Creationism

Michelangelo's painting of the creation of the Sun and Moon.

Creationism is the belief that the earth and universe and the various kinds of animals and plants were created by a god or gods. Those that hold the views of Creationism are referred to as Creationists. Creationism is contrary to the religion of evolutionism.

Biblical creationism is primarily based on: the compelling testimony provided by God's wondrous creation; the historical and prophetic evidence supporting the Bible; religious belief and on the scientific evidence provided through creation science. Biblical creationism, which includes the idea that man is created in the image of God, has profoundly affected Western Civilization in a positive way. Some of the areas it has benefited Western culture is in the areas of human rights and law, ethics and morality, economics, science, and the arts (see also: Christianity and science and Social effects of the theory of evolution).

Creation Ministries International, a leading biblical creation organization, declared:

“

Creationist research is having a global effect that is worrying the atheists and secularists of this world. They have had it all their own way for over a century but things are slowly changing. For almost twenty five years now, Journal of Creation has been publishing cutting-edge creationist research that has been fueling the war against evolution, creating little fires all around the world, including Great Britain. Atheist evangelist, Prof Richard Dawkins, speaking at the 20th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Science Festival in April 2008, said the rise of creationism in British schools raised a serious problem for science teachers. It is a very worrying trend,’ he said, ‘and I think a lot of it has come over from America and Australia.’

”

Within creationism in the Abrahamic religions, there are various ideas. In regards to those religions, one form of creationism holds that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old and is referred to as Young Earth Creationism. The other form of creationism is called Old Earth Creationism and holds that the earth and universe are billions of years old. Creationist scientists demonstrate that the first law of thermodynamics and second law of thermodynamics argue against an eternal universe and they also demonstrate that these laws point to the universe being supernaturally created. Dr. Norman Geisler stated that "Both young- and old-earthers believe that God supernaturally, directly and immediately produced every kind of animal and human as separate and genetically distinct forms of life." Dr. Norman Geisler also wrote that "both young- and old-earthers who are evangelical hold to the historicity of the Genesis account: They believe that Adam and Eve were literal people, the progenitors of the entire human race." Creation scientists assert that the theory of evolution is in conflict with the evidence provided by the physical sciences and often cite secular scientific sources which agree with them on various points (for further details please see: evolution).

Those who hold to young earth creationism point out that nearly every culture in the world has a creation story and a flood story. Many of these creation accounts and flood accounts have commonalities with the account given in the book of Genesis although gross differences exist also. The Institute for Creation Research has taken the position that the similarities in regards to creation accounts to the Genesis account demonstrates that the main points of the Genesis account has been preserved. In regards to the assertion that the similarities in flood stories around the world show common origin, young earth creationist particularly assert that there are strong similarities between the Genesis flood account and other world flood accounts. Also, there are remarkable similarities between Native American creation myths and the biblical account given in Genesis concerning creation.

Effect of the growth of modern creationism and Christian apologetics

See also: Atheism vs. Christian revival, Christian apologetics and creationism

The effect of evolutionism on the Western World and the world at large was mitigated by the growth of modern creationism and Christian apologetics in the latter half of the 20th century and today global creationism, Christian apologetics and global Christianity is seeing rapid growth.

Johns Hopkins University Press reported in 2014: "Over the past forty years, creationism has spread swiftly among European Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims, even as anti-creationists sought to smother its flames."

History of the growth of creationism and its effect on Christendom

Dr. Johnson C. Philip & Dr. Saneesh Cherian wrote in their work Introduction To Integrated Christian Apologetics:

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American evangelical Christians have began to notice in the fifties that compromise is a slow poison that ultimately destroys respect for truth. Some of them came together and started writing aggressively on themes defending the historical and scientific reliability of the Bible. This gave birth to the modern interest in Apologetics and Creationism. At the dawn of the twenty-first century the influence of this revival has spread all over the world, and today more than one hundred and fifty organizations function around the world, devoted solely to apologetics. Their influence has be so strong that a large number of Seminaries all around the world have begun assert the historical and scientific reliability of the Bible... ...with the birth of the modern creationism and apologetics, a revival set in motion among the evangelical Christians. This group became quite vocal and aggressive in the sixties, and by seventies they started exerting significant influence among theologians, thinkers, and the Bible teachers all over the world. Thousands of apologetic books, hundreds of magazines, and tens of thousands of articles have been produced defending the Bible since. In turn, this has started to diminish the influence of rationalists and radicals on Christians. From the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century the rationalists had their heyday, snatching away millions of young people from their Christian faith and commitment. The wounds of this loss can been seen in Christendom even today, but at the same time this loss has been greatly minimized now because of the work of Christian apologists. Today anyone desiring to know about the Bible, and its connection with science, evolution, history, archaeology, has read any number of books on this topic. Literally thousands of titles are available, and he can choose anywhere from the most simple books to the most technically advanced ones. Thus the modern apologetics movement has been able to arrest the way in which rationalists have been bleeding the Christian church.

”

Creationism and Controversy

Creationism and Intelligent Design

Believers in the Abrahamic faiths who hold to creationism believe that the natural world has been designed by God. Recently, there have been articles which were favorable to the intelligent design position in scientific journals which traditionally have favored the macroevolutionary position. Believers in the Abrahamic faiths have points of agreement and disagreement with the intelligent design movement. They agree that the natural world has an intelligent cause and was designed as mentioned previously. However, some advocates of creationism believe that the intelligent design movement divorces the Creator from creation by not explicitly stating that the cause of creation is a supernatural being and also failing to state explicitly who that supernatural being is.

There is considerable disagreement on whether or not intelligent design amounts to a form of creationism and if so, where to place it in comparison to the other forms of creationism. This is due to the concept having many different definitions and proponents espousing different ideas.

