 Creation Magazine is a publication supporting young-earth creationist beliefs. This issue examines whether dinosaurs perished in Noah's flood. Creation science (or CS), regarded by the vast majority of scientists as pseudoscience and a misnomer, is the belief that the account of creation in the early chapters of Genesis is scientifically as well as religiously valid and that it can be supported by scientific evidence. Described by its proponents as a creationist alternative to mainstream science's study of the Earth, life, and the universe, it is primarily concerned with issues such as the age of the universe, the age of the Earth, evolution, a global flood and the origin of humanity. Creation Magazine, a popular-level magazine, is a common venue for the creation-evolution debate. ...
Orders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Dinosaurs are animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 100-million years. ...
In the Hebrew Bibles account (Gen. ...
Pseudoscience refers to any body of knowledge or practice which purports to be scientific or supported by science but which is judged by the mainstream scientific community to fail to comply with the scientific method. ...
A misnomer is an incorrect or misleading name for a thing. ...
Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
The scientific method or process is fundamental to the scientific investigation and acquisition of new knowledge based upon physical evidence. ...
Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ...
The age of the Universe is defined as the largest possible value of proper time integrated along a timelike curve from the Earth at the present epoch back to the Big Bang. ...
The age of the Earth is estimated to be 4. ...
Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. ...
The terms flood geology, creation geology or diluvial geology are used to describe a number of creationist ideas which claim that the events recorded in the Old Testament can be proven scientifically to be an accurate record for the geological history of the Earth. ...
Human evolution is a multidisciplinary scientific inquiry which seeks to understand and describe the origin and development of humanity. ...
When the ideas encompassed by creation science are subjected to the scrutiny of scientific criticism or peer-review, they are found to lack scientific foundation, objective criticism of evidence, or scientific reasoning and method. Additionaly, the foundation of Creation Science does not fit the most common definition of science as it relies on scripture as a historically accurate or literally true a priori source. Refer to the section on scientific criticism of creation science. The characterization phase can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. ...
What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ...
A priori is a Latin phrase meaning from the former or less literally before experience. In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or prior to, experience. ...
Creation science proponents are found primarily among various denominations of Christianity who describe themselves generally as evangelical, conservative or fundamentalist Christians. However, not all Christians subscribe to creation science, and not all Christians who subscribe to Creation science describe themselves as conservative or fundamentalist Christians. Mainstream Christian churches, including the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic[1], Anglican and Lutheran faiths, have rejected "Creation Science" outright, since mainstream theology, including Liberal theology, considers Genesis a poetic work as opposed to one to be taken literally. Christianity is the worlds largest religion. ...
Evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ...
This article needs to be wikified. ...
Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ...
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ...
The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...
Liberal theology is a branch of religious thinking which emerged in the late 18th and early 19th century, in the wake of The Enlightenment. ...
Creationist movements also exist in the Baha'i faith, Islam, and Judaism, however these movements do not use the phrase creation science to describe their beliefs. The term creation science is used predominantly by American Christian groups (as described above) [2] who are the proponents of the philosophy. Known in India as the Lotus Temple, the Bahai House of Worship attracts an average of three and a half million visitors a year. ...
Islam listen? (Arabic: al-islÄm) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ...
Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ...
Creation science relies heavily on the belief that scientists should permit positing supernatural events where naturalistic explanations are found to contradict scripture or are believed to be otherwise inadequate. Proponents take the view that Creation according to Genesis is historically accurate and/or inerrant and that the observable physical evidence is more fully consistent with the account of Genesis than with generally accepted theories of biological evolution and natural history. As such, they interpret physical evidence within the framework of a literal and historical interpretation of Creation according to Genesis and reject all mainstream scientific knowledge at odds with this view. The supernatural (Latin:super- exceeding+nature) refers to a conceptualizaion of forces and phenomenon that cannot be perceived by natural or empirical senses, and whos understanding may be said to lie with religious, magical, or otherwise mysterious explanation —yet remains firmly outside of the realm of science. ...
Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ...
This article is about biological evolution. ...
Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ...
This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
A history resource for kids -Chronology of Events in History, Mythology, and Folklore. ...
Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
Philosophy and theology
 Creationism | - Types of creationism
-
-
- Basis of creationism
-
-
-
- Controversy
- Related articles
| | . Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
The history of creationism begins with the ancient Hebrew text describing creation according to Genesis, though the term creationism was not in use before the late 19th century. ...
Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
Young Earth creationism is the belief that the Earth and life on Earth were created by a direct action of God a relatively short time ago. ...
Old Earth creationism is a variant of the creationist view of the origin of the universe and life on Earth. ...
Gap Creationism, also called Restitution creationism, is a term used to describe a particular set of Christian fundamentalist beliefs about the creation of the Universe and the origin of man. ...
Day-Age Creationism is a type of Old Earth Creationism that holds that the six days referred to in the Genesis account of creation are not ordinary 24-hour days, but rather are much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years). ...
Progressive creationism is the most common form of Old Earth creationism today. ...
Evolutionary creationism, or Theistic evolution, is the general belief that some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of the scientific theory of evolution. ...
Intelligent Design (or ID) is a highly controversial claim holding that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent designer, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ...
Irreducible complexity is a concept which considers that the generally accepted scientific theory that life evolved through biological evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism is required to explain the origins of life. ...
Specified complexity is a concept developed by mathematician, philosopher, and theologian William Dembski. ...
