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Creationism
Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
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Evolution

Young Earth creationism (YEC) is the religious belief[1] that the Universe, Earth and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago.[2] Its primary adherents are those Christians and Jews[3] who, using a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative as a basis, believe that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days.[4][5] Young Earth creationists differ from other creationists in that they believe in a strict-literal interpretation of the Bible regarding the age of the Earth. This contrasts with Old Earth Creationists who believe that the Book of Genesis may be interpreted metaphorically, and who accept the scientifically derived age of Earth and the universe.[6]

Young Earth Creationism is contradicted by the scientific consensus, which is derived from observations and experiments in multiple scientific disciplines. The scientific consensus is that the universe has existed for approximately 13.8 billion years and that the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, with life first appearing at least 2.5 billion years ago.[7]

Many young Earth creationists are active in creation science, believing that the scientific method demonstrates their belief in a supernatural creation. However, creation science is rejected by the scientific community as unscientific in both conception and methodology.[8]

Since 1982, between 40% and 50% of adults in the United States say they hold the creationist view that "God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" when Gallup asked for their views on the origin and development of human beings.[9] A 2011 Gallup survey reports that 30% of U.S. adults say they interpret the Bible literally.[10]

History

Origins

A common hypothesis among biblical scholars today is that the first major comprehensive draft of Genesis, was composed by the Yahwist at the court of Solomon, c. 950 BCE or in the late 7th or the 6th century, during the Babylonian captivity, with later additions were made by the priestly source.

The earliest post-exilic Jewish chronicle preserved in the Hebrew language, the Seder Olam Rabbah compiled by Jose ben Halafta in 160 AD, dates the creation of the world to 3751 BC, while the later Seder Olam Zutta (804 AD) dates it to 4339 BC.[11] The Hebrew Calendar ascribed to Hillel II has traditionally since the 4th century AD dated creation to 3761 BC.[12][13][14][15][16]

Young Earth creationists have claimed that this view has its earliest roots in ancient Judaism, citing, for example, the commentary on Genesis by Ibn Ezra (c. 1089–1164).[4] Shai Cherry of Vanderbilt University notes that modern Jewish theologians have generally rejected such literal interpretations of the written text, and that even Jewish commentators who oppose some aspects of Darwinian thought generally accept scientific evidence that the Earth is much older.[17]

Calculations based on the Septuagint have traditionally dated creation to around 5500 BC, while the Samaritan Torah produces a date around 4300 BC, and the Masoretic a date around 4000 BC.[18] Many of the earliest Christians who followed the Septuagint calculated creation around 5500 BC, and Christians up to the Middle Ages continued to use this rough estimate: Clement of Alexandria (5592 BC), Julius Africanus (5501 BC), Eusebius (5228 BC), Jerome (5199 BC) Hippolytus of Rome (5500 BC), Theophilus of Antioch (5529 BC), Sulpicius Severus (5469 BC), Isidore of Seville (5336 BC), Panodorus of Alexandria (5493 BC), Maximus the Confessor (5493 BC), George Syncellus (5492 BC) and Gregory of Tours (5500 BC).[19][20][21] The Byzantine calendar has traditionally dated the creation of the world to 1 September, 5509 BC, María de Ágreda and her followers to 5199 BC, while the early Ethiopian Church (as revealed in the Book of Aksum) to 5493 BC.[22][23] Bede was one of the first to break away from the standard Septuagint date for the creation and in his work De Temporibus ("On Time") (completed in 703 AD) dated the creation to 18 March 3952 BC but was accused of heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfrid, because his chronology was contrary to accepted calculations of around 5500 BC.[24]

After the Masoretic text was published, dating creation around 4000 BC became common, and was received with wide support.[25] Proposed calculations of the date of creation, using the Masoretic from the 10th century – 18th century include: Marianus Scotus (4192 BC), Maimonides (4058 BC), Henri Spondanus (4051 BC), Benedict Pereira (4021 BC), Louis Cappel (4005 BC), James Ussher (4004 BC), Augustin Calmet (4002 BC), Isaac Newton (4000 BC), Johannes Kepler (27 April, 3977 BC) [based on his book Mysterium], Petavius (3984 BC), Theodore Bibliander (3980 BC), Christen Sørensen Longomontanus (3966 BC), Melanchthon (3964 BC), Martin Luther (3961 BC), John Lightfoot (3960 BC), Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide (3951 BC) Joseph Justus Scaliger (3949 BC), Christoph Helvig (3947 BC), Gerardus Mercator (3928 BC), Matthieu Brouard (3927 BC), Benito Arias Montano (3849 BC), Andreas Helwig (3836 BC), David Gans (3761 BC) and Gershom ben Judah (3754 BC).[18][21][26][27][27][28]

Among the Masoretic creation estimates or calculations for the date of creation Ussher's specific chronology dating the creation to 4004 BC became the most accepted and popular, mainly because this specific date was attached to the King James Bible.[29] The youngest ever recorded date of creation within young Earth creationism is 3616 BC, by Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller in the 17th century.[30] The oldest traditional proposed date within young Earth creationism is 6984 BC by Alfonso X of Castile.[31] However some contemporary or more recent proponents of young Earth creationism have taken this figure back further by several thousands of years by proposing significant gaps in the genealogies in chapters 5 and 11 of the Book of Genesis which are used by young-earth creationists in their calculations. Harold Camping for example dates the creation to 11,013 BC, while Christian Charles Josias Bunsen in the 19th century dated the creation to 20,000 BC.[32]

Despite a long history of Christianity and Judaism with young Earth creationism, a number of prominent early Church Fathers and Christian writers, including Origen and Augustine, did not believe that the Genesis creation narrative depicted ordinary solar days and read creation history as an allegory as well as being theologically true,[20] though they still thought of the Earth as something that was relatively new, made in the last 10,000 years. Several early Jews also followed an allegorical interpretation of Genesis, including most notably Philo (On the Creation, III.13).[33]

