omfgbio -------------- outline format: slide name oral part ------------ creationism creationism ? what is it? cre·a·tion·ism [kree-ey-shuh-niz-uhm] –noun let's define it Creationism is the belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their entirety by a supernatural deity or deities (typically God), whose existence is presupposed. -wikipedia (read) cre·a·tion·ism [kree-ey-shuh-niz-uhm] –noun 1. the doctrine that matter and all things were created, substantially as they now exist, by an omnipotent Creator, and not gradually evolved or developed. 2. (sometimes initial capital letter) the doctrine that the true story of the creation of the universe is as it is recounted in the Bible, esp. in the first chapter of Genesis. -Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) (read) types there are many types 1) Young Earth Creationism first, there's young earth creationism fundamentalist young-earth creationism is the most fundamentalist Genesis (image?) it believes the genesis story, as recounted in the bible, is literally true Science? However, this presents some contradictions with modern science Age of Earth For example, on the point of the earth's age Young Earth Creationism: 6,000 Young earth creationists use scripture to date the creation of earth at 6,000 years ago Science: 4.6 billion whereas modern scientists date the creation of earth to about 4.6 billion years ago 6,000 != 4.6 billion thus we have a contradiction Also another contradiction with science is X young earth creationsts tend to reject physics and chemistry (especially absolute dating methods), geology, astronomy, cosmology, molecular biology, genomics, linguistics, anthropology, archeology these sciences Earth > 6,000 as they hold that the earth is more than 6,000 years old ! most importantly no evolution young earth creationists reject darwinian evolution fideism this is an example of fideism faith (outside) science which is the ideology that religious faith lies outside the realm of science faith / science or perhaps that faith is above or beyond science God > science thus god cannot be proven or disproven by it Epistomological Conflict Thesis this also illustrates the epistemological conflict thesis science != religion which states that science and religion are irreconcilable science: scientific method (image/table) science uses the scientific method, which involves skeptical analysis of data v whereas religion: faith religion uses faith, which involves blind acceptance of religious doctrine 2) Old Earth Creationism old-earth creationism Science - Faith attempts to reconcile this difference between science and faith Old Earth by agreeing that the earth is old Day-Age Creationism Day-Age Creationists say that the "days" in the genesis story are more like "ages" Gap Creationism Whereas Gap Creationists assert that there are long periods of time between the 24-hour "days" of the genesis story Evolution? but what about evolution? Progressive Creationism progressive creationists believe that God spontaneously created species throughout history Theistic Evolution Whereas Theistic evolutionists believe in evolution, but assert that it is guided by God, not natural forces Creationism in schools with all these ideologies floating around, many religious educators felt that it was important to teach creationism in science classes Alternative as an alternative to evolution and the big bang theory ! however, there was a problem Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) In Edwards v. Aguillard, the Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught in public schools whenever evolution was taught was unconstitutional, because the law was specifically intended to advance a particular religion 3) Intelligent design This gave rise to a third type of creationism, intelligent design "Atheistic" which attempts to be atheistic or at least religiously impartial no God, Creator by naming an unknown "creator" as opposed to "god" Discover Institute The Discovery Institute is a "scientific thinktank" that strongly advocates intelligent design Teach the Controversy with things like it's Teach the Controversy campaign, which pushes for intelligent design education in schools on the grounds of it's "atheism", again, as an alternative no Bible They don't cite the bible at all "Science" And instead use science Creator to attempt to prove the existance of a creator no Evolution and disprove evolution Arguments here are a few of their arguments a) Irreducible Complexity irreducible complexity (human eye) They assert that things such as the human eye or a single-celled organism are "irreducibly complex" (eye parts) because their parts are useless by themselves, thus they must have been "designed". (eye evolution) Other scientists have developed models that explain how these things can be evolved step-by-step, with each step being more favorable than the last. (cell) They use biotic cell as another example of irreducible complexity Primordial Soup Many modern scientists support the theory that life was slowly formed in a primordial soup of the molecules necessary to create organic compounds b)Gap Theory They also assert that gaps in the history of speciation must be filled by a creator Cambrian explosion many animal phyla appear suddenly in the fossil record during the early cambrian. God Intelligent Design Theorists assert that this is because God stepped in to create these species at this time. Incomplete Fossil Record Other scientists simply blame an incomplete fossil record, due to weather, etc (ideologies all over the place) with all these big words floating around ? who do you believe? Skepticism whatever you do, approach everything with skepticism Question Dogma because only by questioning existing dogma, both on the religious and the scientific side, can we truly find Truth truth (the end) ---------------------------