This article is about intelligent design and the associated social movement. ...
Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
Creation Magazine is a publication supporting young-earth creationist beliefs. ...
Creation biology is an attempt to study biology from a creationary perspective. ...
In creation biology, created kinds are believed to be the original forms of life as they were created by God. ...
In creation biology, Baraminology is the effort to classify created kinds. ...
The terms flood geology, creation geology or diluvial geology are used to describe a number of creationist ideas which claim that the events recorded in the Old Testament can be proven scientifically to be an accurate record for the geological history of the Earth. ...
Vapor Canopy Hypothesis The vapor canopy is a hypothesis adopted by many Creationists which states the possibility that before the Great Flood, the earth was surrounded by a canopy of water in either liquid, solid, or gas form, and that the water from the canopy contributed greatly to the flood...
Creationist cosmologies suggest that the universe is only a few thousands of years old, and as such, stand opposed to the Big Bang Theory, as it states that the universe must be billions of years old. ...
Many cultures have held traditional beliefs that the Earth, or indeed the entire Universe, was brought into being in a grand Creation event by one or more gods. ...
// The creation-evolution controversy (also called the creation vs. ...
The legal status of creation and evolution in public education is the subject of a great deal of debate in legal and religious circles, mainly in the United States. ...
This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...
The Wedge strategy is a political action treatise that was included in fundraising materials for the Discovery Institute, an organization that, as part of its many activities, hopes to promote Intelligent Design as an alternative to scientific naturalism, materialism and Darwinism (macroevolution through purely materialistic mechanisms). ...
The Santorum Amendment is a specific amendment to a 2001 education funding bill proposed by Republican United States senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania, which relates to the teaching of evolution in U.S. public schools. ...
The omphalos hypothesis was named after the title of an 1857 book by Philip Henry Gosse in which he argued that in order for the world to be functional, God must have created the Earth with mountains, canyons, trees with growth rings, Adam and Eve with hair, fingernails, and navels...
Modern Geocentrism is the advocation of a geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the universe. ...
| Creation science is described by its proponents as a synthesis of science and religion, as it attempts to draw on both sources in developing its theories. As such, it differs both from pure creationist theology and from the widely accepted philosophy of science which excludes supernatural claims. It shares many similarities with other pseudosciences which nominally use the guise or trappings of scientific jargon and terminology to mask what most skeptics consider to be a fundamental disconnect with the scientific method and the consensus work of the scientific community. Synthesis (from the Greek words syn = plus and thesis = position) is commonly understood to be an integration of two or more pre-existing elements which results in a new creation. ...
What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ...
The neutrality and accuracy of this article are disputed. ...
The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy which studies the philosophical foundations, assumptions, and implications of science, including the natural sciences such as physics and biology, and the social sciences, such as psychology and economics. ...
A pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. ...
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (UK spelling, scepticism) sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a scientific, or practical, epistemological position (or paradigm) in which one does not accept the veracity of claims unless they can be scientifically verified. ...
The characterization phase can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. ...
Scientific consensus is the majority agreement of the body of scientists in a particular field of science. ...
The scientific community consists of the interactions and relationships of scientists. ...
Developed along the lines of young earth creationist theology, creation science presumes the historical accuracy of creation according to Genesis. Most adherents to creation science believe it to be inerrant. Unlike creationist theology, creation science adopts some features of scientific language and criticism as a means to validate its claims about events in the past. For example, adherents to creation science refer often to supposed "scientific evidence" that they claim is consistent with the young Earth interpretation of Genesis. Oftentimes the interpretations of the evidence does not hold up to scrutiny and has been roundly criticized by those on the mainstream science side of the creation-evolution controversy. Unlike mainstream science creation science holds that the study of natural phenomena can reveal evidence of supernatural events and direct action by God. Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
Biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible is the Word of God and is in every detail infallible and without error. ...
// The creation-evolution controversy (also called the creation vs. ...
"Operational science" and "Origins science" In addition to allowing for supernatural events in history, creation science proponents also distinguish between what they call "operational science" and "origins science." Operational science, according to creation science advocates, involves the laws and phenomena of nature which are repeatable and testable through experiment; for instance, the laws of gravity, chemistry, and microevolution. However, advocates of creation science assert that issues of "origins science" are different from issues of "operational science," because they involve one-time events which cannot be observed or repeated, but can only be inferred from the evidence. Asserted examples of such issues in origins science are common ancestry, the age of the Earth, historical geology, and physical cosmology in which the ability of scientists to study the issues is limited by the available evidence, because the actual events cannot be observed first-hand. It is argued that in issues of "origins science," conclusions are much more tentative due to the unrepeatable nature of the events, that the conclusions are therefore much more subject to philosophical bias than in "operational science," and that "origins science" therefore admits multiple possible interpretations of the evidence. Gravitation is the tendency of masses to move toward each other. ...
Chemistry (in Greek: χημεία) is the science of matter and its interactions with energy and itself (see physics, biology). ...
Microevolution is the occurrence of small-scale changes in gene frequencies in a population over a few generations, also known as change at or below the species level. ...
A group of organisms is said to have common descent if they have a common ancestor. ...
The age of the Earth is estimated to be 4. ...
Historical geology is the use of the principles of geology to reconstruct and understand the history of the Earth. ...
Cosmology, a branch of astrophysics, is the study of the universe on the largest scales and at the earliest times. ...