The Protestant reformation hermeneutic inclined some of the Reformers, including John Calvin[34][35] and Martin Luther,[36] and later Protestants toward a literal reading of the Bible as translated, believing in an ordinary day, and maintaining this younger-Earth view.[37]

Young Earth creationism remained the dominant view during the Early Modern Period (1500–1800) and is found typically referenced in the works of famous poets and playwrights of the era, including Shakespeare:

...The poor world is almost 6,000 years old.[38]

Decline

Support for a young Earth declined from the 18th century onwards with the development of the scientific revolution, and scientific paradigm shifts. Findings in geology led to a number of explanations that required an ancient Earth, such as Abraham Gottlob Werner's Neptunism. James Hutton, now regarded as the father of modern geology, went further and opened up the concept of deep time for scientific inquiry. Rather than accepting that the Earth was deteriorating from a primal state, he maintained that the Earth was infinitely old. Hutton stated that

the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now … No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.[39]

Hutton's main line of argument was that the tremendous displacements and changes he was seeing did not happen in a short period of time by means of catastrophe, but that the incremental processes of uplift and erosion happening on the Earth in the present day had caused them. As these processes were very gradual, the Earth needed to be ancient, in order to allow time for the changes to occur. While his ideas of Plutonism were hotly contested, scientific inquiries on competing ideas of catastrophism pushed back the age of the Earth into the millions of years – still much younger than commonly accepted by modern scientists, but a great change from the literalist view of an Earth that was only a few thousand years old.[40]

Hutton's ideas, called uniformitarianism or gradualism, were popularized by Sir Charles Lyell in the early 19th century. The energetic advocacy and rhetoric of Lyell led to the public and scientific communities largely accepting an ancient Earth. By this time, the Reverends William Buckland, Adam Sedgwick and other early geologists had abandoned their earlier ideas of catastrophism related to a Biblical flood and confined their explanations to local floods. By the 1830s, mainstream science had abandoned young Earth creationism as a serious hypothesis. It therefore became important for biblical scholars as well as Christian scientists to harmonize the Genesis myth with new scientific results into a 'new geology'.[41]

John H. Mears was one such scholar who proposed several theories varying from a mix of long/indefinite periods with moments of creation to a day-age theory of indefinite 'days'. He subscribed to the latter theory (indefinite days) and found support from the side of James Dwight Dana, Professor at Yale and one of the fathers of Mineralogy who wrote a paper consisting of four articles named 'Science and the Bible' on the topic.[42] With the acceptance by many biblical scholars of a reinterpretation of Genesis 1 in the light of the breakthrough results of Lyell, and supported by a number of renowned (Christian) scientific scholars, a new hurdle was taken in the future acceptance of Developmentalism (based on Darwin's Natural selection).[43]

The decline of support for a Biblically literal young Earth during the 19th century was opposed by first the scriptural geologists[44] and then by the founders of the Victoria Institute.[45]

Revival

The rise of fundamentalist Christianity at the start of the 20th century saw a revival of interest in young Earth creationism, as a part of the movement's rejection of the explanation of evolution.[46] In 1923, George McCready Price, a Seventh-day Adventist, wrote The New Geology, a book partly inspired by the book Patriarchs and Prophets in which Seventh-day Adventist prophet Ellen G. White described the impact of the Great Flood on the shape of the Earth. Although not an accredited geologist, Price's writings, which were based on reading geological texts and documents rather than field or laboratory work,[47] provide an explicitly fundamentalist perspective on geology. The book attracted a small following, with its advocates almost all being Lutheran pastors and Seventh-day Adventists in America.[48] Harry Rimmer was another prominent exponent of similar views, at least during some of his evangelizing career (Rimmer appears to have also subscribed to "gap creationism", and a local flood, at least at some times).[49]

In the 1950s, Price's work came under severe criticism, particularly by Bernard Ramm in his book The Christian View of Science and Scripture. Together with J. Laurence Kulp, a geologist and in fellowship with the Plymouth Brethren, and other scientists,[50] Ramm influenced Christian organizations such as the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) in not supporting flood geology.

Price's work was subsequently adapted and updated by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb Jr. in their book The Genesis Flood in 1961. Morris and Whitcomb argued that the Earth was geologically recent and that the Great Flood had laid down most of the geological strata in the space of a single year, reviving pre-uniformitarian arguments. Given this history, they argued, "the last refuge of the case for evolution immediately vanishes away, and the record of the rocks becomes a tremendous witness... to the holiness and justice and power of the living God of Creation!"[51]

This became the foundation of a new generation of young Earth creationist thinkers, who organized themselves around Morris' Institute for Creation Research. Sister organizations such as the Creation Research Society have sought to re-interpret geological formations within a young Earth creationist viewpoint. Langdon Gilkey writes:

... no distinction is made between scientific theories on the one hand and philosophical or religious theories on the other, between scientific questions and the sorts of questions religious beliefs seek to answer... It is, therefore, no surprise that in their theological works, as opposed to their creation science writings, creationists regard evolution and all other theories associated with it, as the intellectual source for and intellectual justification of everything that is to them evil and destructive in modern society. For them all that is spiritually healthy and creative has been for a century or more under attack by "that most complex of godless movements spawned by the pervasive and powerful system of evolutionary uniformitarianism", "If the system of flood geology can be established on a sound scientific basis... then the entire evolutionary cosmology, at least in its present neo-Darwinian form, will collapse. This in turn would mean that every anti-Christian system and movement (communism, racism, humanism, libertarianism, behaviorism, and all the rest) would be deprived of their pseudo-intellectual foundation", "It [evolution] has served effectively as the pseudo-scientific basis of atheism, agnosticism, socialism, fascism, and numerous faulty and dangerous philosophies over the past century.[52]

Morris' ideas had a considerable impact on creationism and fundamentalist Christianity. Armed with the backing of conservative organizations and individuals, his brand of "creation science" was widely promoted throughout the United States and overseas, with his books being translated into at least ten different languages. The revival of young Earth creationism has, on occasion, impacted science education in the United States, where periodic controversies have raged over the appropriateness of teaching YEC doctrine and creation science in public schools (see Teach the Controversy) alongside the theory of evolution.

