Creationism - National Center for Science Education

Then Lucifer rebelled, becoming Satan the Devil. Wlodyga says the correct translation
of Genesis 1:1-2 should be:
In the beginning the God family created the heavens and the earth by the ‘Word’ the personage that
ultimately became Jesus Christ. And the earth became chaotic and confused... [1981:34]
“Yes, even before Adam was created, the world was in chaotic confusion... The seven
days of creation, then, were a re-creation of the earth by the personage of Jesus Christ!”
Wlodyga allots a whole section of his book to Satan’s pre-Adamic rebellion and the Gap
Theory.
It’s Science Fiction—It’s a Fraud (1984) is a contentious booklet by Reginald M.
Daly, a college physics and math teacher and nephew of prominent Harvard geologist
Reginald A. Daly. In a previous book, Earth’s Most Challenging Mysteries (1972), Daly
defended Flood Geology, but in this booklet he argues strongly for the Gap Theory,
sharply criticizing Morris and other young-earth Flood Geologists, and praising Custance.
The first two verses of Genesis imply “an original creation long before the first day, in
the undefined ‘beginning,’ followed by a catastrophic judgment that plunged the earth
into a state of devastation and ruin from which it was restored during the six days”
(1984:25). Daly says that the destruction of the “world that then was” by flood in II Peter
refers to this pre-Adamic catastrophe rather than Noah’s Flood. He agrees with Ussher’s
date of 4004 B.C. for the six-day (re-)creation, and 2348 B.C. for the Flood. Daly
ridicules plate tectonics at length: “Seldom if ever has science reached a peak of
absurdity equivalent to geology’s theories that continents ride on ‘plates’ and crash into
each other with force sufficient to underthrust and uplift the world’s biggest mountains”
(1984:17).
The cover of Daly’s booklet proclaims: “Evolution is a quasi-religion
camouflaged as ‘science.’ It’s unconstitutional to use our taxes to brainwash students
with irreligious, one-side only [sic].” Daly does not want evolution taught at all. The
creationist appeal for balanced presentation in the schools “may sound plausible as an
evolution-creation compromise, but it won’t work.” In his earlier book, which consists
mostly of fairly technical geological anti-evolution arguments, Daly approvingly cited
strict creationists Price, Fairholme, Byron Nelson, Rehwinkel, and Morris, as well as
catastrophists Velikovsky and Howorth and other creationists. Daly concludes that
“Evolution has been established in the schools, contrary to the Constitution, as a state
religion” (1972:392)—a deliberately anti-Christian religion.
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart of Baton Rouge, Louisiana regularly denounces
evolution and preaches Gap Theory creationism. Swaggart is a fire-breathing Spirit-filled
old-time Pentecostal preacher who plays his vast audiences as skillfully and effectively as
he plays his gospel piano. (He learned to play on the same keyboard as his first cousin,
rock’n’roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, and claims to have sold more gospel albums than
any other artist.) Before the recent scandal, Swaggart’s weekly crusade broadcast was
second only to Pat Robertson’s 700 Club among religious shows. It was seen by over
sixteen million viewers every month according to a Nielson survey, and Swaggart’s daily
Bible-study show was among the top ten as well. 38 Though Swaggart is proudly
38 Robertson’s show has also dropped in the rankings since his presidential campaign. The Worldwide
Church of God’s World Tomorrow, after uncertainty following Armstrong’s death, has now surpassed both
Robertson and Swaggart, but Swaggart is fighting hard to regain his audiences.