Major Belief Systems Dealing with Origins of Life
Major Belief Systems dealing with Origins of Life
There are many hundreds of creation stories throughout the world. Almost all religions believe and teach their own unique origins ideas. Naturalistic evolution is also a popular belief. In North America, beliefs regarding the origins of the universe and origins of species of life mostly fall into three general groups.
1. Scientific Creationism: God created the universe during 6 consecutive 24-hour days less than 10,000 years ago, precisely as described in the Biblical book of Genesis. All of the various species of animals that currently exist (and once existed) on earth are descendants of the animals that God created during the single week of creation. This is the most popular belief system among the general public but probably the least popular among scientists.
2. Theistic Evolution: The universe is over 10 billion years old; the earth's crust developed almost 4 billion years ago. God used evolution as a tool to guide the development of each new species, culminating in humans.
3. Naturalistic Evolution: Beliefs are identical to that of theistic evolution, except that God is assumed to have played no part in the processes. Purely natural forces drove evolution.
1. Some Scientific Creation Models
Essentially all Scientific Creationists in North America assume that that the creation stories in Genesis are accurate as is, and that God created the world, the rest of the universe and all life forms a few thousands of years ago. This belief is common among Fundamentalists and other Evangelical Christians, because it is the only theory that is compatible with conservative Christians' belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Each passage in the Bible is viewed as being without error, whether it discusses theological, historical, spiritual, scientific or other matters. The concept that species evolved naturally or that God used evolutionary processes to create new species is unacceptable to many conservative Christians. Evolution implies that death was present from the very beginning of life. Christians see God’s original creation-plan in Eden as good and therefore incompatible with death.
Modern day creation scientists are divided into many sub-groups, primarily according to their interpretation of the Hebrew word "yom" (day) in Genesis, Chapter 1. All reject the possibility of biological evolution of the species:
A. Biblical Creationists (also called scientific creationists, young earth creationists, believers in the seven-day theory of creation, or literal creationists): They interpret the two Genesis accounts of creation literally and attempt to blend the two stories; the "day" mentioned in Genesis 1is thus a standard 24-hour day, and creation was completed in 6 normal days. In their view, most sedimentary rocks are the products of the Noahic flood. Most believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old; a few hold to 4004 BC as being the year of creation.
B. Old Earth Creationists: They believe in the "indefinite-age theory." They do not assign a specific length to a Genesis "day," but believe that God created the earth and its life forms in the sequence specified in Genesis, over billions of years. Each "day" refers to an era of hundreds of millions of years duration. They accept various indicators that the earth has been in existence for billions of years. However, they reject biological evolution.
C. Gap theory creationists: (also called interval interpretation, gap restitution and gap theory). They believe that after God created "theheaven and the earth" as described in Genesis 1:1, there was a very long time interval - sufficient to accommodate many geological ages. They maintain that the conventional translation of Genesis 1:2 ("And the earth was without form and void...") is better translated "the earth became waste and void," perhaps because of some unspecifiedcataclysmic judgment of God before the first humans were created. Verse 3 and following then describes how God reclaimed creation. Jeremiah 4:23-26; Isaiah 45:18; and Ezekiel 28:12-15 may have echoes of this interval. This belief can be traced back into Jewish second century AD writings.
D. Day-age creationists: They define each of the "days" in Genesis 1 as referring to a specific time interval; 1000 years is a common value, and is based upon the statement in II Peter 3:8 ".... one day is with the Lord as a thousand years...” Creation would then have occurred over a 6 thousand year period, starting circa 10,000 BC. The Qur'an, the holy book of Islam,states that one day withGod is equivalent to 10, 000 years. That would push creation back to about 64,000 years BC. Both the Christian and Muslim beliefs fall way short of the 4.5 billion year age of the earth as measured by radiometric dating. Some feel that God's creative work was spread out over the full interval of time that made up the "day." Others believe that his work was done within a 24-hour day, he then waited for a long interval; during that time, animals and plants that he had created developed fully.
E. Revelatory-device theory: The author(s) of Genesis used "days" as a literary technique to organize his description of creation. An analogy might be a description of a construction project. A building might be portrayed, as being built in many phases: phase I would be excavation; phase 2 would bepouring of the foundation; phase 3 would be the erecting of steelwork, etc. Perhaps the author(s) are using "day" where other writers might indicate "phase."
F. Revelatory-day theory: Perhaps God showed Moses how he created the universe, taking 6 days to complete the demonstration.
2. Some Specific Theistic Evolution Models
These accept that biological evolution happened, but insist that God had a major role to play in the process:
A. Theistic evolution: (also called process creation, and multiple creation.) This is similar to naturalistic evolution. The universe is over 10 billion years old; the earth is over 4 billion years old. Species developed in increasing complexity as observed by science. This belief system states that new species evolve by natural processes. God is seen as performing a supervisory function, intervening as needed, nudging evolution to make certain that it progresses in the right direction. These beliefs are common among mainline and liberal Christian faith groups.
B. Progressive creationists agree in an old earth, as do theistic evolutionists. However,they deny that natural processes can produce new species by themselves. Without God, there is no way that a species can evolve into a more complex life form. Some believe that God alters the DNA of an existing species in order to develop each new type of animal; othersbelieve that God starts from scratch when he creates a new species.
3. The Naturalistic Evolution Models
These models accept that biological evolution happened, and that purely natural forces caused it without input from God:
A. Naturalistic evolution (also called "atheistic evolution" or simply evolution), in this model, the universe started in a "big bang," -- a natural phenomenon, not involving God in any way. The evolution of the earth, its life and the rest of the cosmos are also viewed as having proceeded strictly by natural processes. A minority believes that species evolved more or less regularly over the past hundreds of millions of years. Most believe, on the basis of the fossil record, that species evolved through a process of "punctuated equilibrium". There were long periods of relative stability, each terminated by a mass extinction and the relatively sudden appearance of many new species. They assume that there was no intervention by a God in any of these processes. The term "atheistic evolution" is really a misnomer, because Christians and other theists can and do believe inthe existence of God and in naturalistic evolution. They see the driving forces of evolution as purely natural. A high percentage of modern-day scientists probably believe in theistic or naturalistic evolution.
B. Deistic evolution: This is the belief that God created the universe, perhaps using the "big bang" about 15,000 million years agoashis method. He then left the scene entirely, and has not been seen since. The earth coalesced about 4 or 5 thousand million years ago without any input from God. Later,elementary life forms formed, which evolved into the animals and plant life that we see today through purely natural forces. It is essentially identical to naturalistic evolution, except that it reserves one action for God - that of initially creating matter ofthe universe. This belief is common among Deists.