Young earth creationism directly contradicts the scientific consensus. A joint statement of InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP) by 68 national and international science academies lists as scientific facts that: (a) the universe is between 11 and 15 billion years old while the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and has undergone continual change; (b) life appeared on Earth at least 2.5 billion years ago and has subsequently taken many forms, all of which continue to evolve. These facts have never been contradicted by scientific evidence and have been independently established by many different scientific disciplines including paleontology, and the modern biological and biochemical sciences which continue to confirm the evolution of life from a common primordial origin with increasing precision.[7]

Young Earth creationists have claimed that the lack of support for their beliefs by the scientific community is due to discrimination and censorship by professional science journals or among professional science organizations. However, in the 1981 case McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education no witness was able to produce any articles that had been refused publication and the judge could not conceive how "a loose knit group of independent thinkers in all the varied fields of science could, or would, so effectively censor new scientific thought".[8] Creationists have, in turn, been accused of failing to submit articles to reputable journals with a 1985 study finding that only 18 out of 135,000 submissions advocated creationism.[53][54]

Young Earth creationism has also failed to make an impact in less literalist circles of Christianity. Some churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches, accept the possibility of theistic evolution; but, despite this, some individual church members support young Earth creationism.[55]

Adherence to young Earth creationism in the U.S. has been found to be the highest in the Western world.[56][57] A 2011 Gallup survey reports that 30% of Americans say the Bible is the actual word of God and should be interpreted literally, a statistic which has fallen slightly from the late 1970s. The majority view is that the Bible is the inspired word of God except among highly religious Americans or those with less formal education: 54% of those who attend church weekly and 46% of those with a High School education or less take the Bible literally.[10]

A 2012 Gallup survey reports that 46% of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years, a statistic which has remained essentially the same since 1982; for those with a postgraduate education, only 25% believe in the creationist viewpoint. About one third of Americans believe that humans evolved with God's guidance and 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.[58]

Characteristics and beliefs

The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo. Adam was the first man according to the Book of Genesis.

View of the Bible

See also: Biblical literalism

Young Earth creationists regard the Bible as a historically accurate, factually inerrant record of natural history. They accept its authority as the central organizing text for human life – the sole indisputable source of knowledge on every topic with which it deals. As Henry Morris, a leading young Earth creationist, explained it, "Christians who flirt with less-than-literal readings of biblical texts are also flirting with theological disaster."[59][60] According to Morris, Christians must "either ... believe God's Word all the way, or not at all."[59] Therefore, young Earth creationists consider the account of creation given in Genesis to be a factual record of the origin of the Earth and life, and that Bible-believing Christians must therefore regard Genesis 1–11 as historically accurate.

Interpretation of Genesis

See also: Genesis creation narrative

Young Earth creationists interpret the text of Genesis as strictly literal. For the majority of young Earth creationists, an allegorical reading of the Genesis creation narrative, the Fall of Man, Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel would undermine core Christian doctrines like the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they believe that God created the world in six normal-length days, and planted the Garden of Eden for the habitation of an original human couple (Adam and Eve). As a result of the subsequent Fall of Man, humanity was forced to work hard to provide food, and physical death entered the world.

The genealogies of Genesis record the line of descent from Adam through Noah to Abraham. Young Earth creationists interpret these genealogies literally, including the old ages of the men. For example, Methuselah lived 969 years according to the genealogy. Differences of opinion exist regarding whether the genealogies should be taken as complete or abbreviated, hence the 6,000 to 10,000 year range usually quoted for the Earth's age. Old Earth Creationists tend to interpret the genealogies as incomplete, and usually interpret the days of Genesis 1 figuratively as long periods of time.

Young Earth creationists believe that the flood described in Genesis 6–9 did occur, was global in extent, and submerged the highest mountains on Earth. The pseudoscientific endeavour of flood geology has been developed to suggest mechanisms that could permit this. Early ideas were that an orbiting vapor canopy collapsed, generating extreme rainfall. More recently, it has been proposed[by whom?] that the rapid movement of tectonic plates was responsible for the flood. [citation needed]

Genesis says that, after the flood, the average human lifespan dropped from around 900 years at the time of Noah to around 175 by the time of Abraham. Some young Earth creationists have suggested that this was due to the effects of inbreeding as only eight people survived the flood.[61]

Age of the Earth

See also: Age of the Earth, Creation geophysics, Dating creation, and Flood geology

Young Earth creationists believe that the Earth is "young", on the order of 6,000 to 10,000 years old.[62] This depends on a literal interpretation of the internal chronology of the Bible, and contrasts with the age of 4.54 billion years estimated by modern geology using geochronological methods including radiometric dating. While there is evidence for some variation in decay rates under certain special conditions,[63][64][65] these variations are too small to measurably affect the results of radiometric dating.[66][67] Further, radioisotope-derived ages have been verified many times using both independent and different radiometric methods, and by consistency with a number of non-radiometric dating methods.[68] Scientists also point to serious flaws in the RATE study of radioisotope dating undertaken by a team of young Earth creationists.[69][70][71]

Attitude towards science

Main article: Creation science

Young Earth creationism is characterized as opposing the theory of evolution, though it also opposes many claims and theories in the fields of physics[72] and chemistry (including absolute dating methods), geology,[72] astronomy,[73] cosmology,[73] paleontology,[74] molecular biology, genomics, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, climatology and dendrochronology among others. Young Earth creationists are fundamentally opposed to any explanation for the origins of anything which deviates from their literal reading of the Bible, whether it be the origins of biological diversity, the origins of life or the origins of the universe itself. This has led some young Earth creationists to criticize intelligent design, a proposal generally viewed as an alternative form of creationism, for not taking a stand on the age of the Earth, special creation, or even the identity of the designer.

