What is creationism?
The differences between types of creationism are not minor. Most of the creationist beliefs described below are mutually exclusive, and often their differences are as great as their differences with evolution. Many creationists disagree as much with other creationists as they do with evolutionists. Morris, for example, devotes the last 20% of his book Scientific Creationism to attacks on other forms of creationism (Morris 1985).
•Biblical Astronomer, Cleveland, OH
•Institute for Creation Research (ICR), El Cajon, CA.
•Creation Research Society (CRS), St. Joseph, MO.
This view says that there was a long temporal gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, with God recreating the world in 6 days after the gap. This allows both an ancient earth and a Biblical special creation.
•Jimmy Swaggart
•Reasons To Believe, Pasadena, CA.
•Richard Dawkins
Not Easily Classifiable Positions
•http://www.rael.org/
•http://www.panspermia.org/
Islamic Creationism
•Cremo, Michael A. & Richard L. Thompson, Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (Govardhan Hill, Inc., San Diego, CA, 1994)
There are far too many different creation myths to give more than a sampling here. Only a few myths exemplifying some common themes will be given. Unless otherwise noted, all examples come from Sproul (1979).
Separation of Earth and Sky (example: New Hebrides)
Earth Diver; Dualism (example: Huron)
Creation by Spoken Word; Repeated Creation (example: Quiche Maya)
McIver, Tom, 1992. Anti-evolution: A Reader's Guide to Writings Before and After Darwin. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. -- a reprint of McIver's Anti-evolution: An Annotated Bibliography (McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 1988), briefly describing 1850 anti-evolution works, most of them creationist. James L. Hayward's The Creation/Evolution Controvery: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD, 1998) covers more recent works, 393 from 1981 or later. Henry Morris gives an unannotated bibliography of over 125 YEC books in the Nov. 1995 Impact (#269).
Scott, E.C., 1997, Antievolution and creationism in the United States. Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 263-289. -- gives more detail about the various types of creationism and their legal history and influence in the U.S. The variety of creationists is also discussed in chapter 1 of Robert T. Pennock's Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999).
Acknowledgements
CRSC, 1999. The Wedge Strategy. http://www.public.asu.edu/~jmlynch/idt/wedge.html
Gosse, Henry Philip, 1857. Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot. J. Van Voorst, London.
Morris, Henry M., 1985. Scientific Creationism. Master Books, Green Forest, AR.
Whitcomb, J.C. & Morris, H.R., 1961. The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Philadelphia, PA.
http://www.csama.org/200003NL.HTM
