Creationism or even creation theology is the belief that humans, life, the Earth, and a universe were created by a supreme being or deity's supernatural intervention. A intervention can be seen either as an work of creation from either nothing (ex nihilo) or a emergence of choose from either preexisting chaos.

Virtually all world health organization hang on to "creation" beliefs assume such belief to become the a portion of religious faith, and compatible by using, or even otherwise insensible by scientific views, while others maintain a scientific information supports creationism. Exponent of theistic evolution may claim that understood scientific mechanisms are just aspects of supreme creation. Otherwise, science-oriented believers could assume a scriptural account of creation as simply the metaphor.

People world health organization hang on to literal creation views typically reject modern views of science & certain scientific theories in particular. Virtually all leading light is the rejection of evolution and its implications for current evolutionary biology. When a general idea of natural selection may fit into various particular views, a evolutionary construct of common descent —that humans come "descended from lesser creatures" — occurs as point of smashing issue using virtually all creation believers. Virtually all creationists besides dispute scientific accounts of the origin of life, origin of the human species, the geological history of the Earth, the formation of the solar system, the origin of the physical universe and a few potentially trend lines such idewhen as modern geocentrism.

Religious context
A term creationism is virtually all typically utilized to describe a belief that creation occurred literally every bit described in the book of Genesis or the Qur'an, for Jews and Christians, and for Muslims, respectively. Although a Hebrew Bible may be translated to implicitly deny "creation out of nothing" (creatio old-hat nihilo) &, based on data from a bit of scholars, will possibly indicate differing accounts of creation, occasionally Jews & Christians utilize Genesis solely as a trend lines of their beliefs all about origins. Refer to creation according to Genesis.

A terms creationism & creationist stand turn into particularly associated by owning beliefs conflicting by using a theory of evolution by natural selection. This conflict is virtually all prevailing in the United States, where there has been sustained creation-evolution controversy in the public arena. But then, several faiths, including Abrahamic denominations, which think inside divine creation assume evolution by survival, too when, to the greater or even lesser extent, scientific explanations of the origins & development of the universe, the Earth, and life – such beliefs have been given a title "theistic evolution" or even "evolutionary creationism".

Within the Christian context, numbers of creationists adopt the literal interpretation of creation narratives, & say that a Bible will bring a factual account, given from either a perspective of the sole of these world health organization was there at the instance to witness it: God. It search to harmonize science with what they require to exist as an eye-witness account of the origin of items (look at Young Earth Creationism, for example). Nonetheless, scientific evidence as an empirical source for informatiin on natural history is usually understood when contradictory to a Bible, whenever the Bible is understood as these creationists interpret it.

About the lot churches teach that God created a cosmos, however numbers of today reject reading a Bible when though it may clear what the cases of creation were, which it okay, conclude come better understood inside a realistic way. Liberal theology assumes that Genesis is a poetic act, & that person understanding of God increases bit by bit all over period; & even as understanding of God grows, individual understanding of God's may & of the globe too grows, & has grown since Biblical days.

Yet, several believers inside the literal interpretation argue that another time the poetic learn from of the creation account inside Genesis has been adopted, it leads one to wonder a historicity of more central topics of that book. Moreover, a liberal approach suggests, another time straight-out, that Jesus as seen in a New Testament, or even the writers of the Bible, got a mistaken understanding of the dependableness of the Bible, & mistakenly believed the genesis to become literal history; a proposition that, whenever adoptive, has radical implications for Christian faith & the dependability of the Bible.

Political context
In the laic feel, "creationism" refers to the political doctrine which asserts the validity & superiority of the particular religiously-depending origin belief above victims of more belief systems, including those particularly espoused across laic or even scientific principle — i.e. "Creation-evolution controversy." The meaning of the term "creationism" depends upon the context wherein these are utilized, when it refers to the particular origin belief in a particular political culture.

In the United States, more thus than inside the rest of the globe, creationism has be centered in political disputation, particularly above public education, and whether teaching evolution around science classes conflicts below a belt sustaining the creationist worldview. Presently, a disceptation has came in the form of whether advocates of the Intelligent Design movement who wish to "Teach the Controversy" in science classes have overstepped a boundaries of separation of church and state.

