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