Creationism

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Replica of Noah's Ark at Ark Encounter , a creationist theme park in Grant County, Kentucky . The thesis in the park is that dinosaurs coexisted with humans and that they became extinct during the Flood .

Creationism (from Latin creatio " creation ") denotes the religious conception that the universe , life and man literally came into being as described in the Holy Scriptures of the Abrahamic religions and especially in the Old Testament Genesis . Creationism emerged as an important trend in the early 20th century in the area of evangelicalism in the USA , where it is still most widespread today. In its strictest form, it postulates an age of several thousand years and assumes the existence of a flood in which most of the people and animals perished. The rejection of the theory of evolution is also characteristic .

Creationism is particularly popular with the religious right . This partly advocates making his teaching the content of biology lessons. However, because the US Constitution bans religious content in school lessons, some of its proponents call creationism a scientific theory. This is to avoid a conflict with the constitution. However, US case law has not followed this interpretation. In its various forms, creationism moves between religious doctrine and pseudoscience .

In Islam today u. a. Harun Yahya advocates creationism, in Judaism there are mainly followers of orthodox tendencies .

Demarcation

Creationism in its modern, now influential form goes back to American writers in the early 20th century. They took up the views of authors from the 17th to 19th centuries that previously played no role in either the scientific or the theological specialist debate. Fundamental are "The New Geology" by George McCready Price , published in 1923, and, popularizing it, "The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications" by John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris (1961). An independent tradition in Europe only existed in the Netherlands in neocalvinism, which goes back to Abraham Kuyper . The rest of modern European creationism goes back to American authors. The anti-evolutionists who rejected Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the 19th century did not call themselves creationists. At best, the term occasionally appears as a derogatory attribution in private correspondence from this period.

Many people who represent a creation see this as part of their religious belief and as compatible with or fundamentally independent of science . This includes many major denominations, including the Catholic and many Protestant churches, as well as some Islamic denominations. They fundamentally reject the literal interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and the creation story described therein. It is understood as a text that must be read critically in the historical context of its author ( historical-critical method ). Many religious people also understand it as a metaphor that only has a meaning outside of natural science.

Such points of view are sometimes included in a broader definition of creationism, but are better grouped under the heading of theistic evolution . Creationism in the narrower sense, however, takes the view that scientific aspects speak in favor of a literal interpretation of the account of creation described in the Book of Genesis (for Christians and Jews) or in the Koran (for Muslims). This conception of inerrancy and literal interpretation of the Bible ( evangelical exegesis , fundamentalist hermeneutics ) can be found primarily in evangelical and fundamentalist movements in Christianity and sometimes in Islam.

Although the original Hebrew text can be interpreted in such a way that it implicitly denies creation out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ), some Jews and Christians see Genesis as a support for the absoluteness of their belief in creation. They assume that Scripture contains factually correct statements from God's perspective and that it is an eyewitness account of the origin of things.

Scientific knowledge (as an empirical source of information about natural history), however, is largely at odds with this literal interpretation of the Bible. Some creationists therefore believe that the view of natural science and its basic assumptions are incompatible with religious belief and should be subordinate to it. Creationists often reject the view of science in general and certain scientific theories in particular. This relates above all to Darwin's theory of evolution and its significance for modern evolutionary biology . Most creationists also dispute the scientific theories about the origin of life and the human species, the geological history of the earth , the history of evolution , the development of the solar system, and the origin of the universe .

Creationism in the broader sense permeates the entire history of religion . In general, however, it refers to the time from the first contradictions between the findings of modern naturalists and representatives of a literal interpretation of the Bible when dating the order of magnitude of the age of the earth, then in a clearer form with the establishment of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin . Other definitions, however, refer to the introduction of the theory of evolution in school lessons.

prehistory

Antiquity: The Holy Books

One of the roots of creationism lies in the cosmogonies , the explanatory models for the creation of the world that have been written down since ancient times . The writings on creation in the book religions were collected in the Torah , the Bible and the Koran and fixed by the written form. All three works deal with the views of the Abrahamic religions on world and natural history . Arab and Muslim scholars continued to supplement their views on creation by using Greek texts. In antiquity itself, a worldview comparable to creationism is virtually unknown. The ancient philosophers of the schools of the Platonists and Neo-Platonists, the Stoa and the Epicureans unanimously viewed the doctrine of the gods as a dark and difficult problem about which man has hardly any reliable knowledge. It is the task of the philosophers to get to the core of the problems through reflection. The mythical stories about the origins of the world and the gods were taken seriously to varying degrees, but mostly dismissed as allegorical fables for the uneducated people. The Church Fathers , who were on the threshold of the Middle Ages, also largely rejected word-inspired readings of the books. Augustine , who was immensely influential up to modern times , had a profound philosophical education and was strongly influenced by Plotin's Neoplatonism . In his view, ancient philosophy, through mere reflection, discovered most (if not all) of the Bible's truths of faith independently of God's revelation. For him, however, the essential truths about man and the world were internal. Too much preoccupation with the affairs of the world was not considered to be outright sinful, but it tends to distract from the things that really matter. Augustine wrote, at different ages, five essays on the Book of Genesis without coming to a final conclusion. But he warns against taking the statements of Scripture literally and playing them off against the texts of the philosophers, since all truth in nature ultimately also comes from God. The meaning of much in the texts must be unraveled through allegorical interpretation. A direct, literal belief can never harm the soul, but theological thinkers are allowed to research beyond that.