Creation science represents an attempt by creationists to legitimize religious scriptures in scientific terms, by attempting to demonstrate compatability between science and their creationist worldview. A scientific status of Creation Science, despite its name, is disputed; these are non repute a avowedly science per scientific community, because Creation Science begins by using a desired guide & tries to interpret everthing grounds to believe to consort sustaining this preset guide, whereas, inside theory, pure science works by using the scientific method to formulate theories and predictions according to firm grounds to believe; notwithstanding it would exist as naif to take a look at that single man of science act forswearing any household presuppositions.

History of the concept of creation
A history of creationism is attached to the history of religions. Creationism within the West primarily experienced a select few of its earliest roots in Judaism. For instance, Abraham ibn Ezra's (c. 1089–1164) comment inside Genesis is greatly esteemed in traditional rabbinic circles & he was the creationist.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, naturalists challenged the Biblical account of creation as to be within conflict by owning empirical observations of natural history from scientific inquiry. Creationists assume their primary source to exist as a ancient Hebrew text describing creation according to Genesis. When a term creationism was non around most common have prior to a late 19th century they see themselves when existence a philosophic & religious offspring of the traditions that held that text sacred. A biblical account of history, cosmology and natural history was believed by Jews, Christians and Muslims and its accuracy was unquestioned through the Medieval period. Virtually all population inside Europe, the Middle East and other areas of the Islamic world believed that the supreme existence got existed & would survive eternally, and that all about else within existence experienced been created by this supreme being, known multifariously when God, Yahweh, or Allah. This belief was according to a authority of Genesis, the Qur'an, and other ancient histories, which were held to be historically accurate and no systematic or scientific inquiry was made into the validity of the text.

Islamic scholars preserved ancient Greek texts and developed their ideas, leading to the Renaissance which brought a inquiring of biblical cosmology. By using the Enlightenment a variety of scientific & philosophic movements challenged traditional viewpoints inside Europe & a Americas. Natural history developed with a aim of understanding God's project, however discovered contradictions, which around radical France were interpreted as science supporting evolution. Elsewhere, particularly within England, clerical naturalists sought explanations compatible with interpretations of biblical texts, anticipating numerous late creationist arguments.

When a conception of an ancient globe became widely accepted, Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection directly challenged belief in God's involvement around creating species, & inside response Creationism arose as a distinct movement aiming to justify and reassert a literal accuracy of sacred texts, particularly a words of Genesis.

A history of creationism has relevancy to the creation-evolution controversy. Exponent of creationism claim that it has a rich heritage grounded inside ancient recorded histories & uniform by having scientific observation, whereas opponents, particularly of what it take to be the pseudosciences of creation science and intelligent design, claim that those come the modern reactionist movement against science.

Types of creationism
Creationism covers a spectrum of beliefs which develop been categorized into the wide types employed beneath. Non totally creationists come under consideration by using scientific theories, though super pack modern man of science come creationists.

Young-Earth Creationism — The belief that the Globe was created by God a few thousand years ago, literally as described inside Creation according to Genesis, within a approximate timeframe of the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar or somewhat more based on data from a interpretation of biblical genealogies. (It will or even might not guess that a Universe is the same age.) When such, it rejects non simply radiometric and isochron dating of the age of the Earth, arguing that they are according to debatable assumptions, however as well approaches like ice core dating and dendrochronology, which make a barest of assumptions of uniformitarianism, and which hint that a Globe is far older than a Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar suggests. Instead, it interprets the geological record largely following of a global flood. This see is held by several Protestant Christians in the United states, & by numbers of Haredi Jews. For Christian groups promoting this look at, see a Institute for Creation Research (ICR), El Cajon, California, USA, and a Creation Search Society (CRS), Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA.

Old-Earth Creationism — a view that the physical universe was created by God, but that a creation event of Genesis is does'nt to become taken strictly literally. This class action usually believes that a age of the Universe and the age of the Earth are as described by astronomers and geologists, but that details of the evolutionary theory are questionable.

