Creation

About

"Creation" can either be a poetic way of referring to "everything that exists right now [or ever has existed]", or it may refer to any of the following events:

• the origin of the universe
• the origin of the Earth (see Wikipedia)
• the origin of life (on Earth)
• the origin of species (on Earth)
• the origin of humans (see Wikipedia)

When used as a synonym for "origin", it is making subtle use of interpretive framing to imply that these were deliberate acts rather than natural events. Despite the existence of scientific theories to account each of these events, generally supported by vast amounts of evidence, religious fundamentalists continue to advocate for various flavors of creationism -- a non-theory which basically answers every question with "God did it".

Science

There are scientific theories for each of these events, supported by varying amounts of evidence.

• There is strong evidence that all matter in the univers originated in an event referred to as the Big Bang; there are a number of speculations regarding the cause of this.
• There is substantial evidence that solar systems arise from the coagulation of dust-clouds surrounding a new star.
• Theories of abiogenesis generally involve simple self-replicating molecules gradually evolving into single-celled organisms.
• The theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the most solidly-proven theories in the history of humankind.
• Evidence that humans evolved from ape-like ancestors, and that we are part of the same family of species as apes, is almost as solid as that for the theory of evolution by natural selection itself.

Creationism

It is only relatively recently -- since approximately the 1800s -- that science has begun providing plausible explanations for these events. Since most currently-popular religions predate these explanations, there has been considerable resistance to them from within the religious community, especially among those that hold to a literal interpretation of scripture.

The most common religious hypothesis involves a mythological creator of the universe, most commonly known as "God", playing some role in all of these events. Despite the utter lack of any evidence or rational arguments for such a creator, much less evidence for its involvement in creating anything, many monotheists nonetheless believe these hypotheses to be true; this belief, where it flatly contradicts scientific findings, is generally referred to as creationism.

Related Articles

• Intelligent Design
• evolution vs. direct creation
  • evolution vs. Intelligent Design

Reference

Faith-based

• concepts:
  • Wikipedia: Creationism Young Earth creationism Old Earth creationism
  • Intelligent Design: Wikipedia
• organizations:
  • The Institute for Creation Research (young earth): Wikipedia
  • Answers In Creation (young earth / Bible literalist): Wikipedia

Science-based

• concepts:
  • origins of Earth
    • Wikipedia: History of Earth
  • origins of life
    • Darwinism: Wikipedia
    • Evolution: EvoWiki; Wikipedia
    • Natural selection: Wikipedia

Faith/Science compromises

• Wikipedia: Theistic evolution Gap Creationism

Events

• 2005-12-20 Dover decision is good for long-term economic and scientific strength: statement from the AAAS
• 2005-07-18 Utah bill withdrawn: "...assured him that Utah public school curriculum does not teach that man descended from apes."

News

• Scientists narrow the time limits for the human and chimpanzee split

Satire

• Doonesbury, 2005-12-18
• The Flying Spaghetti Monster