Old Earth creationism
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According to this hypothesis there was a gap of many millions - perhaps billions of years - between [[Genesis]] 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Holders of this idea claim the earth somehow became ruined and was then repaired during during the six 24-hour days of creation. | According to this hypothesis there was a gap of many millions - perhaps billions of years - between [[Genesis]] 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Holders of this idea claim the earth somehow became ruined and was then repaired during during the six 24-hour days of creation. | ||
| − | In some | + | In some versions the earth was ruined as a consequence of a battle between [[God]] and [[Satan|Lucifer]] - in more complex forms of the myth the destruction resulted in the death of the [[dinosaur]]s as well. The is, of course, zero geological evidence for any of this. |
| − | After the supposed "gap" | + | After the supposed "gap" many believers add beliefs about [[Young Earth Creationism]], others follow it up with concepts associated with Progressive Creationism. |
== Noah's Flood == | == Noah's Flood == | ||
Revision as of 18:04, 15 April 2008
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Old Earth creationism (OEC) is distinct from Young Earth Creationism in that it accepts the existence of deep time, and may accept scientific evidence about the age of the earth. As with all forms of creationism, it maintains that the earth and the universe were created by the God of the Abrahamic (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) religions. OEC's reinterpret biblical descriptions of the two differing creation stories in book of Genesis.[1]in order to to fit real-world facts about the age of the earth, cosmology and - in some forms - even the facts of evolution.
Although its believers frequently do not accept flood geology they generally do believe in some form of a biblical flood.
Contents |
Falsifiability
None of the religious or faith based beliefs in creationism are falsifiable and consequently cannot be regarded as scientific statements about reality[2].
Main divisions.
Old Earth Creationism is harder to define than Young Earth Creationism as believers vary in how far they go in accepting full Biblical literalism on the one hand and empirical reality on the other. Nevertheless, the concept can be divided into four general classes - Progressive Creationism, Theistic Evolution, The Gap Theory and Intelligent design.
The answersincreation website carried out a (perhaps unscientific) poll of Old Earth Creationists which indicated that "45 percent are Progressive Creationists, 32 percent are Theistic Evolutionists, 10 percent believe in the Gap Theory, and the rest are old earth, but undecided as to which position to believe in"[3]. It is clear that although some of the ideas are mutually exclusive, it is possible to mix and match others depending on the believer's grasp of reality.
Progressive Creationism
The main thrust of progressive creationism is that there were a series of individual biological creation events and consequently the concept is incompatible with common descent. There are a number of subdivisions and various combinations are possible.
- In all versions of progressive creationism the days of creation are assumed to be much longer than one day. In some versions each day is assumed to be a fixed thousand years. In others, millions (or billions) of years may be assumed to pass and each "day" may not represent the same fixed period of time
- In some versions the days are entirely separate periods; in others the days may overlap with each other
- In some versions the chronological sequence of events as stated in Genesis is held to be true, others hold more flexible interpretations of the chronology
Typically, although Progressive Creationists believe in an old earth, they are unable to bring themselves to accept the evidence for evolution by Natural selection. Instead they believe that each species was the subject of a separate individual creation event - without evolving from a previous species. In order to do this they have to ignore the incontrovertible evidence of common descent.
Theistic Evolution
- Main article Theistic evolution
This is similar to long-timescale versions of Progressive Creationism - but now with the added belief in evolution. The hypothesis of theistic evolution suggests that God first created life and then:
- either let evolution run its natural course via natural selection. (In which case it's not clear what is "theistic" about "theistic evolution".)
or - guided evolution to produce humans. (The method of such guidance is not specified, although some adherents claim it could be the pseudoscience of Intelligent design [4]- for which no credible evidence has ever been presented.) Another term sometimes used is Scientific creationism.
Intelligent design
- Main article Intelligent design
The more scientifically minded believers in ID take on board all ideas about the age of the earth and even common descent, but maintain that evolution is controlled and managed by "somebody". The less scientifically-minded include - well - less science. There is zero real evidence for any evidence in support of any of the ID variants.
The Gap Theory
- Not to be confused with the God of the gaps
According to this hypothesis there was a gap of many millions - perhaps billions of years - between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Holders of this idea claim the earth somehow became ruined and was then repaired during during the six 24-hour days of creation.
In some versions the earth was ruined as a consequence of a battle between God and Lucifer - in more complex forms of the myth the destruction resulted in the death of the dinosaurs as well. The is, of course, zero geological evidence for any of this.
After the supposed "gap" many believers add beliefs about Young Earth Creationism, others follow it up with concepts associated with Progressive Creationism.
Noah's Flood
- Main Article: Global flood
Beliefs in a biblical flood tend to vary amongst OEC's. While some - perhaps especially those who hold to the "Gap Theory" - may maintain that a full global flood occurred, others scoff at the idea and point out its many failings. They prefer to believe in a smaller localized event (or events) and claim this inspired the various flood stories around the world. Yet others will prefer the pseudoscience of Hydroplate theory.
See Also
References
- ↑ Genesis King James Bible version [1]
- ↑ See Goddidit.
- ↑ http://www.answersincreation.org/old.htm
- ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/evolutio.htm