middle Ages

In the Middle Ages (approx. 600 AD to 1500 AD), since al-Ghazālī (died 1111) in the Islamic cultural area, preoccupation with the works of the philosophers on nature was considered unnecessary and tends to be harmful; it was no longer taught in the madrasas . In the preceding philosophical heyday, however, the work of Aristotle in particular was received and comprehensively interpreted. Only through Islamic (and Jewish people living in the Islamic culture) did this become accessible again in the West, which had lost all knowledge of it. Before the early Middle Ages in the Occident, only anecdotal, mostly heavily allegorical, natural history works in the broadest sense, called bestiaries , were accessible . The high medieval scholasticism sought a synthesis between this newly accessible (ancient) natural philosophy and theology (which was only now re-established by Petrus Abelardus ). The teaching of Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) was considered to be decisive in the newly emerging universities . In Thomism there is no fundamental contradiction between faith and reason. Man can, based on his senses and his (always fallible) reason in creation read like a book. Compared to the God-given faith, it is a lesser virtue that nevertheless remains a virtue. Man is able to discover natural truths about the world by means of the methods of Aristotelian logic , but reason fails in the face of supernatural truths which only faith can grasp. Despite the absolute priority of the truths of faith, the scholastic teaching enabled a natural philosophy that was independent of revealed knowledge and that ultimately became the root of modern natural sciences. The prohibition (at least outside of the aloof academic spheres) to speculate about truths that were in contradiction to the revealed knowledge that was regarded as unquestionably correct initially prevented any open conflict. Since Johannes Cassianus , every biblical passage had to be interpreted in the allegorical, moral (or tropological ) and anagogical sense in addition to the literal statement ( literal sense ) and contradictions and ambiguities had to be cleared up, which never encouraged a naive literal exegesis .

The Creator God separates light and darkness (sun and moon) from Michelangelo . A literal understanding of the creation story has always inspired art.
The Creation of Light by Gustave Doré

Early modern age

It was only in modern times, initially exclusively in the Occident, that modern, empirical natural science developed from medieval natural philosophy. For a long time, however, this was not seen as a problem or even as competition for the religious worldview. Classical authors like Newton or Galileo still pointed out, in medieval tradition, that unraveling the mechanisms of God's creation would only increase his honor. Scientists like Robert Boyle viewed their research as a quasi-theological exploration of God's work in nature; he donated the funds from his estate for a series of lectures (the Boyle lectures), which were supposed to show how science refutes atheism and Christian truths confirm. Many philosophical authors referred to the harmony and purposefulness of nature, which for authors like William Paley established a "natural theology". God created nature in such a way that it could also be understood by the human mind. For the mainly English Deists , the investigation of nature for pure intellectual reasons, even without any revelation, necessarily referred to the work of a benevolent Creator God. Conflicts, for example about atomism or the heliocentric worldview , arose less between faith and science, but more between modern, empirical methods and the Aristotelian, scholastic worldview, which was based more on the explanation of the world through abstract, logical thinking. Church and secular authorities viewed the development with suspicion, because they generally rejected changes and feared a connection between free thinking and social demands, but the scientific and philosophical controversies hardly reached the broader public. This only changed in the early 19th century, particularly with the new teachings of geology and evolutionary research within biology.

18th and 19th centuries

geology

British researchers William Smith , James Hutton and Charles Lyell began estimating the age of the earth in the 18th century. They founded a new science, geology . Their conclusions were for many contemporary theologians who, due to other philosophical and theological elements, the chronology based on the literal interpretation of biblical texts (famous is the back calculation of Bishop James Ussher , who put the time of creation on October 23, 4004 BC. back-calculated) already rejected, completely unproblematic. Other theologians, and even more so the educated general public, saw it as a challenge to the authority of the Bible. In the 1790s the Royal Society warned its member John Hunter that his public utterances about the old age of the earth might irritate the “understandable” prejudices of the public. The drama "Cain" by the poet and free spirit Lord Byron , in which the age of the earth and fossils play a prominent role, provoked a flood of contemptuous reviews. Opponents who referred to themselves as "geologists of scripture" (scriptural) or "Mosaic geologists" argued against the new ideas, and they had a lot of sympathy among the general public. However, these opponents did not form a united front (many wrote completely independently of one another) and no school like the later creationists (who, however, built on their works). The controversy over the biblical flood became famous . The geologist and clergyman William Buckland claimed in his Reliquiae Diluvianae that his research had clearly confirmed the truth of the biblical account; the fossils of large, extinct vertebrates discovered at the time are said to have been primeval beasts that drowned in the flood. Other authors who were prominent in their time, such as Granville Penn and Andrew Ure , including some clergymen and many traditional amateur scholars from the upper class ( gentlemen of science) wrote works that were intended to confirm the literal truth of the biblical accounts.

