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Creationism is the belief that the universe was created in the way described in religious books. According to Genesis, God directly created life from the nothingness that was before, by fixing the chaos that was. Other religions have different Creation myths. The first approach is known as creatio ex nihilo, which is the Latin name for creation from nothing.
The idea that God created the world has been taught for thousands of years by writers such as Augustine of Hippo.
Belief[change | change source]
Creationists usually do not believe that all of today's living things came about from simple organisms changing or evolving slowly over time. They believe that life was created much as it is today, and that one form of life cannot change into another. While biologists and paleontologists say that fossils (the remains of living things that died long ago) are different from the life we see today, and can be put into order to show changes over time, Creationists argue that life was created during a short time in its current form.
Christian Creationism[change | change source]
Young Earth Creationism is the belief that God created the earth roughly 6,000 or 10,000 years ago as told in Genesis.  Young Earth Creationists believe that God created the world in six days (with God resting on the seventh) as the Book of Genesis says. Young Earth Creationism says that Noah's flood is important to creationism. They argue that "the first buried fossils of each group are complete and complex (complicated), strong support for the biblical concept (idea) that each kind of life was created well designed to multiply after its own kind." They think that the Bible is literally true (see Biblical inerrancy). A problem with this is that fossils appear in layers called strata.
- Fossils that scientists believe evolved earlier are found in rocks that geologist think are older.
- Fossils that scientists believe evolved later are found in different rocks that geologist think are younger.
If fossils were of animals drowned in the flood scientists think they world be mixed together. Scientists think Christian creationists cannot explain how fossils became sorted. 
Other creationists accept that the earth and the universe are as old as science shows, but believe God created everything between 13,000 and 14,000 million years ago. This is called Old Earth Creationism. 
The term creationism can be used with more than one meaning.
- Sometimes creationism means that god created life and evolution did not happen. 
- Other times creationism means just that God created everything but this could have happened long ago and theistic evolution may have happened.
Islamic Creationism[change | change source]
Islamic creationism is the belief that the universe (including humanity) was directly created by Allah as in the Qur'an. Currently, Islam takes religious texts literally. Many scholars say that Genesis is a corrupted version of God's message. There is also a creation myth in the Qu'ran, but it is more vague than Genesis. This allows for more interpretation. Several liberal movements within Islam generally accept the scientific positions on the age of the earth, the age of the universe and evolution.
Islam also has its own form of Theistic evolution, which says that mainstream scientific analysis of the origin of the universe is supported by the Qur'an. Many liberal Muslims believe in evolutionary creationism.
Khalid Anees, president of the Islamic Society of Britain attended a conference called 'Creationism: Science and Faith in Schools'. During that conference, he made points including the following: There is no contradiction between what is revealed in the Koran and natural selection and survival of the fittest. However, some Muslims, such as Adnan Oktar, do not agree that one species can develop from another.
But there is also a growing movement of Islamic creationism. Like the movement in Christianity, Islamic creationists are concerned that the findings of evolutionary theory might contradict what is written in the Qu'ran.
"Do not the Unbelievers see that the skies (space) and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We created every living thing out of the water. Will they not then believe?"[Qur'an 21:30]
"On the day when We will roll up the sky (space) like the rolling up of the scroll for writings, as We originated the first creation, (so) We shall reproduce it; a promise (binding on Us); surely We will bring it about."[Qur'an 21:104]
Baha'i creationism[change | change source]
The Bahá'í Faith considers the creation narratives in previous Abrahamic religions to be symbolic and not literal. Bahá'í Faith also accepts that the Earth is ancient. Baha'ullah existed at the same time as Charles Darwin, so was aware of Darwin's works.
Scientific criticism[change | change source]
Religious communities in the United States encourage the inclusion of supernatural explanations of the origins of both life and the universe as a whole. Evolution was not included in school textbooks until the 1960s. In 1987, the United States Supreme Court decided creationism was not scientific, and should not be taught in public schools.  
References[change | change source]
- Young Earth Creationism
- Can Noah's flood account for the geologic and fossil record?
- Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right
- Papineau, David (2004-01-07). "Creationism: Science and Faith in Schools". Guardian. http://education.guardian.co.uk/conferences/story/0,,1117752,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
- "Creationist offers prize for fossil proof of evolution". The Independent. 29 September 2008. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/creationist-offers-prize-for-fossil-proof-of-evolution-945289.html. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
- Harun Yahya, The Big Bang Echoes through the Map of the Galaxy
- Maurice Bucaille (1990), The Bible the Qur'an and Science, "The Quran and Modern Science", ISBN 81-7101-132-2.
- A. Abd-Allah, The Qur'an, Knowledge, and Science, University of Southern California.
- The National Center for Science Education's collection of statements by scientific societies in support of evolution. The National Center of Science Education and the Royal Society agree with this decision.
- "Royal Society statement on evolution, creationism and intelligent design" (in English). The Royal Society. 2006-04-11. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/news.asp?year=&id=4298. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
Other websites[change | change source]
|Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Creationism|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Creationism|
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Creationism
- How creationism works
- Creation and Evolution Both? Examines whether Biblical creation and neo-darwinistic evolution can be reconciled.
- Evolution, Creationism & ID Timeline Focuses on major historical and recent events in the scientific and political debate
- Evolution Sciences versus Doctrines of Creationism and Intelligent Design
- PDF (204 KiB). A Guide for Museum Docents
- What is creationism? from talk.origins.
- The Creation/Evolution Continuum by Eugenie Scott.
- Armies of the Night by Isaac Asimov.
- Workers have stake in defending science a materialist statement on creationism by The Militant, 2005.
- Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham Leading scientists still reject God in Nature, Vol. 394, No. 6691 (1998), p. 313. Online at Freethought-web.org
- Creationism: The Hindu View
- Biologos is a Christian organization that sees evolution as factual.