Creationism

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Pseudoscience Alert
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.
A wise man once said...
A wise man once said...

Creationism (also known as bullshit, or brainwashing[1]) is a teleologic explanation of existence, specifically: that all the universe and life was directly created by God (i.e. through magic[2], not Big Bang, abiogenesis or evolution), and that there is a purpose to all creation known only to the Supreme Deity (who is not talking). Belief in a literal reading of Genesis is foundational to creationism, a tenet shared by fundamentalist version of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and popularized by the American Christian fundamentalist movement. In recent years, there have been attempts to come up with scientific rationalizations for these beliefs. Intelligent Design, creation science, and cdesign proponentsism are three labels that have been applied to creationism in an attempt to create scientific legitimacy. The Discovery Institute is the leader in finding quasi-scientific rationale for creationism through the Wedge strategy.

The word "creationism" is very often used as a synonym for "young earth creationism" on this site, since the other varieties of creationism are sometimes more benign.

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[edit] Categories

Creationists can be categorized in a number of ways, including:

  • Religion: Creationists can be of virtually any religious stripe, from fundamentalist Christians to Pastafarians - or (in the case of alien life seeding) of no religion at all.
  • Interpretation of Genesis: Young earth creationists believe Genesis is historically and scientifically accurate. No one else does.
  • Age of the Earth: Most sane people think, based on voluminous evidence, that the Earth is billions of years old. Young earth creationists believe that Earth is almost exactly 6,000 years old.
  • Identity of creator: Biblical creationists believe the creator was the God of the Bible, or YHWH. Advocates of (un)intelligent design commit bald-faced lies in public - and even commit perjury - relative to their concept of the identity of the creator.[3] Extraterrestrial creationists believe that creation was performed by beings from another planet, or beyond the solar system, who came to earth by accident or on a life-seeding mission across the galaxy. Some even suggest that the creators of the whole universe were from a parallel universe and that we will also someday create parallel universes.[4]

[edit] Old earth creationism

Main article: Old earth creationism

Old earth creationists accept conventional dating methods for the age of the Earth (deep time), including radiometric dating and ice-core dating. Nevertheless, they believe that life was deliberately created. Evolutionary Creationists believe the creation event took place, and life subsequently developed through the process of evolution. Day-Age creationists believe the creation took place as recorded in Genesis, but that each of the "days" represents a vast period of time. Gap creationists believe that the Earth was created millions of years ago, but then laid waste, and repopulated as recorded in Genesis 1:2 and on. Other OECs believe that Genesis records the terraforming of the Earth, rather than the creation of the Earth ex nihilo.

[edit] Young earth creationism

Main article: Young earth creationism

YEC rejects radiometric dating methods based on criticisms of the method, and instead accepts Ussherian calculations of the creation. While they acknowledge that microevolution occurs, they reject naturalistic abiogenesis and common descent, based on a number of criticisms of both concepts. Instead, they believe that God created various lifeforms in something resembling their present forms, and that microevolution subsequently led to a degree of diversification among species.

Some also believe that the universe itself is only 6,000 years old. In these cases, physical constants, such as the speed of light, are often reinterpreted as "inconstant" to explain phenomena such as distant starlight.

[edit] Intelligent Design

Main article: Intelligent Design

Who made the maker?
Who made the maker?
Intelligent Design (ID) is an idea fundamental to the "mainstreaming" of creationism. It is the teleologic argument or belief that complexity requires design. Emergence and complexity theory are inherently incompatible with ID.

[edit] Two creation stories

According to Genesis 1, God creates the world in six days, resting on the seventh, with Man and Woman being created simultaneously, after the plants and animals. However, according to Genesis 2, God creates Man, then the plants and animals, then Woman. Which is right? According to Andy Schlafly, "on the account of creation in the Bible opinions vary as to what should be interpreted literally and what is figurative. However, there's no dispute among Christians (and other religions) that God could have created the world exactly as written in one of the accounts in Genesis."[5]

Apparently, the creationist answer to this conundrum is... not to answer it. RationalWiki editors eagerly await a compelling reply from creationists.

[edit] Muslim Creationism

Although creationism in the west is more usually associated with Christianity, the Muslim world has it's own brand of crazies. Probably the most famous being the Turk Harun Yahya.


[edit] Creationism and Darwin are reconciled

You saw it here first
You saw it here first

The recent discovery of a 1903 article that manages to get both the Creation and Darwin versions of the origins of Man into one neat package. [6]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ By the very vocal 15 to 45% (depending on who conducts the poll) of the US population and a minimum of 50% of scientists who believe that evolution occurred without God's direction, as well as the 60 or so percent that say evolution occurred (and God may or may not have intervened)
  2. ↑ .By which some creationists would refer to Arthur C. Clarke's statement that "all sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" --- if you're not smart enough to understand it.
  3. ↑ See Cdesign proponentsists.
  4. ↑ http://www.biocosm.org/
  5. ↑ E-mail, 1 September 2007.
  6. ↑ Appelbaum, Stanley, selection, translation and text, Simplicissimus: 180 Satirical Drawings from the Famous German Weekly, Dover Publications, New York, 1975
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