Young Earth creationists challenge the methodological naturalism of the scientific method, which they conflate with philosophical naturalism, and uniformitarianism as the dominant principles of the scientific community. Instead, they assert that available physical evidence best supports original catastrophism and a young Earth. See Creation-evolution controversy for a more complete discussion.

Human history

See also: Early human migrations

Young Earth creationists believe that Adam and Eve were the universal ancestors of the entire human race; accordingly it is usually held that their sons and daughters married among themselves to produce the next generation of children. Noah's flood is supposed to have killed all humans on Earth with the exception of Noah and his sons and their wives. All humans alive today are therefore believed to be descended from this single family, which carried the gene pool for the entire human race. In contradiction to what is accepted by anthropologists, young Earth creationists assert that native Americans, Australian aborigines and all other races arose from the migration of people around the world following the Tower of Babel event in the 3rd millennium BC.

Diversification of life

Young Earth creationists believe that all modern species of land vertebrates are descended from those original animals on the ark. Many young Earth creationists believe that the Ark "kinds" diversified as they subsequently adapted to their environments by the process of variation and rapid natural selection. The selection of such animals as kangaroo and koalas on the ark is based on hypothesized sunken land bridges or glacier ice bridges[75][76][77] (which formed during a subsequent ice age) between Australia and South East Asia, over which Noah or his sons, or the ancestors of the animals themselves, could travel.

Paleontology and dinosaurs

See also: Paleontology and Dinosaur

Young Earth creationists are opposed to the evidence that the stratigraphic sequence of fossils proves the Earth is billions of years old. In his Illogical Geology, expanded in 1913 as The Fundamentals of Geology, George McCready Price argued that the out-of-order sequence of fossils attributed to thrust faults actually made it impossible to prove that one fossil was older than another. His "law" that fossils could be found in any order meant that strata could not be dated sequentially, removing the strongest evidence for evolution and instead fitting with the idea that they could all have been buried at the same time in a universal deluge, which he called "flood geology". In numerous books and articles he promoted this concept, focusing his attack on the sequence of the geologic time scale as "the devil's counterfeit of the six days of Creation as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis."[78]

In The Genesis Flood of 1961, Henry M. Morris reiterated Price's arguments, and wrote that because there had been no death before the Fall of Man, he felt "compelled to date all the rock strata which contain fossils of once-living creatures as subsequent to Adam's fall", attributing most to the flood. He added the "bombshell" that humans and dinosaurs had lived together, quoting Clifford L. Burdick for the report that dinosaur tracks had supposedly been found overlapping a human track in the Paluxy River bed Glen Rose Formation. He was subsequently advised that he might have been misled, and Burdick wrote to Morris in September 1962 that "you kind of stuck your neck out in publishing those Glen Rose tracks." In the third printing of the book this section was removed.[79]

The term "dinosaur" was first used by Richard Owen in 1842. As it is a modern coinage derived from Greek, the Bible does not use the word "dinosaur", but the Hebrew word tanniyn (pronounced [tanˈnin]) has been interpreted as referring to them by some Christians.[80] In English translations, tanniyn may be translated as “sea monster” or “serpent”, but it is usually translated as “dragon”. These creatures are mentioned nearly thirty times in the Old Testament and are found both on land and in the water. At another point, the Bible describes a huge creature called a "behemoth" (Job 40:15–24) that "moves his tail like a cedar"; the behemoth is described as ranking "first among the works of God" and as impossible to capture (vs. 24). Some biblical scholars identify the behemoth as either an elephant, a hippopotamus, or a bull, but as these animals have very thin tails that are not comparable to the size of a cedar tree, creationists often identify the behemoth with sauropod dinosaurs. Some of these creationists refer to "behemoth" specifically as Brachiosaurus, since the Bible says in Job, "He is the chief of the ways of God", meaning he is the largest animal God created.[80] Biologist Michael Bright suggests that the reference to the cedar tree actually refers to the brush-like shape of its branches, which resemble the tails of modern elephants and hippopotamuses.[81] Other critics contend that the word "tail" is a euphemism for the animal's penis, and that the passage should be understood as describing its virility.[82][83]

The Leviathan is another creature referred to in the Bible's Old Testament; some creationists argue that it is described as having a variety of what today would be called dinosaur, dragon, and water-serpent-like characteristics. Some scholars identify the Leviathan in Job c. 41 with the Nile crocodile, or point out that it has seven heads and is purely mythical. As with the behemoth, creationists have sometimes tried to connect the Leviathan with dinosaurs.[84]

Young Earth creationists do not deny the existence of dinosaurs and other extinct animals present in the fossil record.[85] Usually, they claim that the fossils represent the remains of animals that perished in the Great Flood. Most believe that Noah took the dinosaurs with him in the ark,[86] and that they gradually became extinct as a result of a vastly different post-flood environment. The Creation Museum in Kentucky portrays humans and dinosaurs coexisting before the Flood. The California roadside attraction Cabazon Dinosaurs describes dinosaurs as being created the same day as Adam and Eve.[87] The Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas, has a "hyperbaric biosphere" intended to reproduce the atmospheric conditions before the Flood which could grow dinosaurs. The proprietor Carl Baugh says that these conditions made creatures grow larger and live longer, so that humans of that time were giants.[88]

Some creationists say that living dinosaurs (as well as other extinct creatures, such as plesiosaurs), may still survive in isolated spots (see living dinosaur (cryptozoology)), accounting for alleged sightings of lake or sea monsters.[89] Other creationists urge caution about alleged plesiosaurs living today, since rotting basking sharks can form a pseudo-plesiosaur shape.[90][undue weight? – discuss] Young Earth creationists occasionally claim that dinosaurs survived in Australia, and that Aboriginal legends of reptilian monsters are evidence of this,[91] referring to what is known as Megalania (Varanus priscus). However, Megalania was a gigantic monitor lizard, and not a dinosaur, as its discoverer, Richard Owen, realized that the skeletal remains were that of a lizard, and not an archosaur.

