Models of Origins

© 1996 Frank Steiger; permission granted for retransmission.

Creation Position

The Bible represents the revealed truth of God, and is therefore scientifically correct. The Genesis account of creation and the universal flood are unequivocally accepted as completely factual. Human beings and all species of plants and animals, living and extinct, were created by God at the same time. This creation event is usually believed to have occurred about 10,000 years ago.

The concept that species could have changed through evolution into different species is categorically rejected, although diversification into different breeds of animals or races of human beings is accepted.

Creationists believe that evolution requires creation by mere chance. The probability of this happening is extremely remote.

Although conclusive physical evidence to support the creation model is generally lacking, the same is true in the case of the evolution model of origins. Since neither can be proven scientifically, creationism should be presented in the public schools as an alternate theory of origins that is at least as valid as evolution.

Evolution Position

Human beings and all present-day species of plants and animals have evolved from one or more primitive single-celled ancestors that first appeared about a billion years ago. Evolution does not require that these primitive single-celled organisms were created by chance. Just how these organisms came into existence, whether by chance or creation by divine miracle, has no bearing on the time-line of evolutionary change through the ages. Opinions on how these original single-celled organisms came into existence neither prove nor disprove subsequent evolutionary change!

Evolution is compatible with the idea of creation by chance, but it does not require it. Evolution is also compatible with the religious belief that God created living things in accordance with evolutionary change. However, evolution should not, and will not, be forced to incorporate sectarian religious beliefs that are contrary to the observable evidence.

The concept of an inerrant Bible is a religious belief that is characteristic of some, but not all, religions. Evolution is not, and should not, be based on this concept, but rather on the preponderance of geological, radiological, biological, and astronomical evidence.


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