The consistent basis for such a bifurcation of science is not clear. The nature of a scientific observation is the point of contention between advocates of creation science and those opposed to it. In mainstream science, all empirical evidence is given equal weight in the consideration of whether a hypothesis is falsified. The creation science proponent distinguishes between evidence in a fashion that is not generally accepted, in general discounting evidence that doesn't tend to support the ideas associated with a literal interpretation of Genesis. Radiometric dating is an often maligned by creation science advocates even though it is tied principally to observations which are repeatable and testable with experiment. "Operational science" would therefore be "any scientific theory that doesn't tend to contradict a creationist interpretation of Genesis" while "Origins science" would be "any scientific theory that does tend to contradict a creationist interpretation of Genesis". For railroad use of the term observation, see observation car. ...
Empirical research is any activity that uses direct or indirect observation as its test of reality. ...
A hypothesis (= assumption in ancient Greek) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ...
Falsification is the act of disproving a theory. ...
Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials based on a knowledge of the decay rates of naturally occurring isotopes, and the current abundances. ...
Science and religion Creation science has been considered by many to be "religion" placing itself in conflict with "science." According to this view, creation science is religious, rather than scientific, because it stems from the Bible, a "religious book." Acceptance of creation is thus "by faith," and not by the application of the scientific method. For example, the National Academy of Sciences wrote: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ...
- "Religious opposition to evolution propels antievolutionism. Although antievolutionists pay lip service to supposed scientific problems with evolution, what motivates them to battle its teaching is apprehension over the implications of evolution for religion."[3]
Alternatively, creationists attribute the conflict between the theories to varying philosophical presuppositions which, they argue, affect a scientist's interpretation of the evidence.
For example, David Bergman, a creationist physicist, attributes the conflict to two fundamentally different worldviews: on the one hand, atomism, which excludes supernatural action in the universe and holds that random events occur in nature; on the other hand, Creationism, which holds that the universe depends for its existence on God, and that the laws of nature are a result of his design and plan. Evolution, he argues, is merely a modern iteration of the ancient philosophy of Lucretius articulated in his work, On the Nature of Things. [4] Atomism is the theory that all the objects in the universe are composed of very small, eternal particles. ...
The term God is used to designate a Supreme Being; however, there are other definitions of God. ...
Titus Lucretius Carus (c. ...
Not to be confused with The Nature of Things, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show about natural science. ...
Under this creationist definition of science, creation science and mainstream science are both "sciences" which are grounded in opposing philosophies, so that the same methods and same evidence lead to opposite conclusions due to the underlying philosophical assumptions of the scientist. This argumentation is rejected as being a poor form of self justification by means of totally redefining science to fit creationists' own ends. Uniformitarianism, for example, is rejected by those supporting creation science by means of redefining science to include accomodations for other ideas about what could happen in the past because any scientific inference contrary to Genesis cannot be true. Uniformitarianism has had two separate meanings, both more prevalent in 19th-century discourse: Within religious philosophy, Uniformitarianism (with a capital U) is the belief that the Universe has existed as it is now for an infinite time and will continue to exist for ever. ...
Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of reasoning in which the conclusion of an argument is very likely to be true, but not certain, given the premises. ...
Creation science is related to intelligent design which makes similar kinds of justification for its goals. The two ideas differ in that intelligent design proponents claim to not make any theological assumptions, they don't admit to considering Genesis to be an accurate scientific account of origins, nor do they necessarily oppose evolution (evolutionary creationism). Critics note that the intelligent design movement was started (by many of the same individuals previously campaigning for creationism) after attempts to get creation science in public classrooms met major opposition due to constitutional church-state separation issues in the United States. Intelligent Design (or ID) is a highly controversial claim holding that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent designer, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ...
Evolutionary creationism, or Theistic evolution, is the general belief that some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of the scientific theory of evolution. ...
The separation of church and state is a concept in modern thought and practice, whereby the structures of state or national government are kept separate from those of religious institutions. ...
Science and the supernatural Creation science is closely linked to the issue of whether scientific endeavor permits the recognition of supernatural phenomena. The normal definition of supernatural events is anything not existing or observable in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws or not physical or material. Science, by necessity, is unable to consider such supernatural phenomena as evidence because a primary tenet of science is that nature, being widely observable, provides the only objective standard from which to evaluate evidence. By definition supernatural phenomena violate the natural laws, and are therefore inherently unfalsifiable and unscientific. The supernatural is not ruled out a priori; when supernatural claims produce observable results that can be studied scientifically they have been considered and studied [5] [6]. The supernatural (Latin:super- exceeding+nature) refers to a conceptualizaion of forces and phenomenon that cannot be perceived by natural or empirical senses, and whos understanding may be said to lie with religious, magical, or otherwise mysterious explanation —yet remains firmly outside of the realm of science. ...
Adherents to creation science and proponents of intelligent design hold a different position. According to Intelligent Design proponent William Dembski, the proper application of science permits positing supernatural events, because supernatural phenomena should not be seen as violating the laws of nature, but instead as events reflecting a deeper, more fundamental physical reality than that which we understand. For example, a person on an island who has never seen an airplane fly before may think the airplane is "supernatural," because it appears to him to be "magic." However, from the perspective of greater knowledge, the airplane is fully natural -- it simply operates according to laws of nature which are unknown to the man on the island. This effectively redefines the supernatural to account for the natural, and most scientists would consider such an adjustment to be inappropriate as do many fideists. William Dembski Dr William Albert Bill Dembski (born July 18, 1960) is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian known for advocating the controversial idea of intelligent design. ...