Theistic evolutionism, also referred to as "evolutionary creationism" — A general look at that a bit of or even totally definitive religious teachings just about God and creation are compatible with occasionally or even 100% of the scientific theory of evolution. It views evolution when a thing utilized by God & might synthesize by having gap or even day-age creationism, although virtually all disciple deny that Genesis was intended to become interpreted as history in the least. It might however exist when described as "creationism" within holding that divine intervention caused a origin of life or that divine Laws govern formation of species, however in the creation-evolution controversy its proponents usually require a "evolutionist" side when disputing that occasionally man of science' methodological assumption of materialism can be taken as ontological as well. Several creationists would deny that this is creationism the least bit, & should like become known as "theistic evolution", even as numbers of man of science allow voice to their spiritual side. Particularly, this look at rejects a doctrine of favorite creation & more philosophical system. For instance, evolutionary theory assumes dying occurs as natural a share of life & it got an integral section in a formation of life, however the Bible teaches that lone Life begets life & that demise occurs as effect of sin.

Intelligent Design movement — The independent advocate of intelligent project keep close at hand by design distanced themselves from either either more forms of creationism, preferring to become referred to as entirely separate from creationism as a philosophy. One of a main websites of the movement defines it so: "The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as [Darwinian] natural selection." Intelligent project styles itself as a philosophic approach to a origin of reference & complexness inside nature and severity & severity, and, its disciple claim publicly, is non caring by using religion, or even even even the identity or nature, whether natural or occult, of any conceivable designer(s). Apparently, intelligent project doesn't oppose a theory of evolution. Nevertheless, a leading advocate of intelligent project come Christian theists world health organization vociferously oppose evolution & acknowledge to their constituency "our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools" and that "this (the ID movement) isn't really, and never has been a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." Critics cite such statements when proof that intelligent project is creationism around fresh article of clothing (watch Wedge strategy).

Jewish creationism
Jewish creationism includes a continuum of views all about creationism, in aspects including a origin of life & a role of evolution in the formation of mintage every bit debated in the creation-evolution disputation. In a main, the major Jewish denominations, including many Orthodox Jewish groups, assume evolutionary creationism or even theist evolution. A contemporary general approach of Judaism, excepting Orthodox traditions, is to non require a Torah as a literal text, but like as a emblematical or even open-ended act. When far when Orthodox Jews, world health organization search to reconcile discrepancies between science & a Bible, last, a notion that science & a Bible should potentially become reconciled across traditional scientific means is questioned. To these groups, Science is when admittedly when the Torah & in case there seems to exist as a condition, my have epistemic restricts come to blame for any apparent unreconcileable point. It point to various discrepancies between what is potential & what actually is (look at science), to demonstrate that things are not universally when it come out. It point dead set a fact that the potentially radical for "world" in the Hebrew language — עול×? (oh•luhm) — means hidden. Even as it think God apparently created human & trees & a weak inside its way from either a stars in their fully grown state, therefore as well might it imagine that the world was created in its "adult" state, by owning a understanding that there are, & may be, there is no physical ways to verify this. This belief has been advanced by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb, previous philosophy prof at Johns Hopkins University. Likewise, comparatively old Kabbalistic sources from either easily prior to a scientifically apparent age of the universe was 1st determined come inside close concord by having modern scientific estimates of the age of the universe, based on data from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. More interesting parallels come brought down from either, among more sources, Nachmanides, who expounds exegetically that there was the Neanderthal-like coinage using which Adam mated (he did this long prior to Neanderthal man got potentially been found scientifically).

Christian God as absolute origin

Tons denominations of Christianity assert that God is a origin, the first cause. A Roman Catholic Church holds as an unchangeable tenet of Christian faith, that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". On this text, clearly, creation is described as an absolute beginning, which includes the assertion that the super existence of the universe is contingent upon a necessary higher being, a God who is not himself created. So a doctrine of biblical creation wharehouses a noesis of God central in the pursuit of the noesis of anything, for all about comes from either God. Yet, this look at doesn't mandate a conception of favorite creation; it says notool just about a mechanism by which any thing was created.

Although phrased otherwise, this doctrine of creation is common around numbers of branches of more religions. A strictness to which disciple come involved to assume these views, & a feel where these definitions come official, deviate widely.

Prevalence of creationism

United States

Based on datthe from a 2001 Gallup poll on the origins of humans, it estimate that 72% of Americans guess within a select few form of creationism (equally defined above). It as well estimate that just about 45% of Americans concurred by using a statement that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years."

Within 1987, Newsweek reported: "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who ascribed to Biblically literal creationism."