For example, one major proponent of Intelligent Design is Young Earth Creationist Paul Nelson, while Michael Behe, another major proponent, accepts common descent. William Dembski has stated unequivocally that Intelligent Design is not theistic evolution and they should not be considered the same. Dembski has also asserted that Intelligent Design is the Logos in terms of information theory, while Dembski and others have given other definitions that do not include any specific theological references. Arguably, intelligent design can be summarized as the notion that at some point in the past, in some way, some entity (possibly God) created life, or altered life at some point, or created the universe to be compatible with life.

Behe and others have stated that Intelligent Design is not religious in nature but in the Dover trial, Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican and a US Federal District Judge, ruled as a one of his findings that Intelligent Design was essentially religious in nature. The opinion borrowed heavily from the ACLU's briefs. The Kitzmiller vs. Dover case did not take into account that atheistic evolution is religious in nature.

Creationists video evangelism

see also: Internet evangelism

Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) is one of the world's largest evangelism organizations within Christendom and has over 25,000 full time missionaries. In 2006, Alan Beeber of CCCI predicted that internet evangelism will result in more conversion that all other forms of evangelism for CCCI combined.

YouTube is a popular online video sharing site that provides a method distributing Christian/creationist videos across the world. The YouTube search engine is the second largest search engine in the world. There is a widespread problem with atheist cyberbullying on YouTube toward Christian and creationist YouTube channels. CreationWiki has developed a web page entitled Creationist YouTube video designed to show creationists how to thwart atheist/evolutionist cyberbullies.

Also, one popular Christian YouTube channel, Shockofgod, was shut down several times by atheist cyberbullying through false reports but he was able to thwart their cyberbullying using some effective tactics. These false reports are not isolated incidents, many atheists will try this deceitful tactic to block out Christianity and creation science.

Biblical creation publications

See also: Biblical creation journals

Some prominent biblical creation publications are given below:

• Creation magazine

• Journal of Creation - Peer reviewed

• Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal - peer reviewed

Adherents and Opponents of Creationism

Traditionally, Judaism supported young earth creationism. In addition, a majority of the early church fathers supported the young earth creationist view. While Young Earth Creationism is prominent in many conservative Protestant denominations, theologically liberal Protestant and Jewish denominations generally reject it. The Roman Catholic Church has a cautiously positive view of the theory of evolution. Orthodox Judaism currently has diverse opinions regarding young earth creationism. Ultra-Orthodox Judaism accepts young earth creationism. Islam has a variety of opinions regarding creationism and the theory of evolution. Atheists do not believe in young earth creationism and a vast majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position since World War II have been atheists. Charles Darwin in his private diaries stated he was a materialist which a type of atheist. While agnostics do not believe in young earth creationism there have been some notable statements of skepticism regarding the theory of evolution from agnostics. On the other hand, Thomas Huxley was a staunch proponent of the theory of evolution and he stated he was an agnostic.

Global creationism

See also: Global creationism

Dr. Carl Wieland was a founder of Creation Ministries International, a Christian ministry which is in four continents.

Johns Hopkins University Press reported in 2014: "Over the past forty years, creationism has spread swiftly among European Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims, even as anti-creationists sought to smother its flames." See also: Evolutionary indoctrination

On October 4, 2014, the Vancouver Sun reported that evolutionism is rejected by hundreds of millions of evangelical Christians and Muslims around the world.

Specifically, the Vancouver Sun declared:

“

Creationism, a religious world view that adamantly rejects Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, is on the rise among evangelical Protestants and most of the world’s Muslims. It is not only the majority of residents in Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey who strongly reject the teaching that humans and other species evolved over millions of years from less complex creatures. So do tens of millions of evangelical Christians in North America (as well as South America and Africa). Overall, [Nidhal Guessoum, a Middle Eastern physics and astronomy professor] who teaches at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, estimates roughly 60 per cent of the world’s Muslims are creationists, including many living in the U.S. and Canada. Even though poll results about evolution vary based on the questions asked, Salman Hameed reported in the journal Science that strong anti-evolution majorities exist in Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Pakistan. The latter is among Canada’s top six source countries for immigrants... An Angus-Reid survey found 43 per cent of Americans accept the creationist teaching that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, which means they reject the...view the universe began roughly 13 billion years ago.

”

Recommended books

• J.D. Mitchell, The Creation Dialogues - A Response to the Position of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Evolution, Christianity and the Bible, Pleasant Word (Winepress Pub), 2010 ISBN 1414118007
• Dr. Grady S. McMurtry, Creation: Our Worldview, TEC Publications, Columbus, GA 2010 ISBN 0-9674006-1-9
• Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution, Master Books, 1999 (Free on-line version) ISBN 0890512582
• Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution 2, Master Books, 2002,(Free on-line version) ISBN 0890513872

See also

• Creation vs. Evolution Videos
• Essay: Sharing your creationist videos on YouTube and the internet
• Creation science
• Christianity and Science
• Lists of Creationists
• Christian apologetics (Evidence for Christianity)
• Creationism table
• Buddhist Creator Source of the Universe in Esoteric Mahayana Buddhism
• Ground of being

External links

Young Earth Creationist Organizations

• Creation Ministries International
• Institute for Creation Research
• Answers In Genesis - Get Answers
• Creation Worldview Ministries
• TrueOrigins.org
• Center for Scientific Creation

Anti-Darwinism/creationist, French/English website:

• Samizdat

Young earth articles and other resources:

• Age of the earth -101 evidences for a young earth and universe
• How old is the earth? - Refuting evolution - Chapter 8 by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati

Old Earth Creationists

Reasons To Believe, an Old Earth Creationist Ministry