Overviews

The American Scientific Affiliation's Creation Commission statement

The Institute For Biblical and Scientific Studies' list of the major views of creation

Seeing the Light - Of Science, an interview of Ronald Numbers by Steve Paulson, Salon


Ronald Number's essay "Creating Creationism: Meanings and Usage since the Age of Agassiz"

        Part 1

        Part 2

        Part 3
 

Gary Chiang's categorization of origins models

Karl Thornley's brief listing of the creation-evolution spectrum

The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance's  main theories of origins

 

Advocacy of specific positions

Young-Earth Creationism

These creationists believe that the six days of Genesis 1 were literal days, like the common contemporary meaning of the word "day."  Other parts of Genesis are also interpreted literally as historical fact, including geneologies and lifespans since Adam and Eve, from which estimates of the age of the earth are calculated.  Versions of this position vary in how astronomical, biological, and geological evidences for an ancient earth, solar system, and universe are dismissed.  Many earthly phenomena that mainstream scientists interpret as forming over millions of years are commonly attributed by these creationists to a global flood in the time of Noah.   Starlight that mainstream astronomers say originated millions of years ago is proposed by some of these creationists to have been created enroute, though others reject the idea that God would create the appearance of supernova explosions and other stellar events if they in fact did not happen.  Such astronomical events might not have occurred so long ago, suggest some of these creationists,  if the speed of light was previously a lot faster.  Similarly, radiometric dates of rocks as millions of years old are rejected by challenging the assumption that radioactive decay rates are constant.
 

Answers in Genesis (In March 2006, the former Answers in Genesis ministries in Australia, Canada, NZ and South Africa  rebranded to form Creation Ministries International. The US and UK ministries continued under the Answers in Genesis name.  CMI's web site has a timeline of events leading to the split.)


Apologetics Press

Creation Instruction Association

Creation Ministries International


Creation Research Society

Creationism Connection

Fair Education Foundation  (warning: this site contains offensive anti-Semitic material, as well as extreme "biblical" hyperliteralism that rejects Copernican heliocentrism along with Darwinian evolution)


Institute for Creation Research

Jesus, Dinosaurs, and More

The Revolution Against Evolution

 

Old-Earth Creationism

With the exception of intelligent design,  these positions all share a commitment to harmonization, i.e. finding detailed correspondence between the sequence of changes on earth since its origin as described by science, and the sequence of creative acts performed by God as described in Genesis 1 and other creation texts in the Bible.  These positions differ from young-earth creationism in that they allow for an earth and universe billions of years old.  They differ from each other a great deal in the particular ways ancient age is related to the Biblical narrative, and in the degree to which some aspects of Darwinian evolution (e.g. natural selection, common descent) are accepted as part of God's method of creation.
 

Day-Age (Progressive Creation) Theory

Answers in Creation (This organization, begun in 2003, defends the compatibility of the Bible and earth's ancient age for apologetics purposes, and does not promote one particular version of old-earth creationism.  In their words: "Although Answers In Creation is mainly a Progressive Creationist website, we represent all old-earth viewpoints.")


GodandScience.org

God, Genesis, and the big bang

Reasons to Believe  (This largest of old-earth creationism organizations was founded, and is still directed, by astronomer Hugh Ross.)
 
 

Gap (Ruin and Restoration) Theory

Christian Geology Ministry

Creationism vs. Evolution
 
 

Intelligent Design Theory

According to this theory, objective analysis of current scientific evidence proves that an intelligent designer must have created at least some living things.  Intelligent design theorists  feel that natural causes have been shown to be incapable of producing the complexity inherent in all living organisms.  Both young-earth and old-earth creationists often use intelligent design arguments against evolution, but no single view on the age of the earth is a component of intelligent design theory itself.  Most intelligent design advocates do accept the earth's ancient age, and some even accept that new species descend from existing species (common ancestry).  Most intelligent design advocates do not stress concordance with literal interpretations of Biblical creation stories. Many prefer not to identity the designer, because they feel that intelligent design theory can and should be defended without reference to religious beliefs.
 
Access Research Network

Discovery Institute

Leadership U (sponsored by Christian Leadership Ministries, the faculty arm of Campus Crusade for Christ)

Probe Ministries



Special Creation Limited to Adam and Eve

A Theory for Creationists
(Adam and Eve the first humans, and ancestors of all humans who lived after them)

Genesis Proclaimed Association
(Adam and Eve not the first humans, nor the ancestors of all who lived after them)
 


 

Theistic Evolution

Unlike both young-earth and old-earth creationism, this position does not look for concordance between the histories of the earth and universe as described by science, and the sequence of creative acts performed by God as described in Genesis 1 and other creation texts in the Bible.  According to most theistic evolutionists, though the Biblical authors were inspired by God to convey spiritual truths, they were not given scientific or historical truths beyond those generally available to their contemporaries.   Coherence between theological and scientific propositions is affirmed on metaphysical and religious grounds.  Science itself is generally presumed to be neutral regarding God's existence and activity.  Theistic evolutionists vary in how they understand God's foreknowledge and direction of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution.  Some feel that the fundamental structure of the universe is most consistent with anthropic design by a God who planned for the evolution of intelligent beings such as humans.   But any scientific data suggestive of design for theistic evolutionists would be limited to the basic rationality, physical forces, quantities, and constants characteristic of the whole universe, rather than the complexity in living organisms emphasized by intelligent design theorists.
 
Chiasmic Cosmology and Creation's Functional Integrity  G. Murphy

AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion: Evolution Perspectives


Life's Grand Design Kenneth Miller

Nebraska Religious Coalition for Science Education

Theistic Evolution: A Christian Alternative to Atheism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design  Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett


Theological Implications of an Evolving Creation Keith Miller