Inside 2000, a People for the American Way poll estimated that: Less-direct anecdotal evidence of the popularity of creationism is reflected in the response of IMAX theaters to the availability of Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, an IMAX film which makes a connection between mortal DNA and microbes inside submarine volcanoes. A film's distributor reported that a just U.S. states sustaining theaters which chose does'nt to show a film were Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina: The western world outside the United States
Most vocal creationists are from the United States, and creationist views are much less common elsewhere in the Western World.

According to a PBS documentary on evolution, Australian Young Earth Creationists claimed that "5 percent of the Australian people at present imagine that Globe is hundreds to thousands, like than billions, of years old." The documentary further states that "Australia occurs as particular fastness of the creationist movement." Taking these claims at face value, Young Earth Creationism is very much a minority position in Western countries.

In Europe, creationism is a less well-defined phenomenon, and regular polls are not available. However, evolution is taught as scientific fact in most schools. In countries with a Roman Catholic majority, papal acceptance of evolution as worthy of study has essentially ended debate on the matter for many people. Nevertheless, creationist groups such as the German ''Studiengemeinschaft Wort und Wissen (Study group 'word and knowledge')''[http://www.wort-und-wissen.de/] are actively lobbying in Germany. In the United Kingdom the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (previously the Vardy Foundation), which runs two government-funded high schools in the north of England (out of several thousand in the country) and plans to open several more, teaches that creationism and evolution are equally valid "faith positions". In Italy, the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi wanted to retire evolution from schools in the middle level; after one week of massive protests, he reversed his opinion. [http://www2.onnachrichten.t-online.de/dyn/c/19/01/33/1901336.html]

Of particular note for Eastern Europe, Serbia suspended the teaching of evolution for one week in 2004, under education minister Ljiljana Čolić, only allowing schools to reintroduce evolution into the curriculum if they also taught creationism. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/09/wdarw09.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/09/ixworld.html] "When the deluge of protest from either man of science, teachers & opposition parties," says the BBC report, Ms Čolić's deputy made the statement, "We've are on text to confirm Charles Darwin is however alive," and announced that the decision was reversed. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3642460.stm] Ms. Čolić resigned after the government said that she had caused "problems that experienced began to reflect on the operate of the entire government". [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3663196.stm]

Criticism of creationism

Scientific critique of creationism
Creationism was never based primarily upon scientific findings or upon a scientific approach to uncovering the origins of life. Many modern forms of creationism, particularly Young Earth Christian creationism, were created to defend the literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation in genesis, when evolution started to become scientific orthodoxy. Many modern creationists are widely regarded as 'anti evolutionists' rather than as people putting forward an honest alternative to explain the origins of life. Indeed, virtually all creationist arguments take the form of attacks on evolutionary theories.

Creationists sometimes minimize the explanatory power and validity of evolution theory by criticizing it as being "good the theory" implying that the word "theory" is synonymous with "conjecture" or "speculation", instead of the technical, scientifically accepted use of the word "theory" to mean a model of the world (or some portion of it) from which falsifiable hypotheses can be generated and verified through empirical observation. In this sense, evolution is a very powerful theory.

Critics charge that Creationism is not a theory that has come about through a similar systematic accumulation of evidence. It is based on a literal interpretation of religious scripture and the emphasis of scripture over other sources of knowledge. Young Earth Creationism also fails the criteria of falsifiability and parsimony. While the hypothesis that the Earth is only a few thousand years old allows many predictions, evidence which refutes these predictions cannot invalidate creationism, because creationism itself is a belief and not a scientific theory. The belief can persist in spite of evidence to the contrary.

There is a fundamental difference between the scientific approach and the approach used by creationist advocates. The scientific approach uses the scientific method as a means of discovering information about the natural world. Scientists use observations, hypotheses and deductions to propose explanations for natural phenomena in the form of theories. Predictions from these theories are tested by experiment. If a prediction turns out to be correct, the theory survives. This is a meritocratic form of systematic enquiry, where the best ideas supported by evidence and positive experimental results survive. Science does not seek answers that fit a certain pre-determined conclusion, but rather works to construct viable, testable, and provable theories based on a solid evidential foundation. Creationism works in the opposite direction: creating the conclusion first and working backwards to 'discover' corresponding evidence. This is fundamentally unscientific, and a hallmark of pseudoscience.

