Posted: Mar 28, 2018 12:33 pm
There are many strawmen erected for creationism on this site and others. Here is a list of 7 common misconceptions about what creationists are supposed to believe and what they actually do believe:
1. Creationists believe the Earth is 6000 years old
While most Christian creationists do believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, many do not and accept that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and think that the "days" in Genesis are really "ages/aeons" rather than 24-hour periods. All Islamic creationists, like Harun Yahya, believe in an Old Earth as do all Hindu creationists and most Jewish creationists. The majority in the Neo-creationist Intelligent Design movement, like Stephen Meyer, accept the scientific chronology.
2. Creationists believe in a Global Flood
Again, creationism isn't necessarily committed to biblical literalism even if it is committed to scriptural inerrancy. Most Christian creationists do believe in a catastrophic worldwide flood, however some of them, along with Islamic and Jewish creationists, believe that Noah's Flood was a regional diluvium that affected only the Near East and the surrounding areas.
3. Creationists do no accept natural selection and adaptation
More nonsense. Creationists accept natural selection as a conserving and, at times, destructive force in biology (Nature's executioner). Creationists also accept that adaptation takes place, often by way of "beneficial" loss-of-function mutations, as with antibiotic resistance in bacteria where those organisms in the population with a defective target gene survive.
4. Creationists do not accept that speciation happens and believe in the fixity of species
Again, this is not what creationists believe. On the contrary, creationists have to believe in speciation and rapid adaptive radiation because they think that God created the "kinds", like the cat kind, which have since diversified into many species.
5. Creationists believe that God magically poofed new organisms into existence from nothing
Again, this is not what Genesis actually states. The following verses clearly show this to be a false charge:
Genesis 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.”
So God commands that the land produce vegetation and does not simply poof them into existence from nothing.
Genesis 2: 21-22: So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Even if these verses are to be taken figuratively, the principle behind it shows that God can take a pre-existing part, modify it and make it into something else, just as evolution is supposed to do. He doesn't have to create from scratch each time.
6. Creationists do not accept the existence of transitional fossils
Creationists do not reject the existence of the actual fossils, only their designation as "transitional". They regard specimens like Archaeopteryx and Tiktaalik as "mosaic" species that, like the platypus, have features shared with other animals.
7. Creationists believe all DNA was intelligently designed and there is no such thing as junk DNA:
On the contrary, creationists believe that in a post-Fall world, degeneration due to the accumulation of slightly harmful mutations is inevitable. John Sanford outlined this in his book, "Genomic Entropy", where he proposes that the human genome is steadily deteriorating.
1. Creationists believe the Earth is 6000 years old
While most Christian creationists do believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, many do not and accept that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and think that the "days" in Genesis are really "ages/aeons" rather than 24-hour periods. All Islamic creationists, like Harun Yahya, believe in an Old Earth as do all Hindu creationists and most Jewish creationists. The majority in the Neo-creationist Intelligent Design movement, like Stephen Meyer, accept the scientific chronology.
2. Creationists believe in a Global Flood
Again, creationism isn't necessarily committed to biblical literalism even if it is committed to scriptural inerrancy. Most Christian creationists do believe in a catastrophic worldwide flood, however some of them, along with Islamic and Jewish creationists, believe that Noah's Flood was a regional diluvium that affected only the Near East and the surrounding areas.
3. Creationists do no accept natural selection and adaptation
More nonsense. Creationists accept natural selection as a conserving and, at times, destructive force in biology (Nature's executioner). Creationists also accept that adaptation takes place, often by way of "beneficial" loss-of-function mutations, as with antibiotic resistance in bacteria where those organisms in the population with a defective target gene survive.
4. Creationists do not accept that speciation happens and believe in the fixity of species
Again, this is not what creationists believe. On the contrary, creationists have to believe in speciation and rapid adaptive radiation because they think that God created the "kinds", like the cat kind, which have since diversified into many species.
5. Creationists believe that God magically poofed new organisms into existence from nothing
Again, this is not what Genesis actually states. The following verses clearly show this to be a false charge:
Genesis 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.”
So God commands that the land produce vegetation and does not simply poof them into existence from nothing.
Genesis 2: 21-22: So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Even if these verses are to be taken figuratively, the principle behind it shows that God can take a pre-existing part, modify it and make it into something else, just as evolution is supposed to do. He doesn't have to create from scratch each time.
6. Creationists do not accept the existence of transitional fossils
Creationists do not reject the existence of the actual fossils, only their designation as "transitional". They regard specimens like Archaeopteryx and Tiktaalik as "mosaic" species that, like the platypus, have features shared with other animals.
7. Creationists believe all DNA was intelligently designed and there is no such thing as junk DNA:
On the contrary, creationists believe that in a post-Fall world, degeneration due to the accumulation of slightly harmful mutations is inevitable. John Sanford outlined this in his book, "Genomic Entropy", where he proposes that the human genome is steadily deteriorating.