In Christian theology, fideism is any of a number of positions. ...
In the context of Genesis, creationists believe that Creation according to Genesis is a historically accurate account of the origins of the Earth, and that the physical evidence today is more consistent with that account than with the scientific theories of origins. The fact that the recorded events defy much of our current scientific knowledge is seen as an opportunity to explore and understand the spectacular events recorded in Genesis in order to expand our knowledge of science and history, rather than a reason to deny those events occurred at all. This type of reasoning flies in the face of falsification, trying to justify an account rather than looking for independent empirical evidence. Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...
In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ...
Falsification is the act of disproving a theory. ...
From the perspective of mainstream science there is no useful definition of 'supernatural.' In most definitions, anything having an effect on nature makes that something a part of nature itself, the same point made by William Dembski. It follows that any explanation for something we see in nature would be considered natural by definition. Since nothing truly supernatural could be observed the only way science could reach a supernatural explanation is to eliminate all natural explanations; but it is impossible to ever know that all possibilities have been eliminated. Even if scientists were to conclude that a supernatural explanation is correct, it would be impossible even in principle to distinguish between one supernatural explanation and another; thus determining the correct supernatural explanation among many is again impossible. It is primarily for this reason that science came to adopt naturalism as a cornerstone of the scientific method. The fact that there are many mutually exclusive supernatural claims with no credible method available to judge their veracity leads to the various faiths insisting that their supernatural explanation be taught as science to the exclusion of any other religious or scientific interpretations. William Dembski Dr William Albert Bill Dembski (born July 18, 1960) is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian known for advocating the controversial idea of intelligent design. ...
Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that reject the validity of explanations or theories making use of entities inaccessible to natural science, that is, supernatural phenomena: phenomena beyond the natural world that we measure using the scientific method. ...
The characterization phase can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. ...
Creation science and parsimony The mainstream scientific position is that where multiple explanations are available, each of which explains a phenomenon, scientists should prefer the theory which requires the fewest assumptions. This principle is known as Occam's razor, which suggests that new, more complicated principles or entities should not be posited if existing principles already provide an explanation. Occams Razor (also Ockhams Razor or any of several other spellings), is a principle attributed to the 14th century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham that forms the basis of methodological reductionism, also called the principle of parsimony or law of economy. ...
Creation science is often criticized for positing supernatural forces or beings in order to explain events than can be explained without them. The position of mainstream science has been that evolution alone is sufficient to explain life and its appearance, and positing a supernatural creator is unnecessary.
A counterpoint to Occam's razor lies in Chatton's anti-razor, which suggests, "If three things are not enough to verify an affirmative proposition about things, a fourth must be added, and so on". Karl Menger articulated a similar principle: "Entities must not be reduced to the point of inadequacy" and "It is vain to do with fewer what requires more". Occams Razor (also Ockhams Razor or any of several other spellings), is a principle attributed to the 14th century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham that forms the basis of methodological reductionism, also called the principle of parsimony or law of economy. ...
Creationists argue that naturalistical models of the origin of life and macroevolution are inadequate because they fail to effectively explain the origin of life and the origins of irreducible complexity and specified complexity. Since Chatton's anti-razor holds that entities should not be reduced to the point of inadequacy, it is argued, a designer should not be ruled out unless and until naturalistic explanations are adequate. Thus, much of the literature about creation science is devoted to criticizing mainstream science, often taking issues, debates, and small discrepencies discovered by scientists working in the scientific paradigm and declaring that the problems indicate that the entire endeavor is wrong. Pre-Cambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. ...
Macroevolution is the concept that evolution of species and higher taxa is the result of large-scale changes in gene-frequencies over time. ...
Irreducible complexity is a concept which considers that the generally accepted scientific theory that life evolved through biological evolution by natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, and that some additional mechanism is required to explain the origins of life. ...
Specified complexity is a concept developed by mathematician, philosopher, and theologian William Dembski. ...
From the late 1800s the word paradigm refers to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. ...
Adherents of creation science also suggest that it is no more parsimonious to posit an ostensibly unobserved and unexplained chemical mechanism for the above phenomenon than to posit an unexplained but ostensibly subjectively experienced designer, so that neither is ruled out by Occam's razor until one or the other is comprehensively observed, explained, and/or demonstrated. What the creationist means by "unobserved" or "unexplained" is subject to modification according to exactly how the criticism is levied. A common tactic, for example, is to claim that there is no evolutionary mechanism that can explain a particular biochemical process, and then when a mechanism is proposed, to claim that such a process has never been observed, and then when the process is duplicated in the lab, to claim that such a process wasn't observed in nature. In this way, evidence is continually dismissed as inconclusive by the creationist, leaving the only conclusion, in the eyes of the creationist, to be that God must have done it. In science, parsimony is the trait of being the least complicated explanation for an observation. ...
Those criticizing this position argue that Chatton's anti-razor is not a principal tenet of the scientific method and that religious beliefs do not count as valid hypotheses; allowing God as an explaination is not open to verification nor validation. They also argue that creationism as an explanation is not an affirmative proposition. For an explanation to be an affirmative proposition it must explain why something is one way instead of an alternative way in a manner that accounts for or aligns with a broad range of, if not all, evidence and phenomena beyond the subject at hand. But requiring an assumed God to be the explanation posits that the correct description only need account for what is descibed in Genesis and does not address the scientific evidence. Thus, creationism is an entirely unnecessary entity and, by Occam's Razor, eliminated.