biology

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has been bitterly opposed by conservative Christians since the publication of his major work On the Origin of Species in 1859. While the previous controversies concerned the world as a whole, the theory of evolution was seen as a frontal attack on the nature and dignity of human beings; here it was not about minor details, but central to the image of man, which makes the severity of the dispute explainable. Although Darwin himself, anticipating the criticism, was initially reluctant to apply his theory to humans at all, this point was clearly seen by his critics from the start and was always at the center of the debate (Darwin later recognized his mistake and published The Descent of Man in 1871 and sexual selection ). The theory of evolution postulates an ascent of human beings from animal ancestors (which could also be read as enabling further progress), while theology classically assumed a descent of the originally perfect human being due to original sin . The contradiction to the Fall of Adam, and thus implicitly to Christ as the "second Adam", was theologically more difficult to accept than the non-literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, with which most enlightened church people no longer had any problems in the 19th century. The teaching also eliminated the deep gap that had previously separated man from other creatures. What about the immortal soul that only belonged to man? In what sense was man still the image of God? What were the moral values ​​based on, if everything were decided in the struggle for existence? In the game of chance that guided the development, where was the divine plan? The resistance to this challenge, perceived as the degradation of man as the crown of creation , went far beyond church circles; it ultimately dealt the fatal blow to natural theology and deism. It was perceived as a crossing of boundaries with which science interfered in things that were none of their business. Although Darwin was reluctant to speak out in public throughout his life, his supporters spoke frankly. His most important supporter, "Darwin's Bulldog" Thomas Henry Huxley , it was who coined the term agnosticism . Herbert Spencer applied the new concept of evolution in First Principles (1862) without hesitation to the development of human society, thereby establishing social Darwinism . (In the 20th century, researchers like Edward Tylor , later also Robert N. Bellah, then applied the idea of ​​evolution to religion itself and established an evolutionism primarily in the ethnology of religion .)

Darwin's opponents included clergymen such as the Anglican Bishop Samuel Wilberforce , but also numerous eminent scientists such as the English anatomist and zoologist Richard Owen or the leading American naturalist Louis Agassiz . The Catholic (later excommunicated for unorthodox views) zoologist St. George Mivart argued that even if the human body were of natural origin, the soul would go back to God alone. In Genesis of Species he spoke for an evolution that took place under divine control. Even Alfred Russel Wallace , who had discovered the theory of evolution independently of Darwin, still assumed that the Creator's intervention would remain necessary, since otherwise the special position of humans could not be explained. Influential thinkers like the writer Samuel Butler , but also many biologists, resorted to the competing evolutionary theory of Lamarckism , which seemed to them to be more compatible with a divine plan in nature. Since at the end of the 19th century Darwin's selection theory in particular was attacked sharply within science and was temporarily on the defensive, religious critics could feel confirmed that this was a short-term aberration that would soon be overcome. In Germany in particular, leading anthropologists such as Rudolf Virchow and Adolf Bastian expressed their disapproval. This could partly be traced back to the position of leading German Darwinists like Ernst Haeckel , who used human descent as an argument for “lower” human races and thus racism . (The theory of evolution as a justification for racism was later also emphasized as a reason for rejection by leading American creationists such as Henry M. Morris.) With the establishment of the theory of evolution in science up to the beginning of the 20th century, the debate initially seemed to be over. Conservative Protestant Christians, especially in the USA, continued to reject it, but could no longer find scientific supporters, so that the struggle seemed already decided.

history

Emergence

The fact that the Bible is literally believed to be true has only been significant in the history of Christianity for a relatively short period of time. Even the church father Augustine of Hippo (354-430) attached importance to a critical examination of the Old Testament account of creation (Genesis). And before Martin Luther's first translation into a common language , the Bible was only accessible to a few people. Taking Genesis literally as a true description of past events did not emerge until after the American Civil War (1861–1865) in the then defeated southern states , especially among Baptists , and became a significant part of the southerners' cultural self- image and their rejection of northern values. This was particularly promoted by Seventh-day Adventists like George McCready Price, who believed in an imminent end of the world ( Armageddon ). The improvement in the school system, through which more children became acquainted with the theory of evolution, contributed to the development of this defensive attitude. The successful implementation of the ban on alcohol in 1919 encouraged this movement, and to come an association of Darwinism with Social Darwinism and its supposedly more important role on the part of the Germans in the First World War .

The Scopes Process and the Consequences

The Scopes Trial in 1925 in Dayton (Tennessee) , in which a teacher, on behalf of educational groups, led a model trial against the US state, which had recently decided to ban Darwin's theory of evolution, formed a high point in the confrontation with creationism . The trial, which also caused a sensation outside of the USA, was ultimately decided against the teacher, but the verdict was overturned due to formal errors. Observers viewed the process itself as a failure for the cause of creationism. The prohibition on teaching evolution remained in place in Tennessee until the 1960s, but was never reapplied. Nevertheless, Darwinism increasingly disappeared from US schoolbooks in the decades that followed. Only as a result of the Sputnik shock in 1957 did a turnaround come about when the US government made funds available for the production of new science textbooks, in which evolution was also dealt with in detail. In this situation, the book Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris appeared in 1961 , which became very popular among devout Christians and founded the Creation Science movement (literally: creation science). Their approach was the attempt to present creationism as a science equivalent to the theory of evolution and in this way - by circumventing the prohibition of religious education in the US constitution - to get it into school lessons.

