Creation theory

Creationism is the belief that God created the universe as described in the Bible. The book of Genesis begins by saying, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

However, within this belief system there are several different views of the amount of time God took to create everything, as well as how much He was actually involved in the process. There are several different views and theories that people have debated for many years. Some believe that God used evolution, some believe he created everything slowly, over millions of years, and others believe he did it in six, 24-hr days. There are numerous creation science organizations that support research programs, and new scientific theories are being formulated all the time. However, many aspects of creationism and this early history of the world can hardly be viewed as more than hypothetical.

Progressive Creationism

 * Main Article: Progressive creationism

Progressive creationists believe that God directly created everything but that he did so throughout the span of hundreds of millions of years (also known as Day-Age theory). It states that the days of Creation mentioned in the Bible were actually long periods of time. Some even believe that God created a certain type of creature called hominids before Adam and Eve that did not worship anything. They are believed to have gone extinct, and then God created Adam and Eve. Progressive Creationists do believe in the Flood as told in Genesis, however, they do not believe in a global flood. They say that the Flood was local and only covered a certain portion of the earth.

This theory holds to the Bible, but it also tries to stay loyal to what nature and science say about the earth and its age. One argument against this theory is that the Earth does not need to be 13 billion years old in order to have everything that it has. God could make a fully functioning universe that can maintain life right from the beginning because He is omnipotent. The Bible mentions the words “evening and morning” which implies literal days and nights. Spans of billions of years just do not make sense for the character of God.

Gap Theory

 * Main Article: Gap theory

Those who hold to the Gap Theory believe that there was a large period of time between what happened in Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. According to this theory, the world that already existed during this gap in time got destroyed and then God created a new one during the six days of creation. Some believe that the world before verse 2 got destroyed because of a war between God and Satan. By providing this gap of time they are able to account for the millions of years that scientists say the earth is because of the fossil record. They believe that because of the data discovered by fossils, the earth must have an age of billions of years old. However, if the earth were that old, then there would not be as much data as there is because not many fossils would be able to last that long. There are even red blood cells that have been conserved from dinosaurs, therefore the earth cannot be billions of years old.

Scholars who have studied the Bible and hold to this theory say that the wording used in Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 actually supports the theory. They say that the word 'was' used in verse two was originally the word for 'became'. However, this has actually been proven to be incorrect because the word for 'became' in Greek and Hebrew translations does not function grammatically in the context of that verse. The words that Moses used in these verses prove that he was talking about normal days and nights.

Day-Age Theory

 * Main Article: Progressive creationism

According to the Day-Age theory (also known as progressive creationism), the universe is billions of years old because each day of creation was actually a long period of time. They say this because they believe that the word used for ‘day’ in Hebrew can actually be interpreted to mean a different period of time than just a 24-hr period.

However, there is no other way to interpret this word. Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 and 2:2 all have the word used in the first chapter for 'day', and they are all associated with a specific amount of time. Other places in the Bible also reference this word in relation to a 24-hr day.

Theistic Evolution

 * Main Article: Theistic evolution

Theistic evolution is a theory that strays far from what the Bible says. It originated in the 1860s and its proponents believe that God created the earth and then directed evolution in order to produce life on it. According to this belief, God did not create Adam or animals directly, but it actually took thousands of years through the evolutionary process. By proposing this method, people are able to account for the age that evolution gives the earth. Scientists claim that the earth is billions of years old, so by claiming theistic evolution, both sides can win. They can account for the existence of God as well as allow for the evolutionary methods.

The problem with this theory is that it takes what the Bible says, and it twists it. God would not need natural selection or a complicated process like evolution to place what he wanted on the earth. This theory assumes that the Bible is not completely authoritative or true, and can be interpreted in different ways depending on the situation.

Literal Interpretation

 * Main Article: Young earth creationism

The literal interpretation of the Genesis account is the one which most creationists hold to - also known as Young Earth creationism. It tries to stay as close to Scripture as possible and believes that the six days of creation were six, 24-hr days. This comes from the words and context used in Genesis, more specifically, phrases like “and there was evening and morning.” Some argue that the wording in the passage is confusing and could be figurative, however, the Hebrew word ‘yom’ means day and this is also used in several other places in the Bible where the author was referring to a literal day.

This interpretation is the one that stays most closely to Scripture because it does not add or subtract anything from what Scripture says. To believe that the six days were actually millions of years is to put words into the Bible that are not there. It makes the most sense that they were six actual days because this is even used as an example later in the Bible when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. He tells Moses that they must work for six days and then rest on the seventh, just as He did. If there had been millions of years, then God would not actually be able to give that example to the Israelites and he would have been hypocritical in giving them such a command. Belief in this can actually change the rest of the way we see the Bible and the way we see God.

Creation Science Theories
This page contains creation theories uploaded for editing or peer review.

Astronomy / Cosmology

 * Geocentricity - Earth at the center of the universe.
 * Galactocentricity - Galaxy at the center of the universe.
 * First light - Light before the sun.
 * Christmas star - Miracle or natural celestial phenomenon.
 * Windows of Heaven theory - A solar nebula account which allows for an ancient or young universe.

Biology

 * Created kinds - Definition and identification.
 * Clean and unclean animals - Definition and distinction.
 * Marsupial distribution - Evolution of marsupial reproduction.
 * Physical immortality - Tree of everlasting life.

Geology

 * Canopy theory - Source of global flood water.
 * Hydroplate theory - Source of global flood water.
 * Fossil sorting
 * TAB model - Stratigraphic separation of fossils.
 * Hydrological sorting
 * Catastrophic Plate Tectonics - A source of massive mountain building and land separation.
 * Crystalline canopy
 * Vertical plate tectonics