Subjects within creation science Subjects within creation science can be into split into three broad categories, each covering a different area of origins research; creationist cosmologies, flood geology, and creation biology. The origin of something (from the Latin origo, beginning) is where it came from, in the sense of a physical location or a metaphysical source. ...
Creationist cosmologies suggest that the universe is only a few thousands of years old, and as such, stand opposed to the Big Bang Theory, as it states that the universe must be billions of years old. ...
The terms flood geology, creation geology or diluvial geology are used to describe a number of creationist ideas which claim that the events recorded in the Old Testament can be proven scientifically to be an accurate record for the geological history of the Earth. ...
Creation biology is an attempt to study biology from a creationary perspective. ...
Creation biology - Main article: Creation biology
Creation biology states that life was created by God in a finite number of created kinds rather than through biological evolution. It also claims that much of the currently observable speciation took place through inbreeding and harmful mutations during a proposed population bottleneck after the great flood of Noah's ark, which they claim was an actual historical event that happened exactly as described in the Bible. Creation biology is an attempt to study biology from a creationary perspective. ...
In creation biology, created kinds are believed to be the original forms of life as they were created by God. ...
This article is about biological evolution. ...
Speciation refers to the appearance of a new species of life on earth, particularly as seen in the fossil record. ...
A population bottleneck (or genetic bottleneck) is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing, and the population is reduced by 50% or more, often by several orders of magnitude. ...
This article is on mythology involving great floods. ...
In the Hebrew Bibles account (Gen. ...
Creation biology argues against biological evolution (see creation-evolution controversy). Popular arguments against evolution have changed over the years since the publishing of Henry M. Morris's first book on the subject, Scientific Creationism, but these themes often arise: missing links as an indication that evolution is incomplete, arguments based on entropy, complexity, and information theory, arguments claiming that natural selection is an impossible mechanism, and general criticism of the conclusions drawn from historical sciences as lacking experimental basis. The origin of the human species is particularly hotly contested; the fossil remains of hominid ancestors are not considered by advocates of creation biology to be evidence for a speciation event involving homo sapiens. This article is about biological evolution. ...
// The creation-evolution controversy (also called the creation vs. ...
Henry M. Morris Dr Henry Madison Morris (born 1918) is an American young earth creationist and hydraulic engineer, considered the father of the creation science movement. ...
Missing link is a term for a transitional form from the fossil record that connects an earlier species to a later one, or which connects two different species to an earlier ancestor. ...
The thermodynamic entropy S, often simply called the entropy in the context of thermodynamics, is a measure of the amount of energy in a physical system that cannot be used to do work. ...
There are different senses of complexity: In information processing, complexity is a measure of the total number of properties transmitted by an object and detected by an observer. ...
Information theory is a branch of the mathematical theory of probability and mathematical statistics that quantifies the concept of information. ...
Natural selection is the primary mechanism within the scientific theory of evolution, in that it alters the frequency of alleles within a population. ...
Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ...
Human evolution is a multidisciplinary scientific inquiry which seeks to understand and describe the origin and development of humanity. ...
Genera Subfamily Ponginae Pongo - Orangutans Gigantopithecus (extinct) Sivapithecus (extinct) Subfamily Homininae Gorilla - Gorillas Pan - Chimpanzees Homo - Humans Paranthropus (extinct) Australopithecus (extinct) Sahelanthropus (extinct) Ardipithecus (extinct) Kenyanthropus (extinct) Pierolapithecus (extinct) (tentative) The Hominids (Hominidae) are a biological family which includes humans, extinct species of humanlike creatures and the other great apes...
Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ...
Flood geology - Main article: Flood geology
Flood geology is based on the belief that many of Earth's geological formations were created by the global flood described in the story of Noah's ark. Fossils and fossil fuels are believed by its followers to have formed from animal and plant matter which was buried rapidly during this flood, while submarine canyon extensions are explained as having formed during a rapid runoff from the continents after the seafloors dropped. Sedimentary strata are described as sediments predominantly laid down after Noah's flood. The terms flood geology, creation geology or diluvial geology are used to describe a number of creationist ideas which claim that the events recorded in the Old Testament can be proven scientifically to be an accurate record for the geological history of the Earth. ...
A fossil Ammonite Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other traces such as footprints. ...
Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon-containing natural resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. ...
In addition to the above ideas that are in opposition to the principles of mainstream geologists, advocates of flood geology reject uniformitarian geology and radiometric dating. Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, the earth) and λογος (logos, word, reason)) is the science and study of the Earth, its composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape it. ...
Uniformitarianism has had two separate meanings, both more prevalent in 19th-century discourse: Within religious philosophy, Uniformitarianism (with a capital U) is the belief that the Universe has existed as it is now for an infinite time and will continue to exist for ever. ...
Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials based on a knowledge of the decay rates of naturally occurring isotopes, and the current abundances. ...
Creationist cosmologies - Main article: Creationist cosmologies
Several attempts have been made to construct a cosmology consistent with a young universe rather than the standard cosmological age of the universe, based on the belief that Genesis describes the creation of the universe as well as the Earth. The primary challenge for young universe cosmologies is that the accepted distances in the universe require millions or billions of years for light to travel to Earth. Creationist cosmologies suggest that the universe is only a few thousands of years old, and as such, stand opposed to the Big Bang Theory, as it states that the universe must be billions of years old. ...