Arkansas

In 1981, efforts to allow creationism into biology classes were successful in the state of Arkansas . The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against this new law on the grounds that it was inconsistent with the First Amendment , the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution. The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould , the geneticist Francisco J. Ayala , the philosopher Michael Ruse and the theologian Langdon Gilkey were involved as experts in the process. The judge came to the conclusion that "Creation Science" is not a science but a religion and therefore should not be taught in public schools.

Directions

Short term creationism

The young earth creationism (including "Kurzzeitkreationismus" or "24-hour day theory") is mainly of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, but also by ultra-Orthodox Jews represented belief that the earth was created by God a few thousand years ago be. Followers take a literal interpretation of the Bible and interpret the creation account in the Bible as a factual account. On the basis of the Ussher Lightfoot calendar calculated by the English Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656) on the basis of biblical résumés and family trees , the date of creation is October 23, 4004 BC. Adopted. This corresponds to an age of around 6000 years. As a rule, young earth creationists assume that the earth is up to about 10,000 years old (opinions on whether the universe is the same age are different). That is why they question scientific methods such as radiometric age determination , isochronous methods , ice skating and dendrochronology (see also age determination (archeology) ). Instead, the geological evidence is mainly explained as the result of a global flood. Sometimes common theses such as the continuity of the laws of nature over historical periods are questioned; alternative dates of geological and astronomical events are achieved with it.

The flat earth is also sometimes included in short-term creationism. But it is a point of view from which creationists generally try to distance themselves. It is used again and again in this context as a stylistic device for cynical exaggeration, caricature and as a stereotypical analogy. In the 20th century, the Flat Earth Society was represented by the Flat Earth Society , whose last president Charles K. Johnson has since passed away.

Modern geocentrism

Geocentrism is the view that God created a spherical world and placed it in the center of the universe. It is orbited by the sun, the planets and everything else. All scientific claims about the age of the earth are lies; Evolution would not take place. Very few people today hold such a belief; for example, the Creation Science Association in the American Midwest advocates this.

Omphalos hypothesis

This hypothesis posits that God created the earth more recently, but made it look much older. This belief is held by a small subgroup of young earth creationists. The argument was first brought up by Philip Henry Gosse in 1857 . He held that certain physical and biological processes needed an older appearance because the world was periodic (chicken-egg-hen, etc.). It is called the Omphalos hypothesis (umbilical hypothesis) because it is based on the question of whether Adam (or Eve ) had a navel (since they were created as adults and not born, it can be assumed that they never had an umbilical cord had). Gosse assumed that Adam had a navel because it is present in all people. There is an apparent past (indicated by the navel), although it was simply co-created in this way. He assumed that in order for the earth to function it was necessary to make it look older. However, this hypothesis no longer has any noteworthy following today. None of the leading creationists apply the concept to the fossil record or any created bridges of light (which might explain how humans on earth can see light from stars far away).

A similar hypothesis, according to which the world was created five minutes ago, can be found in Bertrand Russell as a mental game within the framework of philosophical skepticism regarding memories:

“There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that 'remembered' a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago. "

“There is no logical impossibility to hypothesize that the world came into existence five minutes ago, just as it was, with a population that 'remembers' a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing happening now or in the future can refute the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago. "

- Bertrand Russell : The Analysis of Mind (1921)

Scientific creationism

Since the 1960s, activists of so-called “scientific creationism” in the Anglo-Saxon region have been trying to show that scientific arguments can also be put forward for the creationist worldview. The supporters consider their alternative, ostensibly scientific explanations of evolution to be on a par with those of the prevailing scientific doctrine, and demand their admission to school lessons. In the early 1980s, American activists succeeded in temporarily promoting “scientific creationism” in two US states as an equal alternative to the theory of evolution. In 1987, however , the Supreme Court denied the scientific nature of creationism and classified it as a religion, whereupon it was banned from biology classes.

Ideas are represented on a creation cosmology that amounts to an age of the universe on the order of a few thousand years. The fossil record is interpreted as an account of the destruction caused by a global flood , as described in Genesis as the deluge. In the USA this view is advocated by the Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society , in Germany in a modified form by the study community Word and Knowledge , in Switzerland by ProGenesis . Kent Hovind is a prime American agent .

Long term creationism

Proponents of long-term creationism (also called old-earth creationism) try to bring the literal interpretation of Genesis into line with the astronomical and geological hypotheses of the age of the universe and the earth (several billion years). In contrast to evolutionist creationism, however, the theory of common ancestry is rejected. The main exponents of long-term creationism are the Jehovah's Witnesses . There are several creation theses with which the view is justified:

Gap theory

This view (also called restitution theory) states that life was created in a short time on the pre-existing old earth because a previous creation was destroyed by an indefinite catastrophe. Gap creationism is based on Genesis 1: 2, especially in the English translation of the Scofield Reference Bible (in the 1917 version). Creationists who rely on the Hebrew text of the Bible do not approve of this type of creationism.

Concordance hypothesis

The concordance hypothesis (also day-age creationism, age-day theory, theory of the different lengths of days or prehistoric creationism) states that the six days of the biblical creation story do not represent twenty-four hour days, but much longer periods of time - like millions of years. The proponents of this direction refer to the word yôm in the Hebrew Bible, which they believe could be extended to the meaning of "age" in the context of Genesis. Some advocates say that the present represents the seventh age, the seventh day of creation. Against the interpretative approach of the concordance hypothesis, it is argued that the meaning of the word is clearly evident from the context, since the Hebrew word yôm means "day" and the phrase "it was evening and again tomorrow" could only mean a day in the common sense of the word ( e.g. ( Mt 25:29  ELB )).