All scientific theories are falsifiable; that is, if evidence that contradicts any given theory comes to light, or if the theory is proven to no longer fit with the evidence, the theory itself is shown to be invalid and is either modified to be consistent with all the evidence or is discarded. Evolution is a theory that fits in with all known biological evidence, fits in with all known genetic evidence, and is backed up by overwhelming evidence in the fossil record. Contrary to frequent claims by Christian and Islamic opponents of evolutionism, transitional fossils exist which show a gradual change from one species to another. Moreover, evolutionary selection has been observed in living species (for instance, "tuskless elephants"--see elephant). Because of this and other evidence, there is little debate within scientific circles as to whether evolution is a fact or not, and none of it suggests creationism as a viable alternative. It is worth pointing out that even if evolution as biologists currently understand it turned out to be false, this would not automatically mean that special creation was true (such a binary view being a logical fallacy). It is exclusively in the public sphere, where young Earth creationists (especially in the US) have fought for recognition of their world view, that the debate about creationism and evolution rages.

In addition to that, no conclusive proof for Creationism or Intelligent Design has been ever brought forward. Because both styles of Creationism presume the actions of a supernatural being (God or the "Designer"), any person capable of proving either of the theories is eligible for the sum of $1,000,000 (see James Randi's offer).

The Christian critique of creationism
Many professing Christians support evolutionary creationism rather than young earth creationism. This is because, in the view of many creationists, science has more or less explained the development of the universe. However, science could never explain the existence of the universe. In "Intelligent Project as a Theological Condition," George Murphy argues against the common view that life on Earth in all its forms is direct evidence of God's act of creation (Murphy quotes Phillip Johnson's claim that he is speaking "of the God world health organizatiin acted openly & left his fingerprints on all the grounds to believe."). Murphy argues that this view of God is incompatible with the Christian understanding of God as "the 1 revealed in the cross & resurrection of Jesus." The basis of this theology is Isaiah 45:15, "Truly, thou art a God world health organization hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior." This verse inspired Pascal to write, "What meets our eyes denotes neither the sum absence nor the apparent presence of the divine, however the presence of a God world health organization conceals himself." In the Heidelberg Disputation, Martin Luther referred to the same Biblical verse to propose his "theology of the cross": "That human doesn't deserve to become known when a theologizer world health organization looks upon the invisible items of God as though it were clearly obvious around people items which keep close at hand actually happened ... He deserves to exist as known as a theologist, even so, world health organization comprehends a seeable & apparent items of God seen across suffering & the cross."

Luther opposes his theology of the cross to what he called the "theology of glory": For Murphy, Creationists are modern-day theologians of glory. Following Luther, Murphy argues that a true Christian cannot discover God from clues in creation, but only from the crucified Christ. However, Luther also defended the notion of creation in six normal-length days about 6,000 years ago, and a global flood.

Murphy observes that the execution of a Jewish carpenter by Roman authorities is in and of itself an ordinary event and did not require Divine action. On the contrary, for the crucifixion to occur, God had to limit or "empty" Himself. It was for this reason that Paul wrote, in Philippians 2:5-8, Murphy concludes that, For Murphy, a theology of the cross requires that Christians accept a methodological naturalism, meaning that one cannot invoke God to explain natural phenomena, while recognizing that such acceptance does not require one to accept a metaphysical naturalism, which proposes that nature is all that there is.

According to Emil Brunner, "God doesn't wish to occupy a whole of space Himself, however that He wills to produce room for more forms of being ... Inside and then doing, He restricts Himself." It is where God has limited Himself that humans must use their own intelligence to understand the world — to understand the laws of gravity as well as evolution – without relying on God as an explanation. It is only through the cross and the resurrection that one may find God. Plea to reject nonsense
In his work The Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim), Saint Augustine (354-430), embarrassed by Christians who would not accept this implication of the Doctrine of Creation, wrote against them. This translation is by J. H. Taylor in Ancient Christian Writers, Newman Press, 1982, volume 41.

Creationism and naturalism

Creationists believe that a divine power created life, sometimes believing that every "kind" of living thing was separately "created", while naturalists believe life came into being or developed into different species through natural means. This spectrum of opposing views has led to the debate commonly known as the creation evolution debate.

Creationism in Popular Culture
Many products across several forms of media feature elements of Creationism, like humans and dinosaurs living together. These examples may or may not be intentional. After Eden B.C. (comic) The Flintstones One Million Years B.C. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth The Lost World

Etymology
The word creation comes from the Latin word, creatio.