Christians and adherents of various religions hold the belief that the Earth and the universe were created by a divine and supernatural being. They view God as the ultimate explanation for the origins and development of life and the cosmos. Within the framework of creationism, there are diverse perspectives that approach the relationship between creation and evolution differently.
Some forms of creationism reject the theory of evolution entirely, considering it incompatible with their religious beliefs. They assert that God created all life forms in their present state without any process of evolution or common ancestry.
On the other hand, there are forms of creationism that fully embrace the theory of evolution and seek to harmonize it with their religious teachings. They perceive evolution as the mechanism through which God brought about the diversity of life, seeing it as part of God’s creative plan.
Discussions on creationism often end up in heated debates. In this discussion, I will be focusing on creationism from the Christian perspective. It is important to emphasize that our salvation does not depend on which form of creationism we adhere to. When evaluating different creationist views, it is crucial to consider various aspects. Here are some questions we must address:
- What does it mean by God created the world? By divine intervention or through evolution? What does it mean by God created the world? By divine intervention or through evolution?
Does it have any direct conflict with the book of Genesis? Can the book of Genesis interrupt differently to fit the view?
- Does it have any direct conflict with science? Scientists don’t have all the answers yet, but is the view agree with the consensus scientific view?
- How do we understand Adam and Eve? They are critical figures in our faith. Paul asserted that Jesus is the second Adam, sin entered the world via one person (Adam), and salvation is through one person (Jesus).
- What is original sin? If Adam and Eve weren’t historical figures described in Genesis, where do we get the original sin?
Here, I will introduce some mainstream view of creationism so you can understand other people’s standpoints. For each view that I present here, you must ask the five questions I’ve outlined above. I’m not trying to endorse or discredit certain views, so I will let you figure out the answer for yourself.
It should be noted that most people hold a hybrid view because none of the views provides all the answers.
There are two main branches of creationism. Biblical creationism rejects evolution and asserts that human beings were created in more or less the same form as modern humans. They hold that the book of Genesis is an accurate description of creation. On the other hand, theistic evolution asserts that God uses evolution to create and direct human beings.
Biblical creationism
Biblical creationism is a belief system that rejects the concept of evolution and maintains that the account of creation presented in the book of Genesis is an accurate description of how the world came into existence. According to this belief, God created Adam and Eve as fully formed human beings rather than as the result of a gradual evolutionary process.
While there may be slight variations in the interpretation of Genesis within different branches of biblical creationism, they all regard the Bible as the ultimate and highest authority in matters of creation.
- Literal 6 days interpretation: Belief in bible inerrancy in the straightest sense. A day is twenty-four hours period as we understand it today. God literally created heaven and earth and human beings in six days and rested on the 7th day. There is no need to reconcile with science about the age of the world.
- Young Earth creationism: Belief in creation in 6 days and the creation of fully grown Adam and Eve. They conclude that the age of the earth is only a few thousand years old, based on the genealogy in Genesis. To counter the evidence that the earth is a few billion years old, they argue that carbon dating and other scientific tools are deemed inaccurate due to the changes in carbon composition caused by Noah’s flood. According to this perspective, the earth is like a giant movie set created by God to appear billions of years old, but it is actually only a few thousand years old.
- Old Earth creationism: Interpretation of the book of Genesis differently than Young Earth creationism. Recognize that the earth is much older than six thousands year ago. The day in Genesis means a period.
Within Old Earth creationism, there are a few more sub-branches:
Day-age creationism: Seeks to harmonize the Genesis account with scientific findings and commonly accepts the scientific consensus on the age of the Earth and the general principles of evolution. Each day describes a stage of creation.
Day 1: big bang
Day 2: earth’s creation and the formation of the atmosphere.
Day 3: plants appeared on Earth.
Day 4: the sky is clear enough to see the sky
Day 5: sea creatures appeared.
Day 6: land animals and humans roaming the Earth.
This view still insists that God created fully grown Adam and Eve. If I’m not mistaken, most Christians take this view.
Gap creationism: This is a very strange theory and does not get a lot of traction. According to this theory, God created a fully functional earth with all animals, there is a big gap between the first two verses of Genesis. A catastrophic event occurred in this gap, resulting in the Earth becoming “formless and void.” Some say it is the fall of Satan. Restoration in the subsequent creation days, according to the rest of Chapter 1. The gap accounts for various geological phenomena, fossil records, and the existence of extinct species.
This theory is also known as the Ruin-Restoration Theory since God restored creation on day two, but I found it hard to find any evidence of restoration just by looking at Genesis chapter one.
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution is a perspective that embraces the concept of evolution and asserts that God employed the evolutionary process as a means to create human beings. It maintains that there is no inherent contradiction between evolution and Christian beliefs. Rather, it acknowledges that the book of Genesis should not be read as a scientific account of creation but rather as a theological narrative. In this understanding, Adam and Eve are not regarded as historical figures but rather symbolic or representative of humanity. In an article titled “Science of original sin,” I explore the reconciliation of evolution with the interpretation of original sin and the symbolic significance of Adam and Eve as the first couple.
- Kenosis Evolution:
The God of theistic evolution can sound like a very distant God. How can humans have free will if God created the blueprint for man and directed the evolution process? Kenosis evolution asserts that God freely limits his infinite power so as to allow for the existence of non-infinite entities. In this view, God is not a movie director or micromanager that dictates every single move of evolution. God is omnipotent and has many ways of creating the world, including the literal descriptions in Genesis. Just as Christ emptied Himself to become human, God, who is love, also emptied Himself to allow for the development of human life through some evolution-like mechanism that allowed free will to emerge so humans can choose to love Him back of their free will.
You can think of God as an artist who has many ways to create His art. Once He had chosen the media of His choice, He was restricted by the constraints of the media. If He had chosen a canvas of a specific size, He could only paint within the boundary of the canvas. The limit is self-imposed and not by any external force.
While God emptied Himself to allow intelligent lifeforms to emerge, it doesn’t mean God didn’t do anything to guide the development of the new lifeforms. His providence to humankind is continuous and not just at the beginning. God is always at work.
I’ve written an article on Kenosis Evolution in this blog, please refer to the article “Creation as God’s providence” for more details.
- Intelligent Design: Intelligent Design is the concept that certain features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process like natural selection. I’ve written an article on intelligent design, here I will not talk too much about it. Straightly speaking, intelligent design is not considered creationism. Proponents of intelligent design make an effort to separate themselves from creationism, pointing out that they are concluding that there must be an intelligent designer based on science rather than a religious text. No matter how we label it, I feel it is still a form of theistic evolution. An intelligent designer is responsible for designing the universe. This intelligent designer is just a supernature being; it can be a dictator God who dictates every single move and gives us no free will or an absentee landlord who designed the world and let it run on its own. This designer is far from the Christian God who loves us and cares for us.
- Progressive Creationism:
Progressive Creationism is a hybrid view that attempts to bridge between biblical creationism and theistic evolution. It believes that the Earth can be billions of years old. Progressive Creationism accepts the concept of microevolution, which refers to evolutionary changes within a species, but it does not accept macroevolution, which suggests the evolution of one species into another. Instead, Progressive Creationism holds that divine intervention is required to create new species and does not posit a common ancestor.
Progressive Creationism is one of the least popular forms of creationism. Christian scientists found that it does not fully embrace the scientific evidence of evolution, while conservative Christians think that it departed too far from the biblical text.