Creation in installments

This view is also called progressive creationism or continuous creation and says that the species have changed and developed in a process that is constantly accompanied by God. There are different ideas about how the whole thing works (space is often left for direct divine intervention at key points in the history of the earth and life). This view accepts most of the findings of modern natural sciences, but rejects modern evolutionary biology or looks for indications that evolution is only inappropriate through natural selection. This standpoint can be represented in conjunction with other old-earth standpoints, such as day-age creationism or various perspectives on framework conditions, metaphors and poetry of the history of creation.

Evolutionist creationism

Evolutionist creationism sees God as the creator, who created the life forms by means of evolution and continues to develop them, whereby there are different understandings about how much he intervenes in this process. Nevertheless, his followers consider the theory of evolution, as described by natural science, to be inadequate and see the additional intervention of a god as absolutely necessary. The direction agrees with some positions of long-term creationism (such as the concordance hypothesis or the gap theory), but otherwise differs significantly from the other directions of creationism, as its proponents (especially in contrast to progressive creationism) accept the theory of common ancestry. That is why it is sometimes not classified as creationism, although that is how its representatives understand themselves. Common to the other directions of creationism is the point of view that natural selection is not the cause of the emergence of new species. Instead, this is to be achieved through the direct intervention of God in the evolutionary process.

The difference between evolutionist creationism and mainstream Christian theology in Germany is that it interprets the Holy Scriptures literally and tries to derive statements about a common ancestry from the Bible text. In contrast to evolutionist creationism, the mainstream standpoints do not oppose natural selection as the mechanism for the origin of species. The division between these directions is very blurred and there are several intermediate positions; mostly they are all grouped under the umbrella term theistic evolution .

Neo-creationism

Neo-creationists distance themselves emphatically from other types of creationism and want to be viewed as completely separate from creationism. Its aim is to reformulate creationism in terms that are better accepted by the public, educational policy, and the scientific community . They intend to initiate a debate about the origin of life and to spread it among the people without religious words and without reference to the respective Holy Scriptures.

In their eyes the natural sciences are only apparently objective and in reality a dogmatic atheistic religion . They argue that scientific methodology excludes certain explanations of phenomena, especially when supernatural elements play a role. As a result, this would exclude religious aspects in understanding the universe. Neo-creationists also claim that science is the cause of many current social ills (such as social unrest and high divorce rates).

In contrast to the other forms of creationism, neo-creationists make no statements about the age of the earth or the literal interpretation of the Bible, but on the other hand do not exclude an emphatic young earth creationism. Common to all types of neo-creationism is the rejection of naturalism , usually along with the tacit admission of the supernatural , and an open and often hostile opposition to what they call Darwinism , by which they generally mean the theory of evolution.

There are three common forms of neo-creationism.

Intelligent design

The intelligent design movement has represented a version of creationism without reference to the Bible since 1990. The reason for this was the attempt to circumvent the court rulings that had forbidden a treatment of "scientific creationism" in biology classes. In order to unite the followers of the different directions of creationism (and as many representatives of creation as possible outside of creationism) and to be compatible with all creationist perspectives, intelligent design does not make any specific statements about the age of the earth, and is limited to the assertion that the Origin of life requires intelligence as a cause. Its leaders, all of whom are members of the Discovery Institute , believe that intelligent design is a scientific theory that is on a par with or superior to existing scientific theories about the origin of life. Therefore it should be treated in biology class. In the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District could not enforce this legal opinion. Intelligent Design was represented by the Discovery Institute as part of a socio-political PR strategy, as made known by the pierced internal paper "Wedge Strategy".

Abrupt appearance

A term originally used in evolutionary biology (for the sudden appearance of English abrupt appearance ) of new species in the fossil report. Proponents of this trend, among whom Wendell Bird is best known, have adopted the term and say that this phenomenon can best be explained by a direct influence from outside rather than by a natural process. The argument is accompanied by the explicit assertion that it can be applied to any time frame, which in particular is not intended to exclude a range of 10,000 years.

Evidence against Evolution

This direction tries to collect evidence against evolution and mainly uses the results in scientific journals. Attempts are made to interpret this as a refutation of the theory of evolution. The direction is more or less identical to the critique of evolution in the "science of creation", but without referring to the Bible and without opposing the theory of evolution with an alternative with a scientific claim. The question of the origin of man is instead viewed as a question of personal belief.

Positions of Liberal Christians

Since the 1950s at the latest, most of the officially recognized Protestant churches as well as the Roman Catholic Church have taken the view that the theory of evolution and Christianity are compatible. Major advances in a reinterpretation of evolution in relation to Christian tradition and the message of salvation come from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin , a Jesuit, evolutionary researcher and anthropologist, according to whose opinion creation is not complete but continues as before.

Some representatives of liberal theology understand Genesis as a metaphor that does not make any scientific statements. A reduction of the creation account of the Bible to a pure myth is represented by Eugen Drewermann . Above all, this expresses the basic structures of being human and the relationship between man and God ( Gen 1, 26: “Let us make people as our image, like us” ).

