Creationism - National Center for Science Education

Flood geology, which has been endorsed so enthusiastically by well-meaning Christian leaders, is nothing
more than a fantasy.
Furthermore, creationism and Flood geology have put a serious roadblock in the way of unbelieving
scientists. Some people who might otherwise be open to the gospel could be completely turned off by
Flood geology. No non-Christian geologist is ever going to accept Flood geology or the young-Earth
theory these days; the flaws and weaknesses are obvious to any practicing geologist.
Christians must not try to prove the Bible from science. [1982:151-152]
May I plead with my brethren in Christ who are involved in the young-Earth movement to abandon the
misleading writing they provide the Christian public. I urge them to study geology more thoroughly. I also
urge creationists to be less dogmatic about Scriptural texts over which there has been substantial diversity
of interpretation within the historic Christian church. If they would be of service to Christ’s kingdom, they
should do some honest-to-goodness scientific thinking that takes facts seriously, facts that were created by
the God they wish to defend and serve. We Christians need to stop expending our energies in defending a
false creationism and in refuting a false creationism. Let us spend our energies on interpreting the Bible
and the world that God in His mercy and grace has given us. A vigorous Christian science will be of far
more service in meaningful evangelism and apologetics than the fantasies of young-Earth creationism.
[1982:163-164]
Rev. Theodore Kline is apparently a Christian Jew: he advocates “Hebrew
Christianity.” Cosmic Patterns and the Bible (1983) is a “biblical application” of Kline’s
earlier work The Theory of Universal Trichotomy, in which he discovered the “utter
literalness” of the Bible. Creation was in six days, but these were “universal days” of a
billion years each. The fifth day was the age of dinosaurs. Kline theorizes that Lucifer
and his followers were active at that time in reptilian form, before God destroyed them.
There were pre-Adamic men at the start of the sixth day. The Genesis “sons of God”
(godly descendants—Adam’s race) mated with “daughters of men” (other, evil races);
then all were wiped out by the Flood.
John Wiester, whose book The Genesis Connection (1983) formed the basis of
much of the ASA booklet Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy (1986), argues
for a Day-Age interpretation in his book. The first day/era was the period from the Big
Bang to the formation of the earth. The second day/era (creation of the “firmament”
above the earth; separation of waters above and below this firmament) covered the period
of the outgassing of the atmosphere and water vapor from the primordial earth. The third
day/era (separation of land from water; creation of “grass” and “herbs”) covered the
uplift of the earth’s crust and formation of the continents, and the age of blue-green algae.
The fourth day/era (“creation” of the sun and stars) included the transformation of the
sun’s energy on earth from ultraviolet to forms of energy beneficial to animals: the period
of the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, and formation of the ozone shield, as a
result of photosynthesis. The fifth day/era (creation of sea creatures and birds) was the
age of marine life—the Cambrian through the Devonian. The sixth day/era (land
animals, and man) covered the later Paleozoic to the present.
William Lee Stokes presents a modified Day-Age interpretation in The Genesis
Answer: A Scientist’s Testament for Divine Creation (1984).
This is the Genesis Code: Each creative ‘day’ consists of a period dominated by darkness and a period
dominated by light. Earth emerged from chaos as a product of the progressive succession of six such
periods. The creative days were not of equal duration and were not intended to be measures of time. They
are not the periods, epochs, and eras invented by geologists. Their meaning is celestial and not terrestrial.
They are God’s divisions of his own creation.