Creation and Evolution

The GSCE syllabus specifically mentions creation and evolution.

	Definition of terms Creation n. act of creating (esp the world); investing with title, rank, etc.; all created things; product of human (esp designer's or actor's) intelligence, esp. of imaginative thought. Creationism n. theory attributing origin of matter and biological species to special creation (not to evolution) Creator n. one who creates. Evolution n. 3. development (of organism, human society, the universe, design, argument etc.); origination of species by development from earlier forms, not by special creation. Evolve develop by natural process [Oxford English Dictionary]

The concept of creation invokes the notion of 'design' and the presence of a creator who purposefully makes something. A 'creationist' will therefore be someone who believes that the universe is the product of an intelligent beings' purpose, design, and activity. The Christian concept of creation is based on the Biblical account of creation found in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 - through which we understand that God is the creator of the world we live in.

Evolution holds that the world is not a product of 'special design' but rather the product of natural developmental processes. The theory of evolution is generally attributed to Charles Robert Darwin (1809 - 1882). The truth is that there had been literature on this theory published before Darwin wrote on it. Indeed, Charles Darwin's own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had developed evolutionary theories himself which had been influential upon Charles. However, Charles Darwin's name became firmly linked in history with the theory of evolution when his book, The Origin of Species, hit the world in 1859.

Are evolution and creation inevitably in opposition to each other? Are they mutually exclusive 'theories' such that you can only believe one or the other, and never both? And if so, what reasons and evidence exist to persuade a person either way? In the following article John Lennox, an Oxford mathematician, gives an excellent summary of the controversy surrounding evolution:

• Evolution - A Theory in Crisis?

Richard Dawkins has become an influential writer of our own time, and a strong proponent of evolutionary theories through his books, The Selfish Gene (1976) and The Blind Watchmaker (1986). Hes uses biology and genetics as a vehicle to convey the impression that atheism is the only rationally defensible intellectual position. He claims that 'although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist'. The following two articles present a critique of Dawkins; views on religion, and an exploration of atheism:

• A Critique of Richard Dawkins' views on religion
• Answering Atheism

Proponents of evolutionary theories often give the impression that science and religion are incompatible, an assumption that is discussed in the next article:

• Science and Religion

	On the web - the theory of evolution under discussion... Dr Michael Denton is a Senior Research Fellow in Biochemistry at the University of Otago in New Zealand and the author of the book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. His views are well summarised in a recent interview. Denton also has his critics as evident in a review of his work. Another biochemist who has taken issue with Darwinism is Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box. Behe's online articles include Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference and Darwin Under the Microscope. Phillip E. Johnson, Berkeley Professor of Law, is author of Darwin On Trial, Testing Darwinism and Reason in the Balance. Johnson puts his case in a series of online articles. (Six day) creationism is expounded by several sites linking from the The Ultimate Creationist Website.