In the mainstream of Christian theology in Germany, both the Protestant and the Catholic Church, systematic efforts are still being made, also in the succession of Rudolf Bultmann , in accordance with the existential interpretation and the historical-critical method, to deliver the biblical message to people with a scientific worldview convey. This also applies to more recent interpretations of the Old Testament, including the accounts of creation.

In a study by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), which was published in early April 2008, the EKD clearly rejects creationism.

Political controversy

According to a secular understanding, the term creationism refers to a political doctrine . It asserts the validity and superiority of a religious belief in creation over other worldviews, particularly including those based on a secular and scientific foundation. The meaning of the term “creationism” depends on the context of a particular belief in creation in a particular political culture in which it is used.

In the United States, more than in the rest of the world, creationism is central to a political controversy surrounding the teaching of creationism in public schools, which revolves around public education and whether the teaching of evolution is unfairly involved the creationist worldview is in conflict. In recent years the controversy has arisen in the form of the question of whether the supporters of the intelligent design movement, who want to teach the controversy in natural science subjects, would cross the boundaries of the separation of state and church.

The literal biblical doctrine of creation should, according to creationists , be treated in school lessons on an equal footing with the scientific big bang theory and evolution theory . To date, creationists have had their greatest political successes in the United States ; sporadically, however, creationist tendencies can also be found in politics in Europe .

Evangelical groups have been engaged in targeted political lobbying for some time to ensure that creationism is taught in schools as an equal alternative to evolutionary theory. They even managed to win US President George W. Bush for this demand. In August 2005, for example, he advocated that the teaching of “intelligent design” should be taught as equivalent to the theory of evolution in schools in biology , as it should be taught in public schools in the United States due to the constitutional separation of the state and the church does not give religious education . In the US state of Kansas , the school authorities have ordered that "intelligent design" be taught on an equal footing with evolutionary teaching in schools. As a result, two major science associations, the National Academy of Science and the National Association of Science Teachers, revoked the use of their evolutionary materials from the Kansas authorities for use in textbooks. As a further protest reaction, the American author Bobby Henderson founded the religious parody of the flying spaghetti monster in 2005 , whose supporters like the creationists demand state funding and consideration in school lessons, so that all counter-arguments are also directed against their claims.

Many creationists formulate their point of view in the form of a teleological argumentation, set this in contrast to their own explanation based on a creator and claim to be scientifically meaningful. In doing so, they fall back on an ideological understanding of science that is incompatible with the scientific methodology and is therefore pseudo-scientific . Creationists who make this claim deny this status. With the "science of creation" and later intelligent design , two attempts by creationists have already failed in court to anchor them in biology classes in public schools in the United States. Two leading science organizations in the United States, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science , affirmed that there was no scientific basis for it. The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the decision in the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District that Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory and that teaching it in public schools is unconstitutional.

The Council of Europe declared in 2007 on the subject of creationism in education that one must be careful that this does not result in “a threat to human rights ”.

International significance

Christianity

North America

Creationist notice board on a dinosaur figure in Cabazon , California

The mainstay of creationism are the evangelical Christians who are strongly represented in the United States and have great political influence.

According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2005), approximately 26 percent of the US population believe that life evolved through natural selection over millions of years. 18 percent agree with the statement that a higher being has controlled the development of living beings. While a total of 48 percent believe in an evolutionary development of living beings, 42 percent are of the opinion that "living beings have existed in their present form since the beginning of time". In addition, the majority of Americans are in favor of teaching both of these side by side in schools.

In particular, the factors of age and education determine the attitude of Americans. For example, of college graduates, about 40 percent accept natural selection, as opposed to 18 percent of non-college Americans. Half of Americans over 65 accept creationism, compared with 37 percent of those under 30.

The main creationist organizations are based in the United States, including the Creation Research Society .

In Kansas and Pennsylvania, as well as several other states, creationism and intelligent design have become part of the school curriculum.

Creationism has also found a large following in western Canada .

Europe

In Europe creationism generally only occupies a niche position, but it is gaining popularity. This is mainly due to the social and cultural structure that emerged in connection with the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. In states with large Roman Catholic populations, the Pope's recognition of evolution has closed the subject for most people. The situation is similar in Great Britain. Rowan Williams , head of the Anglican Church until 2012 , has clearly criticized the theses of the creationists and has spoken out clearly against the teaching of intelligent design in schools. Several well-known British theologians such as Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne have also made intensive efforts in the past to establish a dialogue between natural sciences and theology and have presented arguments for a complete compatibility of religion and evolutionary theory (see Theistic Evolution ).

Political demands comparable to the United States for equating creationism with evolutionary theory in public schools are practically not represented in Germany so far. Among the political parties, this demand was only made by the party who are faithful to the Bible and their successor, Alliance C - Christians for Germany .

According to a survey by the Swiss opinion research institute IHA-Gfk , commissioned by the evangelical Factum magazine and ProGenesis , the interpretation of the Bible, according to which the universe, earth and life were created by God about six thousand years ago, takes every fifth person in Germany, Austria and Switzerland literally. About as many agree that while evolution does exist, it is controlled by God. An evolution, as Darwin described it, in which God does not play a role, recognizes almost every second person in Germany with 46 percent, in Austria just under 41 percent, in Switzerland one in three (33 percent). A survey commissioned by the naturalistic-humanistic Giordano Bruno Foundation speaks of 12.5 percent in Germany for a literal interpretation of the creation story and 60.9 percent for the pure evolutionary theory. The study equates theistic evolution and intelligent design and gives a share of 25.2 percent for both together. An Emnid survey commissioned by the magazine “Zeit Wissen” in 2005 showed that every second German believes in a creator god.

