Creationism versus Evolutionary Theories Essay

The principle idea behind creationism is that the origin of natural objects is supernatural. As an example, the Christian tradition is that the land, sky, plants and animals were created by a supernatural or also known as God. As Young and Strode state, “Within this basic idea are themes are variations; some cultures believe that plants and animal species are unchanging,

Since the beginning of the human race there has been a lingering question as to the origins of man and how all living things acquired their characteristics. The two main theories that arose over time were Creationism and Evolution, both of which provided very distinct answers to this question. Creationism based its answer on the idea of a supernatural power or being that created the entire universe, man and the numerous other organisms that live within it. While, Evolution theorizes that all living things have the potential to change and grow over time into something new and different. So in other words, one theory suggests that humans and all the organisms on Earth are the result of divine design, while the other indicates that they

The theory of evolution, as set forth by Charles Darwin in 1859, stated that all plant and animal life evolved over long periods of time from simple to more complicated forms through mutation and adaptation. He also taught that only the fittest of each species would survive. He further postulated that the first living cell evolved in a "warm warm little pond" and that it took billions of years for the present diversity of living things to evolve. At the time, it was thought that the few "missing links" in the fossil record would be soon filled.(Darwin, 1927 ). Today, however, there is today a considerable body of scientific evidence that refutes this entire theory.

The debate over Evolutionary theories and Creationism beliefs has been a major debate throughout our churches, education system, and even our homes. There have been countless scientists, theologians, journalists and Christians that have studied both sides of the spectrum, that argue how the world we live in was created. Many empty statements, with little to no facts, just assertions about this particular question have been stated in many debates all over the world. So on one side we have Creationism belief that essentially argues that God is the “intelligent designer” and on the other side Evolutionary theories that state the world has evolved over the centuries. In the Merriam- Webster dictionary, Creationism is defined as, “a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis “. Merriam- Webster dictionary also defines Evolution as, “a theory that the differences between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time; the process by which changes in plants and animals happen over time; a process of slow change and development”. So is it possible to believe both of those definitions?

Creationism is a religiously motivated view that does not think that evolution exists. It relies heavily on a higher power creating everything that exists on Earth, perfectly. Paley's Design Argument for an intelligent designer deals with watches. He uses a watch as his example because if you were to find in the woods somewhere and picked it up, you would think that something godly made it because of its complexity.

Since the Age of the Enlightenment, the institution of religion has had to contend with the opposition of science regarding the issues of the origins of the world and of the human species. Up until around the end of the 17th century, the church was the authority on how the world and everything in it had come to be. However, with the great intellectual revolution came thinkers such as Galileo, Copernicus, Bacon, Descartes, and many others who challenged the biblical assumptions with empirically deduced scientific theories. The Catholic Church had a nasty habit of persecuting such ideological dissent toward creationism, calling it heresy and thereby somewhat suppressing a complete upheaval of the Scriptures. For many centuries to come,

lot of stress for the students, their families and the clergy at their church. Why do we

Arguments over the age of the Earth have sometimes been divisive for people who regard the Bible as God's word. Even though the Earth's age is never mentioned in the Bible, it is an issue because those who take a strictly literal view of the early chapters of Genesis can calculate an approximate date for the creation by adding up the life-spans of the people mentioned in the genealogies. Assuming a strictly literal interpretation of the week of creation, even if some of the generations were left out of the genealogies, the Earth would be less than ten thousand years old. Radiometric dating techniques indicate that the Earth is thousands of times older than that--approximately four and a half billion years old. Many Christians accept this and

Creationists uphold the view in which God created the universe and everything it contains; they believe God started time and created life. Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (NIV Bible).” Throughout the first two chapters of Genesis, Moses describes the steps God took when creating the universe, light, stars, animals, land, sea, and yes, even

Over many centuries there has been, and still is, a continuous dispute about the birth of humanity. As it is stated in the lectures and readings, certain experts uphold the idea of Creationism (Hunt and Colander, Ch. 2; McCoy, Origins of Humanity Lecture Pt. II, 15). Others promote the theory of evolution (Hunt and Colander, Ch. 2; McCoy, Origins of Humanity Lecture I, 2). Charles Darwin is also discussed by how he believes that time produces change through the theory of evolution (Hunt and Colander Ch. 2; McCoy, Origins of Humanity Lecture I, 3). In Opposition, Creationist back up their argument, that God created all things that exist through an act of spontaneous events, by sourcing their claims from the bible (Hunt and Colander Ch. 3;

Creationism is a religious metaphysical theory about the origin of the universe. It is not a scientific theory. Technically, creationism is not necessarily connected to any particular religion. It simply requires a belief in a Creator. Millions of Christians and non-Christians believe there is a Creator of the universe and that scientific theories such as the the theory of evolution do not conflict with belief in a Creator. However, fundamentalist Christians such as Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell, have co-opted the term 'creationism' and it is now difficult to refer to creationism without being understood as referring to fundamentalist Christians who (a) take the stories in Genesis as accurate accounts of the origin of the universe and

If the question was posed as to what is the debate between creationism vs. evolution consist of, the thought that it is ‘“God did it” vs. “Natural processes did it,”’ (Scott, 2004) may arise. Science cannot absolutely prove or disprove Creation or Evolution. Yet scientist and the remainder of society use creationism and evolution to prove our existence. Creationist believe in the Christian account of the origin as recorded in Genesis. Creationism is the belief that statements such as “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (NIV) found in Genesis 1:1 and also “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (NIV) found in John 1:1. Evolution is the belief that everything just changed over

In geology, instead of the Earth’s rock layers forming over millions of years they believe that Noah’s Great Flood brought upon the shape of mountains and diverse amounts of hills, valleys, plateaus etc. One of the greatest controversies when it comes to creationists is the idea of dinosaurs and humans. Today the average person could tell you that dinosaurs were around before humans, but not creationists. They believe that along with other animals, dinosaurs were brought on Noah’s Ark and died out due to rapid climate change. Since dinosaurs were not mentioned in the bible, they were referred to as dragons, behemoths, and leviathans brings upon the idea in their mind that they lived along side the ancient people mentioned in the bible. In this they denounce the geology of dating rocks and fossils by criticizing the formula used to date them back millions of years. In chemistry they have said that the carbon dating of radioactive isotopes is incorrect because of the lack of 100% accuracy while being relatively close, they have created there own formula which no matter how they date it, it will always come to a conclusion of less than 10,000 years ago.

The theories of human evolution may always cause a heated dispute. Each theory presents its own evidence proving

When thinking about the origin of life, there are two main points one can come to, Intelligent Design or Natural Process (Ken Ham, 2008). “According to the former view, supernatural intervention was essential for the creation of life; according to the latter, living organisms could form spontaneously—for example, from the mud of the Nile” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006). Creation can be defined as the original bringing into existence of the universe by God (“Creation”, n.d.). Intelligent design can be defined as “certain features” (Ken Ham, 2008). Intelligent Design can also be explained by finding features of the earth and explaining them by an intelligent cause ("Intelligent Design", n.d.). Creationism usually starts with religious