The age of the Universe is defined as the largest possible value of proper time integrated along a timelike curve from the Earth at the present epoch back to the Big Bang. ...
Cosmology is not as widely discussed as creation biology or flood geology, for several reasons. First, many creationists, particularly old earth creationists and intelligent design creationists do not dispute that the universe may be billions of years old. Secondly, some creationists who believe that the Earth was created in the timeframe described in a literal interpretation of Genesis believe that Genesis describes only the creation of the Earth, rather than the creation of the entire universe, allowing for both a young Earth and an old universe. Creation biology is an attempt to study biology from a creationary perspective. ...
The terms flood geology, creation geology or diluvial geology are used to describe a number of creationist ideas which claim that the events recorded in the Old Testament can be proven scientifically to be an accurate record for the geological history of the Earth. ...
Old Earth creationism is a variant of the creationist view of the origin of the universe and life on Earth. ...
Intelligent Design (or ID) is a highly controversial claim holding that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent designer, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ...
Scientific criticisms of creation science Creationists often claim that creationism, and more specifically creation science, is not only scientific, but that it is even more scientific than evolution. This presents a demarcation problem, which in the philosophy of science, is about how and where to draw the lines around science. For a theory to qualify as scientific it must be: Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. ...
The demarcation problem in the philosophy of science is about how and where to draw the lines around science. ...
The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy which studies the philosophical foundations, assumptions, and implications of science, including the natural sciences such as physics and biology, and the social sciences, such as psychology and economics. ...
What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ...
The word theory has a number distinct meanings depending on the context. ...
The characterization phase can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. ...
- consistent (internally and externally)
- parsimonious (sparing in proposed entities or explanations)
- useful (describes and explains observed phenomena)
- empirically testable and falsifiable
- based upon controlled, repeatable experiments
- correctable and dynamic (changes are made as new data is discovered)
- progressive (achieves all that previous theories have and more)
- tentative (admits that it might not be correct rather than asserting certainty)
For any theory, hypothesis or conjecture to be considered scientific, it must meet at least most, but ideally all, of the above criteria. The fewer which are matched, the less scientific it is; and if it meets only a couple or none at all, then it simply cannot be treated as scientific in any sense of the word. On these points, the National Academy of Sciences said: In science, parsimony is the trait of being the least complicated explanation for an observation. ...
Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the apparently paradoxical idea that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit consideration of the possibility of its being false. ...
- Scientists have considered the hypotheses proposed by creation science and have rejected them because of a lack of evidence. Furthermore, the claims of creation science do not refer to natural causes and cannot be subject to meaningful tests, so they do not qualify as scientific hypotheses. In 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that creationism is religion, not science, and cannot be advocated in public school classrooms. [7] And most major religious groups have concluded that the concept of evolution is not at odds with their descriptions of creation and human origins. [8]
Specific objections raised against creationism as actual science include: - Creationism is not falsifiable. Theism is not falsifiable, since the existence of God is typically asserted without sufficient conditions to allow a falsifying observation. God being a transcendental being, beyond the realm of the observable, claims about its existence can neither be supported nor undermined by observation, hence making creationism, the argument from design and other arguments for the existence of God a posteriori arguments. (See also the section on falsifiability, below)
- Creationism violates the principle of parsimony. Creationism fails to pass Occam's razor. Adding supernatural entities to the equation is not strictly necessary to explain events.
- Creationism is not empirically testable. That creationism is not empirically testable stems from the fact that creationism violates a basic premise of science, naturalism.
- Creationism is not correctable, dynamic, tentative or progressive. Creationism professes to be the absolute Truth, the word of God, not a provisional assessment of data which can change when new information is discovered. Once it is claimed that the Truth has been established, there is simply no possibility of future correction. The idea of the progressive growth of scientific ideas is required to explain previous data and any previously unexplainable data as well as any future data. It is often given as a justification for the naturalistic basis of science. In any practical sense of the concept, creationism is not progressive: it does not explain or expand upon what went before it and is not consistent with established ancillary theories.
In light of its lack of adherence to the standards of the scientific method, Creationism, and specifically Creation Science, cannot be said to be scientific. Theism is the belief in one or more gods or goddesses. ...
Empirical or a posteriori knowledge is propositional knowledge obtained by experience. ...
Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that reject the validity of explanations or theories making use of entities inaccessible to natural science, that is, supernatural phenomena: phenomena beyond the natural world that we measure using the scientific method. ...
The characterization phase can require extended and extensive study, even centuries. ...
Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
- The hypothesis/solution is not based on analysis and observation of the empirical world - rather, it comes directly from the Bible.
- There is no way to test the theory.
- The underlying assumptions of creationism are not open to change.
Scientists note that Creation Science differs from mainstream science in that it begins with an assumption, then attempts to find evidence to support that assumption. Conversely, science sets out to learn about the world through the collection of empirical evidence and the use of the scientific method.
Historically, the debate of whether Creationism is compatible with science can be traced back to 1874, the influential science historian John William Draper published his 'History of the Conflict between Religion and Science'. In it, he portrayed the entire history of scientific development as a war against religion. This somewhat skewed presentation of historical fact was propagated further by such prestigious followers as Andrew Dickson White in his essay 'A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom'. John William Draper (1811 - 1882), U.S. (English-born) chemist was a historian & photographer. ...
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author and educator. ...
Some opponents consider Creation Science to be an ideologically and politically motivated propaganda tool whose purpose is to promote the creationist agenda in society. They allege that the term "Creation Science" was chosen to purposely blur the distinction between science and religion, thereby undeservedly legitimizing creationism by association to science. An ideology is a collection of ideas. ...
Politics is the process and method of making decisions for groups. ...
North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ...
Creation science and falsifiability Creation Science is commonly called unfalsifiable by prominent members of the mainstream scientific community. Falsifiability was proposed by Karl Popper as a criterion for whether an idea should be considered scientific. If no experiment could be devised which would prove a theory false, then the theory was not a function of science, but rather metaphysical or pseudoscience. Popper argued that certain ideas, such as Freudian psychology, were not falsifiable, because any possible observation could be fit into the theory, so that the theory, although not necessarily false, were metaphysical, rather than strictly scientific. Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the apparently paradoxical idea that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit consideration of the possibility of its being false. ...
Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian-born, British philosopher of science. ...
Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ...
Pseudoscience refers to any body of knowledge or practice which purports to be scientific or supported by science but which is judged by the mainstream scientific community to fail to comply with the scientific method. ...
He classified theories into three broad categories based on how falsifiable they were:
- "...There will be well-testable theories, hardly testable theories, and non-testable theories. Those which are non-testable are of no interest to empirical scientists. They may be described as metaphysical." Popper, Karl, Conjectures and Refutations (New York: Basic Books, 1963), p. 257.
Many prominent scientists have argued that "Creation Science" is an oxymoron and purely metaphysical, because it is unfalsifiable. For example, Stephen Jay Gould wrote in "Hens' Teeth And Horses' Toes": An oxymoron (plural oxymora) (noun) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms (e. ...
- "Scientific creationism" is a self-contradictory, nonsense phrase precisely because it cannot be falsified. I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know, but I cannot imagine what potential data could lead creationists to abandon their beliefs. Unbeatable systems are dogma, not science. Lest I seem harsh or rhetorical, I quote creationism's leading intellectual, Duane Gish, Ph.D. from his recent (1978) book, Evolution? The Fossils Say No! "By creation we mean the bringing into being by a supernatural Creator of the basic kinds of plants and animals by the process of sudden, or fiat, creation. We do not know how the Creator created, what process He used, for He used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe [Gish's italics]. This is why we refer to creation as special creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigations anything about the creative processes used by the Creator." Pray tell, Dr. Gish, in the light of your last sentence, what then is scientific creationism?
Later in the same book, he says: - The individual claims are easy enough to refute with a bit of research. Creationists themselves have been forced to retreat from the more embarrassing items. Noted creationist Henry Morris, for example, has often cited the supposed footprints of dinosaurs and humans together in rocks of the Paluxy River of Texas. But creationist Leonard Brand attributes some of the "human" prints to erosion and others to a three-toed dinosaur. He also adds: "We do know that there was a fellow during the Depression who carved tracks."
Phillip Quinn, a philosopher of religion and science, thinks that being able to falsify creationist arguments automatically means being able to falsify creationism itself, and therefore sees a contradiction between Gould's two quotes above: - "Unfortunately, the patently false claim that creation science is neither testable nor falsifiable seems well on its way to becoming, for some evolutionary biologists, a rhetorical stick with which to belabor their creationist opponents. In a recent collection of essays, Stephen Jay Gould claims that "'scientific creationism' is a self-contradictory nonsense phrase precisely because it cannot be falsified' ... Gould goes on to contradict himself by asserting that "the individual claims are easy enough to refute with a bit of research." Indeed some of them are! But since they are easily refuted by research, they are after all falsifiable and, hence, testable. This glaring inconsistency is the tip-off to the fact that talk about testability and falsifiability functions as verbal abuse and not a serious argument in Gould's anti-creationist polemics." quinn
Creationists acknowledge that some aspects of creationism are unfalsifiable, but assert that other aspects are falsifiable. They claim parts of their beliefs are very difficult to falsify solely because the related events took place in the distant past. Opponents say that all the falsifiable parts have been falsified.
Creationists also argue that the unfalsifiability of an idea does not necessarily mean that the idea is false, but only that contemporary scientists lack the tools to test it effectively. However, this has no bearing on whether or not the arguments of Creationists are true or false, but whether they are scientific.
Creationists see the unfalsifiable aspects of the theory as ambiguities in the idea, rather than cause to dismiss the idea out of hand. Finally, they assert that many aspects of evolutionary theory are also unfalsifiable, such as common ancestry between humans and apes. They claim that no falsifying experiment could be conducted to test that theory, so a theory need not be wholly falsifiable in order to be considered scientific.[9]
In the first quote above, Gould disagrees:
- I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know, but I cannot imagine what potential data could lead creationists to abandon their beliefs.
About Creationist methodology, he says: - Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by creationists -- whether through design or stupidity, I do not know -- as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups. Yet a pamphlet entitled "Harvard Scientists Agree Evolution Is a Hoax" states: "The facts of punctuated equilibrium which Gould and Eldredge...are forcing Darwinists to swallow fit the picture that Bryan insisted on, and which God has revealed to us in the Bible."