Australia

According to a PBS documentary on evolution, Australian young earth creationists have claimed that five percent of the Australian population shares their views. The documentary sees Australia as a stronghold of this movement. According to this, young earth creationism would be a very small minority position in the western world outside of the United States.

Judaism

There is a wide range of views on creationism within Judaism. In general, most of the Jewish schools (including some orthodox groups) advocate independence from belief and science or theistic evolution . The current approach of Judaism (apart from Orthodox traditions) is to view the Torah not as a literal text, but rather as a symbolic one.

Many Orthodox Jews, on the other hand, question the view that science and the Bible can be reconciled through scientific means. For these groups, science can only be as true as the Torah, and if it results in a seemingly inextricable contradiction, it is because of limited human knowledge or understanding. They point to various discrepancies between what is expected and what is scientifically found in order to show that things are not always what they seem. They point out that even the root of the Hebrew word for world (עולם - olam) means hidden . They believe that God created man, plants and star light in their "adult state" and that there are no physical ways to verify this.

Islam

There are also followers of creationism in Islam. The opponents not only cite religious reasons. The religious reasons are similar to those in Christianity: one sees a contradiction between the Koran and the theory of evolution. In contrast to the Bible, the Koran does not have a fully formulated text of creation as in the Book of Genesis, but there are different suras (6: 2, 15: 26–33, 23:12, 37:11, 32: 7–9, 55:14) but represent a creation of Adam out of clay by God. From this, the Islamic creationists, quite comparable to the Christian ones, conclude that there was a divine creation of species. More politically problematic, however, is the “dichotomous worldview” associated with creationism. God-fearing Muslims see themselves in opposition to the non-Muslims who adhere to "Darwinism". There is a risk that this opposition will give rise to images of the enemy that will lead to a demarcation from non-Islamic society. Harun Yahya is one of the most famous creationists in the Islamic world .