Old Earth creationism

See also: Old Earth creationism

Young Earth creationists reject Old Earth creationism and Day-Age creationism on textual and theological grounds. In addition, they claim that the scientific data in geology and astronomy point to a young Earth, against the consensus of the general scientific community.

Young Earth creationists generally hold that, when Genesis describes the creation of the Earth occurring over a period of days, this indicates normal-length 24 hour days, and cannot reasonably be interpreted otherwise. They agree that the Hebrew word for "day" (yôm) can refer to either a 24-hour day or a long or unspecified time; but argue that, whenever the latter interpretation is used, it includes a preposition defining the long or unspecified period. In the specific context of Genesis 1, since the days are both numbered and are referred to as "evening and morning", this can mean only normal-length days. Further, they argue that the 24-hour day is the only interpretation that makes sense of the Sabbath command in Exodus 20:8–11. YECs argue that it is a glaring exegetical fallacy to take a meaning from one context (yom referring to a long period of time in Genesis 1) and apply it to a completely different one (yom referring to normal-length days in Exodus 20).[92]

Gap creationism

See also: Gap creationism

The "gap theory" acknowledges a vast age for the universe, including the Earth and solar system, while asserting that life was created recently in six 24-hour days by divine fiat. Genesis 1 is thus interpreted literally, with an indefinite "gap" of time inserted between the first two verses. (Some gap theorists insert a "primordial creation" and Lucifer's rebellion into the gap.)

Most young Earth creationist organizations reject the gap theory, and say it is unscriptural, unscientific, and not necessary, in its various forms.[93][94] YECs assert that the entire universe is only thousands of years old.

Omphalos hypothesis

See also: Omphalos hypothesis

Many young Earth creationists distinguish their own hypotheses from the "Omphalos hypothesis", today more commonly referred to as the apparent age concept, put forth by the naturalist and science writer Philip Henry Gosse. Omphalos was an unsuccessful mid-19th century attempt to reconcile creationism with geology. Gosse proposed that just as Adam had a navel (omphalos is Greek for navel), evidence of a gestation he never experienced, so also the Earth was created ex nihilo complete with evidence of a prehistoric past that never actually occurred. The Omphalos hypothesis allows for a young Earth without giving rise to any predictions that would contradict scientific findings of an old Earth. Although both logically unassailable and consistent with a literal reading of Scripture, Omphalos was rejected at the time by scientists on the grounds that it was completely unfalsifiable and by theologians because it implied to them a deceitful God, which they found theologically unacceptable.

Today, most young Earth creationists argue that Adam did not have a navel,[95] and, in contrast to Gosse, posit that not only is the Earth young but that the scientific data supports that view. However, the apparent age concept is still used in young Earth creationist literature.[96][97][98]

Criticism

Lack of scientific acceptance

See also: Creationist cosmologies

Young Earth creationism was abandoned as a mainstream scientific concept around the start of the 19th century.[99] Most scientists see it as a non-scientific position, and regard attempts to prove it scientifically as being little more than religiously motivated pseudoscience. In 1997, a poll by the Gallup organization showed that 5% of US adults with professional degrees in science took a young Earth creationist view. In the aforementioned poll, 40% of the same group said that they believed that life, including humans, had evolved over millions of years, but that God guided this process, a view described as theistic evolution, while 55% held a view of "naturalistic evolution" in which no God took part in this process.[100] Some scientists (such as Hugh Ross and Gerald Schroeder) who believe in creationism are known to subscribe to other forms such as Old Earth creationism which posits an act of creation that took place millions or billions of years ago, with variations on the timing of the creation of mankind.

Another problem is the fact that distant galaxies can be seen. If the universe did not exist until 10,000 years ago, then light from anything farther than 10,000 light-years would not have had time to reach us. Most cosmologists accept an inflation model as the likely explanation for the horizon problem. Inflationary models also account for other phenomena, and are in agreement with observations of recent microwave anisotropy satellites. Creationists have also proposed models, such as Time dilation, to explain why we see distant starlight.

Methodology

Against the young Earth Creationist attacks on "evolutionism" and "Darwinism", critics argue that every challenge to evolution by YECs is either made in an unscientific fashion, or is readily explainable by science, and that, while a gap in scientific knowledge may exist now, it is likely to be closed through further research. While scientists acknowledge that there are indeed a number of gaps in the scientific theory, they generally reject the creationist viewpoint that these gaps represent fatal, insurmountable flaws with evolution. Those working in the field who pointed out the gaps in the first place have often explicitly rejected the creationist interpretation. The "God of the gaps" viewpoint has also been criticized by theologians and philosophers.[101]

Christian young Earth creationists adhere strongly to a concept of biblical inerrancy, which declares the Bible to be divinely inspired and written as a plain, omniscient account of history and doctrine, and therefore scientifically infallible and non-correctable.[102]

Young Earth creationists have suggested that supporters of evolution theory are primarily motivated by atheism. Critics reject this claim by pointing out that many supporters of evolutionary theory are, in fact, religious believers, and that major religious groups, such as the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England, believe that the concept of biological evolution does not imply a rejection of the scriptures. Nor do they support the specific doctrines of biblical inerrancy proposed by young Earth creationism. Critics also point out that workers in fields related to evolutionary biology are not required to sign statements of belief in evolution comparable to the biblical inerrancy pledges required by ICR and AiG. This is contrary to the popular belief of creationists that scientists operate on an a priori disbelief in biblical principles.[103] They also discount Christian faith positions, like those of French Jesuit priest, geologist and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who saw that his work with evolutionary sciences actually confirmed and inspired his faith in the cosmic Christ. Nor do they believe the views of Catholic priest Fr. Thomas Berry, a cultural historian and eco-theologian, that the cosmological 13 billion year "Universe Story" provides all faiths and all traditions a single account by which the divine has made its presence in the world.[104]

Proponents of young Earth creationism are regularly accused of quote mining, the practice of isolating passages from academic texts that appear to support their claims, while deliberately excluding context and conclusions to the contrary.[105]

Theology

Few theologians take the Genesis account of creation literally. Although Christian evangelicals largely reject the notion of purely naturalistic Darwinian evolution, most treat it as a nonliteral saga, as poetry, or as liturgical literature.[106]

Many critics claim that Genesis itself is internally inconsistent on the question of whether man was created before the animals (Genesis 2:19Template:Bibleverse with invalid book) or after the animals as stated in the first chapter of Genesis. Proponents of the Documentary hypothesis suggest that Genesis 1 was a litany from the Priestly source (possibly from an early Jewish liturgy), while Genesis 2 was assembled from older Jahwist material, holding that, for both stories to be a single account, Adam would have named all the animals, and God would have created Eve from his rib as a suitable mate, all within a single 24 hour period. Many creationists attribute this view to misunderstanding having arisen from poor translation of the tenses in Genesis 2 in contemporary translations of the Bible (e.g. compare "planted" and "had planted" in the King James Version and New International Version[107]).

Some Christians assert that the Bible is free from error only in religious and moral matters, and that, where scientific or historic questions are concerned, the Bible should not be read literally. This position is held by a number of major denominations. For instance, in a publication entitled The Gift of Scripture, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales comments that "We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision". The Bible is held to be true in passages relating to human salvation, but "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters."[108][109] By contrast, young Earth Creationists contend that moral and spiritual matters in the Bible are intimately connected with its historical accuracy; in their view, the Bible stands or falls as a single indivisible block of knowledge.[110]

Aside from the theological doubts voiced by other Christians, young Earth creationism also stands in opposition to the creation mythologies of other religions (both extant and extinct). Many of these make claims regarding the origin of the universe and humanity that are completely incompatible with those of Christian creationists (and with one another).[111]

Adhering church bodies

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Scott, Eugenie C. (with forward by Niles Eldredge) (2004). "Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction". Berkley & Los Angeles, California: University of California Press: 114. ISBN 0-520-24650-0. Retrieved 16 June 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  2. ^ Numbers 2006, p. 11
  3. ^ Freundel, Barry (2004) [2004], "26, Evolution and Life on Other Planets", Contemporary Orthodox Judaism's response to modernity, Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, p. 242, ISBN 0-88125-778-8 {{citation}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help) Freundel writes: while it is true that some important Jewish thinkers take a creationist approach-"it all began in six days of twenty-four hours"-many do not.
  4. ^ a b James-Griffiths, P. "Creation days and Orthodox Jewish tradition". Creation. 26 (2): 53–55. Retrieved 3 July 2007.
  5. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 10–11
  6. ^ The Creation/Evolution Continuum, Eugenie Scott, NCSE Reports, v. 19, n. 4, p. 16-17, 23-25, July/August, 1999.
  7. ^ a b "IAP Statement on the teaching of evolution" (PDF). the Interacademy Panel on international issues. 2006. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  8. ^ a b Overton, William R. (5 January 1982). "McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education". McLean v. Arkansas. TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  9. ^ "Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design". Gallup. May 2012.
  10. ^ a b Jones, Jeffrey M. (8 July 2011). "In U.S., 3 in 10 Say They Take the Bible Literally". Gallup.
  11. ^ Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Holy Bible, 1879, 8th Edition, 1939—entry under ‘Creation’ quoting Dr. William Hales New Analysis of Chronology and Geography, History and Prophecy, Vol. 1, 1830, p. 210
  12. ^ Dimont, Max I. (1996). Amazing Adventures of the Jewish People. Behrman House Publishing. pp. IX. ISBN 0-87441-391-5.
  13. ^ Dosick, Wayne D. (1995). Living Judaism: the complete guide to Jewish beliefs, tradition, and practice. San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco. p. 119. ISBN 0-06-062119-2.
  14. ^ Bridger, David; Wolk, Samuel (1976). The New Jewish encyclopedia. New York: Behrman House. p. 91. ISBN 0-87441-120-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link))
  15. ^ "Definition of Jewish Calendar from". dictionary.net. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  16. ^ "The Jewish Calendar and Biblical Authority". Askelm.com. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  17. ^ Cherry, S (2006). "Crisis management via Biblical Interpretation: Fundamentalism, Modern Orthodoxy, and Genesis". In Cantor, Geoffrey; Swetlitz, Marc (eds.). Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-09277-5.
  18. ^ a b Dr. William Hales New Analysis of Chronology and Geography, History and Prophecy, vol. 1, 1830, pp. 210–215
  19. ^ A Collation of the Sacred Scriptures, Charles Roger Dundee, 1847, p. 20.
  20. ^ a b "Creationism and the Early Church – Chapter 3". Robibrad.demon.co.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  21. ^ a b Chronology of the Old Testament, Floyd Nolen Jones, Master Books, 15th edition (April 2005), p. 26.
  22. ^ "Byzantine Creation Era". OrthodoxWiki. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  23. ^ "Creation And Catastrophe Chronology". Ldolphin.org. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  24. ^ The Reckoning of Time, Wallis, Faith, trans, pp. xxx, 405–415.
  25. ^ A Collation of the Sacred Scriptures, Charles Roger Dundee, 1847, pp. 10–24.
  26. ^ "Babylonian, Jewish, Muslim, Luni-Solar, Indian, Iranian Calendars". Friesian.com. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  27. ^ a b "The Biblical Date for Creation". Skeptically.org. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  28. ^ Batten, Don. "Old-earth or young-earth belief". Creation. unknown (unknown). Creation.com. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  29. ^ "Bishop James Ussher Sets the Date for Creation: October 23, 4004 B.C". Law2.umkc.edu. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  30. ^ Dr. William Hales New Analysis of Chronology and Geography, History and Prophecy, vol. 1, 1830, pp. 210–215.
  31. ^ Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Holy Bible, 1879 8th Edition, 1939—entry under ‘Creation’.
  32. ^ Epoch of Creation according to various authorities in Pre-Adamites by Walter Winchell, 1880
  33. ^ "Philo's writings". Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  34. ^ Calvin, John (1554). Genesis. ISBN 0-8204-3992-4. I have said above, that six days were employed in the formation of the world; not that God, to whom one moment is as a thousand years, had need of this succession of time, but that he might engage us in the consideration of his works.
  35. ^ Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. ISBN 0-87552-182-7. Retrieved 17 December 2010. Nor will they abstain from their jeers when told that little more than five thousand years have elapsed since the creation of the world.
  36. ^ Luther, Martin (1958). Jaroslav Pelikan (ed.). Luther's Works vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis Chapters 1–5. Fortress Press. We know from Moses that the world was not in existence before 6,000 years ago. (pg. 3) {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |quote2= ignored (help)
  37. ^ Young & Stearley 2008, pp. 44–46
  38. ^ Shakespeare's (1599) line given to Rosalind addressing Orlando in As you like it (IV, 1:90) was an unquestioned truth in the sixteenth century.
  39. ^ 'Theory of the Earth', a paper (with the same title of his 1795 book) communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1785; cited with approval in Holmes, A., Principles of Physical Geology, second edition, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., Great Britain, pp. 43–44, 1965.
  40. ^ Theory of the Earth full text (1788 version)
  41. ^ Uniformitarianism: Charles Lyell, University of California Museum of Paleontology
  42. ^ Dana, Phd. Professor at Yale, James Dwight (1856–1857). Science and the Bible, a review of and the six days of creation of Prof. Lewis Taylor. Bibl. Soc. URL: Prof. James Dwight Dana, Science and the Bible, online version
  43. ^ "Bible.org, Darwinism and New England Theology". 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
  44. ^ The Great Devonian Controversy, Martin J. S. Rudwick, 1988, ISBN 0-226-73102-2, pp 42–44
  45. ^ McNatt, Jerrold L. (September 2004). "James Clerk Maxwell's Refusal to Join the Victoria Institute" (PDF). Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith. 56 (3). American Scientific Affiliation: 204–215.
  46. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 51–68
  47. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 88–119
  48. ^ Marston, P & Forster, R (2001). Reason Science and Faith. Monarch Books. ISBN 978-1-57910-661-4. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  49. ^ Numbers 2006, pp. 76–87
  50. ^ Radiocarbon Dating and American Evangelical Christians. Asa3.org. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  51. ^ Whitcomb, JC (1960). The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. P&R Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87552-338-5
  52. ^ (Gilkey, 1998, p. 35; quotations from Henry Morris).
  53. ^ Isaak, Mark (2005). "CA325: Creationists publishing". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  54. ^ Isaak, Mark (2004). "CA320: Scientists challenging established dogma". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  55. ^ Philip Porvaznik. "Dialogue on Evolution versus Creationism". Catholic Apologetics International. Retrieved 10 October 2007. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)
  56. ^ Michael Le Page (19 April 2008). "Evolution myths: It doesn't matter if people don't grasp evolution". New Scientist. 198 (2652): 31. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(08)60984-7. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  57. ^ Jeff Hecht (19 August 2006). "Why doesn't America believe in evolution?". New Scientist. 191 (2565): 11. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(06)60136-X. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  58. ^ Newport, Frank (1 June 2012). "In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins". Gallup.
  59. ^ a b Morris, HM (2000). The Long War Against God: The History and Impact of the Creation/Evolution Conflict. Master Books. ISBN 978-0-89051-291-3.
  60. ^ Morris, HM (2000). Biblical Creationism: What Each Book of the Bible Teaches About Creation & the Flood. Master Books. ISBN 978-0-89051-293-7.
  61. ^ Carl Wieland. "Living for 900 years". 20 (4): 10–13. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  62. ^ "Evidence for a young Earth". 2006. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  63. ^ Bosch; Faestermann, T; Friese, J; Heine, F; Kienle, P; Wefers, E; Zeitelhack, K; Beckert, K; Franzke, B (1996). "Observation of bound-state β– decay of fully ionized 187Re:187Re-187Os Cosmochronometry". Physical Review Letters. 77 (26): 5190–5193. Bibcode:1996PhRvL..77.5190B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.5190. PMID 10062738.
  64. ^ Wang, B. (2006). "Change of the 7Be electron capture half-life in metallic environments". Euro. Phys. J. A. 28 (3): 375–377. Bibcode:2006EPJA...28..375W. doi:10.1140/epja/i2006-10068-x. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  65. ^ Stober, Dan (23 August 2010). "The strange case of solar flares and radioactive elements". Stanford University. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  66. ^ "Claim CF210: Constancy of Radioactive Decay Rates". TalkOrigins. 4 June 2003. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  67. ^ "Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors". U.S. Department of Energy. November 2004. Archived from the original on 2 July 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  68. ^ "Claim CD010: Radiometric dating gives unreliable results". TalkOrigins Archive. 18 February 2001. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  69. ^ Henke, K. R. (24 November 2005). "Young-Earth Creationist Helium Diffusion "Dates" Fallacies Based on Bad Assumptions and Questionable Data". TalkOrigins. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  70. ^ Meert, J. G. (6 February 2003). "R.A.T.E: More Faulty Creation Science from The Institute for Creation Research". Gondwana Research. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  71. ^ Wiens, R. C. (2002). "Radiometric Dating, A Christian Perspective". American Scientific Affiliation. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  72. ^ a b "Talk Origins Archive – Claim CH210: Age of the Earth". 2 October 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  73. ^ a b "Talk Origins Archive – Claim CH200: Age of the Universe". 24 February 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  74. ^ "Talk Origins Archive – Claim CH200: Age of the Universe". 13 June 2003. Retrieved 11 April 2011. ...there is an approximately sixty-four-million-year gap in the fossil record when there are neither dinosaur nor human fossils.
  75. ^ Morris, John D. "The Ice Age: Causes and Consequences". Icr.org. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  76. ^ "NF1: Reading: The World After the Flood was Changed". Ncbible.info. 7 December 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  77. ^ "Abiogenesis and the Origin of Life". Nwcreation.net. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  78. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (1993). The creationist. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 79–81. ISBN 0-520-08393-8.
  79. ^ Numbers, Ronald L. (1993). The creationist. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 0-520-08393-8.
  80. ^ a b "Dinosaurs and the Bible". Clarifying Christianity'. 2005. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
  81. ^ Bright, Michael (2006). Beasts of the Field: The Revealing Natural History of Animals in the Bible. London: Robson. pp. 26–27. ISBN 1-86105-831-4.
  82. ^ Pennock, Robert T. (2000). Tower of Babel: the evidence against the new creationism. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-66165-9.
  83. ^ "CH711: Behemoth a Dinosaur". Retrieved 13 September 2007.
  84. ^ "Claim CH711.1: Leviathan as a dinosaur". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
  85. ^ Powell, Michael (25 September 2005). "In Evolution Debate, Creationists Are Breaking New Ground". The Washington Post.
  86. ^ "Dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark: US museum". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 6 November 2007.
  87. ^ Powers, Ashley. Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2005. "Adam, Eve and T. Rex: Giant roadside dinosaur attractions are used by a new breed of creationists as pulpits to spread their version of Earth's origins." Page 1,page 2,page 3,page 4,page 5. Retrieved on December 29, 2009.
  88. ^ "Creation Evidence Museum, Glen Rose, Texas", Roadside America.
    "Creationism Alive and Kicking in Glen Rose", by Greg Beets, August 5, 2005, Austin Chronicle. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  89. ^ Creation Science Evangelism – Creation, Evolution, Dinosaurs, and the Bible[dead link]
  90. ^ Elliott, Bev (November 1999). "Let rotting sharks lie". Journal of Creation. 13 (2): 837–87. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  91. ^ Driver, Rebecca. "Australia's Aborigines ... did they see dinosaurs?". Creation. 21 (1). Answers in Genesis. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
  92. ^ Russell Grigg. "How long were the days of Genesis 1?". Creation. 19 (1): 23–25.
  93. ^ Henry M. Morris (December 1987). "The gap theory – an idea with holes?". Creation. 10 (1): 35–37. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  94. ^ Don Batten (June 2004). "'Soft' gap sophistry". Creation. 26 (3): 44–47. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  95. ^ Parker, Gary. (1996-06-01) Did Adam have a belly-button?. Creation 18:3 p6. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  96. ^ Apologetics Press – Apparent Age. Apologeticspress.org. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  97. ^ The Apparent Age Argument. Don-lindsay-archive.org (2 January 1999). Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  98. ^ Appearance of Age – theology overview & web-links. Asa3.org. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  99. ^ "History of Science: Early Modern Geology". Retrieved 24 September 2007.
  100. ^ "Gallup Poll 1997".
  101. ^ Is there anything wrong with "God of the gaps" reasoning?, by Robert Larmer.
  102. ^ "Foundational Principles". Institute for Creation Research. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  103. ^ [none] (1998). "Amazing admission". Creation. 20 (3): 24.
  104. ^ See references and further information given at Objections to evolution, Atheism for support of this paragraph.
  105. ^ Quote Mine Project: Examining 'Evolution Quotes' of Creationists. Talkorigins.org. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  106. ^ Olson, Roger E. (2004). The Westminster handbook to evangelical theology (First ed.). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 166. ISBN 0-664-22464-4.
  107. ^ "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." — KJV and "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." — NIV
  108. ^ Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (2005). The Gift of Scripture (PDF). Catholic Truth Society. ISBN 1-86082-323-8. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  109. ^ Gledhill, Ruth (5 October 2005). "Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible". The Times. London.
  110. ^ Jonathan Sarfati. "But Genesis is not a science textbook". Creation. 26 (4): 6.
  111. ^ Leeming, D.A. (1996). A Dictionary of Creation Myths. Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 0-19-510275-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  112. ^ "Constitutional Documents of The Evangelical Reformed Presbyterian Church, Article of Alliance, Affirmations No. 13" (PDF). erpchurch.org. 2011. p. 3. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  113. ^ "A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod (Adopted 1932)". lcms.org. 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  114. ^ "The Official Site of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, Fundamental Beliefs". adventist.org. 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.

References

Articles from the UK
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