Punctuated equilibrium, or punctuated equilibria, is a theory of evolution which states that changes such as speciation can occur relatively quickly, with long periods of little change—equilibria—in between. ...
History Within the history of creationism, creationism was originally based purely on theology. The vast majority of Church Fathers and Reformers accepted Genesis straightforwardly, and even the few who did not, such as Origen and Augustine, defended an earth that was on the order of thousands of years old. The history of creationism begins with the ancient Hebrew text describing creation according to Genesis, though the term creationism was not in use before the late 19th century. ...
Theology is literally reasonable discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ...
The Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ...
The word Reformer, when used alone, has several possible meanings in the English language. ...
Origen was a Christian scholar and theologian and one of the most distinguished of the Fathers of the early Christian Church. ...
Augustine is the name of two important Saints: Augustine of Hippo (354-430) -- theologian, author of The City of God, Confessions Augustine of Canterbury (d. ...
When geologists revised the age of the Earth to millions of years, some writers looked to studying geology within the Biblical timeframe detailed in the Ussher-Lightfoot calendar. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the leaders were the scriptural geologists in Britain. About a century later, the Canadian George McCready Price, wrote extensively on the subject. However, the concept only revived during the 1960s following the publication of The Genesis Flood by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb. The age of the Earth is estimated to be 4. ...
George McCready Price (1870 — 1963) was a Canadian-American creationist. ...
This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1960s. ...
The Genesis Flood: The Bible Record and its Scientific Implications is a 1961 book by the young earth creationists John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris. ...
Henry M. Morris Dr Henry Madison Morris (born 1918) is an American young earth creationist and hydraulic engineer, considered the father of the creation science movement. ...
Subsequently, creation science has expanded into biology and cosmology. However, efforts to have it legislated to be taught in schools in the United States were eventually halted by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the first amendment in Edwards v. Aguillard 1987. Edwards v. ...
1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also Christianity, Islam and Judaism hold the belief that the universe was created by a Supreme Being. ...
Intelligent Design (or ID) is a highly controversial claim holding that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent designer, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. ...
Pseudoscience refers to any body of knowledge or practice which purports to be scientific or supported by science but which is judged by the mainstream scientific community to fail to comply with the scientific method. ...
Cargo Cult Science is a term invented by Richard Feynman to describe a particular type of pseudoscience in which all the superficial aspects of scientific inquiry are adhered to, although the underlying causal link between the conditions and the outcome is not understood. ...
References ^ ["The philosopher of science as expert witness", p. 43, in Cushing, J., Delaney, C.F. & Gutting, G., Science and reality: Recent Work in the Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame Press, 1984]}}
Bibliography A history of the revival of this form of Creationism can be found in Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), but gives a somewhat distored picture in that it is limited to 20th century and is concerned only with the movement in the USA, while neglecting significant groups in Great Britain, Europe and Australia. E.g. it ignores the 19th century Scriptural Geologists and the virtually universal support for YEC among the Church Fathers and Reformers.
Creation science - Batten, Don, Editor The Answers Book ISBN 0-949906-23-9 (Brisbane, Australia: Answers in Genesis, 1999)
- Morris, Henry M., ed., Scientific Creationism ISBN 0-89052-003-2 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1985)
- Morris, Henry M. and Gary E. Parker, What is Creation Science? ISBN 0-89051-081-4 (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1987)
- Mortenson, Terry, The Great Turning Point: The Church's Catastrophic Mistake on Geology — Before Darwin ISBN 0-89051-408-9 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2004)
- Wilder-Smith, A. E., Man's Origin, Man's Destiny ISBN 0-87123-356-8 (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Co., 1968)
- Sarfati, Jonathan, Refuting Evolution ISBN 0-890512-58-2 (Brisbane, Australia: Answers in Genesis, 1999)
- Sarfati, Jonathan, Refuting Evolution 2 ISBN 0-890513-87-2 (Brisbane, Australia: Answers in Genesis, 2002)
- Sarfati, Jonathan, Refuting Compromise ISBN 0-890514-11-9 (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2004)
- Woodmorappe, John, Studies in Flood Geology ISBN 0-932766-54-4 (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1993)
- Woodmorappe, John, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study ISBN 0-932766-41-2 (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1996)
- Woodmorappe, John, The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods ISBN 0-932766-57-9 (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1999)
- Wilder-Smith, A. E., Scientific Alternative to Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Theory ISBN 9-99213-967-6 (Costa Mesa, CA: TWFT Publishers, 1987)
- Whitcomb, John C. and Henry Morris, The Genesis Flood ISBN 0-87552-338-2 (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1964)
- Roth, Ariel A., Origins—Linking Science and Scripture ISBN 0-8280-1328-4 (Hagarstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1998)
Criticism - Bates, V. L., 1976, Christian Fundamentalism and the Theory of Evolution in Public School Education: A Study of the Creation Science Movement [Ph.D. dissert.]: University of California, Davis.
- Lewin, R., 1982, Where is the Science in Creation science? Science 215, pp. 142–146.
- Vawter, B., 1983, Creationism: Creative Misuse of the Bible, in Frye, R. M., ed., Is God a Creationist? The Religious Case Against Creation-Science (New York, Scribner's Sons), p. 71–82.
External links
Neutral - Edwards v. Aguillard 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling preventing the teaching of creation science in public school science classrooms
Creation science
Criticism |
Feeds |
Contact