South Korea

In South Korea, where 30% of the population belong to Christian faiths, the percentage of the population who believe in creationism is similar to the USA. In June 2012 the deletion of details of the theory of evolution in school books was discussed. However, this change was prevented.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Genesis  EU
  2. ↑ Jochem Kotthaus: Prophets of Superstition. German creationism between mysticism and pseudoscience , LIT Verlag , Münster 2003.
  3. ↑ On the problem of attributing the term “pseudoscience”, especially for the critics of the 19th century, cf. Ronald L. Numbers: The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism. Harvard University Press, modified new edition 2006 (orig .: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992) on page 12, Ralph O'Connor: Young-Earth Creationists in Early Nineteenth Century Britain? Towards a reassessment of "Scriptural Geology" . History of Science 45 (4), 2007.
  4. ↑ Jens Lubbadeh: With Allah against Darwin. March 29, 2007, accessed October 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Ronald L. Numbers: Creationism since 1859. Chapter 56 , in: Garry B. Ferngren (general editor): The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition. To Encyclopedia. Taylor and Francis, New York, London, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-1656-9 .
  6. ^ A b David R. Montgomery (2012): The evolution of creationism. GSA today 22 (11): 4-9.
  7. ^ Abraham C. Flipse (2012): The Origins of Creationism in the Netherlands: The Evolution Debate among Twentieth-Century Dutch Neo-Calvinists. Church History 81 (1): 104-147. doi: 10.1017 / S000964071100179X
  8. ↑ Ronald L. Numbers : Antievolutionists and Creationists . In: Creationism History . Counterbalance Meta-Library. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
  9. ^ Oberkirchenrat and journalist Joachim Schmidt, Head of Public Relations of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, in Echt Glaube compact : Displacement competition ( memento from March 29, 2008 on WebCite ) seen on March 29, 2008
  10. ↑ The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church. In: vatican.va , April 15, 1993 (Position of the Catholic Church on the historical-critical method in the Pontifical Biblical Commission ).
  11. ↑ On Protestant theology, see the synod's council report (PDF; 125 kB).
  12. ↑ cf. about Marcus Tullius Cicero: De natura deorum (" Of the essence of the gods ").
  13. ↑ Kurt Flasch: Augustin: Introduction to his thinking. Reclam-Verlag, 2nd edition 1994.
  14. ↑ Kenneth J. Howell: Augustine of Hippo. Chapter 24 , in: Garry B. Ferngren (general editor): The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition. To Encyclopedia . Taylor and Francis, New York, London, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-1656-9 .
  15. ↑ cf. William A. Wallace: Thomas Aquinas and Thomism. Chapter 25 , in: Garry B. Ferngren (general editor): The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition. To Encyclopedia. Taylor and Francis, New York, London, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-1656-9 .
  16. ^ Ralph O'Connor (2007): Young-earth creationists in early nineteenth-century Britain? Towards a reassessment of scriptural geology. History of Science 45 (4): 357-402.
  17. ↑ John Hedley Brooke: Darwin and Victorian Christianity. Chapter 8 in: Michael Jonathan Sessions Hodge, Gregory Radick (editors): The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-521-77730-8 .
  18. ↑ Peter J Bowler: Evolution. Chapter 85 in Garry B. Ferngren (general editor): The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition. To Encyclopedia. Taylor and Fracis, New York, London, 2000. ISBN 0-8153-1656-9 .
  19. ↑ Jonathan Marks (2010): Why Were the First Anthropologists Creationists? Evolutionary Anthropology 19: 222-226.
  20. ^ Ronald L. Numbers: The Creationists : From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-674-02339-0 . therein v. a. Evolution comes to America, page 16 ff.
  21. ↑ a b c d Michael Ruse: Creationism . In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 2003/2018 (English).
  22. ↑ how stuff works
  23. ^ Ian Taylor, Jeffrey Burton Russell, Paula McKerlie: Who invented the flat earth? In: Creation. Berkeley Cal 16.1994, 2 (March), ISSN  0738-6001 , pp. 48-49.
  24. ↑ Ben Dupré: 50 key ideas of mankind. Spectrum Academic Publishing House 2012. S. 86f.
  25. ↑ Ulrich Kutschera : Evolutionary Biology. A general introduction. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2015. p. 297.
  26. ↑ Peter Carstens: "Creationism is a flourishing business" . In: GEO , accessed June 25, 2013.
  27. ^ Robert T. Pennock: Tower of Babel. The Evidence Against the New Creationism. In: Reports of the National Center for Science Education (RNCSE). 19, No. 6, 1999, ISSN  1064-2358 , pp. 40-42.
  28. ↑ Wendell Bird: The Origin of Species Revisited: The Theories of Evolution and of Abrupt Appearance
  29. ^ Paul Nelson: The Whole Question of Metaphysics. In: Origins Research. 15, No. 1, 1993 (English).
  30. ↑ The Christian Image of Man and Modern Evolution Theories Message from Pope John Paul II to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the occasion of their general assembly on October 22, 1996.
  31. ↑ Eugen Drewermann: In the beginning ... Modern cosmology and the question of God. Walter, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-530-16900-5 , quoted from: Peter Tepe (Hrsg.): Politische Mythen. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3242-X , pp. 366–367.
  32. ↑ Overview in Manfred Oeming : Understanding and Belief. Exegetical building blocks for an Old Testament theology. Philo, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86572-325-X ( Bonner biblical contributions. 142).
  33. ↑ Protestant press service : Rejection of creationism ( Memento of April 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ↑ Florian Rötzer : US President Bush supports the theory of "intelligent design". In: Telepolis , August 3, 2005, accessed February 25, 2013.
  35. ^ Carole M. Cusack: Invented Religions. Imagination, Fiction and Faith . Ashgate Publishing, Farnham 2010, p. 132 ff.
  36. ^ The dangers of creationism in education. (No longer available online.) Council of Europe, June 8, 2007, archived from the original on July 4, 2007 ; Retrieved January 18, 2018 (English, Doc. 11297).
  37. ^ Public Divided on Origins of Life. Survey in the United States by Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life .
  38. ^ Marcia Pally: The New Evangelicals. Berlin University Press, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940432-93-3 , p. 86.
  39. ↑ cf. Where the earth is flat - Kansas casts Darwin in doubt Report on n-tv , November 9, 2005.
  40. ↑ Darwin and Evolution: Creationism on the Rise in Europe . In: Spektrum , article from November 22, 2016.
  41. ^ The Guardian : Archbishop: Stop Teaching Creationism , Mar. 21, 2006.
  42. ↑ Basic program of the Party of Biblically Faithful Christians - PBC - ( Memento of April 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), point 3.1 “ That is why the PBC also demands that the Bible and its principles be taken into account in the curricula of all schools. This also applies to the creation doctrine of the Bible. The pure transfer of knowledge should be streamlined and freed from superfluous ballast. "
  43. ↑ Alliance C - Christians for Germany: Principles and cornerstones for a policy based on Christian values , 2.3.3, “ Furthermore, an ideological one-sided abuse of the media or the universities must be prevented. Conditions must be created under which the best argument and not the ideological climate really contributes to the implementation of an idea. Examples here are the conflicts between the doctrine of creation and evolution, or the traditional concept of marriage and family and gender mainstreaming. "
  44. ↑ God has a hand in the game. Survey by progenesis.ch
  45. ↑ Survey by the research group Weltanschauungen in Germany ( Memento from July 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file)
  46. ↑ Every second German believes in the Creator God. In: Spiegel Online , December 20, 2005.
  47. ↑ Evolution Revolution. In: Public Broadcasting Service (English).
  48. ↑ a b Martin Riexinger: Against materialism. In: Federal Center for Political Education: Youth Culture, Religion and Democracy. Civic Education with Young Muslims, No. 10, February 9, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  49. ^ South Korea outlaws evolution: Publishers remove examples from school textbooks after protests from creationists. In: Daily Mail , June 6, 2012, accessed July 4, 2012.
  50. ↑ Veronika Szentpetery-Kessler: South Korea fends off creationists. In: heise online , September 12, 2012, accessed on February 4, 2013.

literature

Web links

Commons : Creationism  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Creationism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations