Creationism

Creationism is the belief that the universe was created by a divine entity, identified as God in Judeo-Christian theology. Creationist understandings of the formation of the earth fall along a diverse spectrum, but most creationists believe that the universe was created from nothing, that evolution cannot explain the development of life, that humans and apes have different ancestors, and that the Noachian flood covered the earth as documented in the Bible. Under some circumstances, conflicts have arisen between advocates of science communication and science education and strict creationists. These conflicts generally receive significant media attention.

Creationists can be placed into one of two categories: young-earth and old-earth creationists. Young-earth creationists follow a strict, literal interpretation of the story of human creation as it appears in the Bible; they believe that the entire universe was created in six 24-hour days. The exact age of the earth assumed varies to some extent, with some estimating that the earth was created between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, while others agree with an estimate by Irish Archbishop James Ussher, who deduced that the creation occurred sometime in the evening on Saturday, October 22, 4004 BCE. Young-earth creationists (also called strict creationists) believe that God created the world (and humankind) basically in present form. They reject the idea that humans (or other creatures) evolved from lower life forms.

Old-earth creationists follow the creationist beliefs that God created everything, but they believe that this occurred much earlier than dates provided by young-earth creationists. Some old-earth creationists believe in gap theory, which suggests that time continued to pass in the gap between the first and second verses of Genesis. Others follow the day-age theory, which states that the story of the earth and universe being created in 6 days is true, but that each day could have been longer than 24 hours (even millions of years). Still others believe that that God created certain species of animals and that limited evolution (microevolution) occurred to account for the wide range of species on the planet (for example, they may believe that God created the cat, which evolved into the tiger, lion, leopard, and so on). These old-earth approaches are supported with certain types of scientific affirmation, such as radiometric dating, but scientists do not generally accept the beliefs of the old-earth creationists.

While these individuals tend to be religious and with low levels of formal education, a recent survey showed 25% of college graduates believe in some form of creationism. As for public opinion, surveys consistently reveal that about 40% to 50% of the U.S. population accepts the Biblical account of creationism, while similar numbers of people accept the evolutionary account that humans evolved over time. The accuracy of these polls has been questioned, as surveys do not distinguish between old-earth and young-earth creationists, and it is often unclear how familiar respondents are with the terms and concepts being used. Furthermore, these beliefs also do not necessarily translate into beliefs that school curriculum should be changed; while fewer than half of Americans believe in evolution, according to this poll data, a majority nevertheless feel that evolution should still be taught in schools.

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