"
Science, Technology,& Human values.
7 (40): 72-78.
* Richard F. Carlson, Tremper Longman III, Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins, p.25
* NAS 1999, p.R9
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