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Home > Creation vs. evolution debate

This article is explicitly about the debate between advocates of "creationism" and the advocates of "evolution" in attempting to explain the origins of life.

• For an exposition of the tenets of "creationism," see Creationism.
• For an exposition of the theory of "evolution," see Evolution.
• For details of the political and judicial tussles over what topics can be taught in United States public schools, see Creationism in public education.

The Creation vs. evolution debate is a controversy regarding the origins of life on Earth. In some areas, such as Europe, acceptance of evolution has achieved near-universality. In other areas, such as the Middle East, creationism is nearly universal. Finally, in places such as the United States, opinions are widely mixed, and the debate rages in educational, political, and some scientific circles.

It is important to note that there are many different views on the origin of life, as held by the adherents to many different religions and non-religions.

Creationists and the mainstream scientific community differ in a number of areas, including geology, biology, and astronomy. This article will focus on differences between evolutionists and creationists on the origin and development of life on Earth.

1 Introduction to the arguments

Pitting Creationism against evolution creates something of a false dichotomy. Strictly speaking, Creationism refers only to the belief that the Universe in general and life in particular were created by some divine agency (usually God), while evolution refers only to the scientific theory that the processes of mutation and natural selection are responsible for the diversity of life found on Earth.

Evolutionary theory and Creationism are not mutually exclusive: Theistic Evolutionists, for example, believe that God created life, and that species differentiated by means of the mechanism of evolution.

The controversy in biology, centers on two issues:

• First, the issue of Abiogenesis: that is, the origin of life, and whether it was brought about by purely naturalistic processes, or a divine, creative act;
• Second, the issue of differentiation: that is, whether or not families, genera, and species developed naturally through the mechanisms of mutation and natural selection.

People hold a variety of opinions regarding these two issues.

• "Naturalistic evolutionists" believe both that life originated and that species differentiated through purely naturalistic means;
• "Theistic evolutionists" or "Evolutionary creationists" believe that life originated and differentiated through naturalistic means and mutation and natural selection under God's divine guidance;
• "Creationists" believe both that the basic "kinds" of life were created through the deliberate act of an intelligent being, and not through naturalistic abiogenesis nor evolution. Of these, there are several subtypes.
  • "Intelligent Design" encompasses all creationists, as it asserts simply that life originated and some forms of more advanced life originated through the creative act of an intelligent being, but makes no claim as to the identity of the designer or to the age of the Earth, and (in some cases) hold that species may differentiate through naturalistic evolution.
  • "Biblically Literal Creationists," who are primarily orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims, believe the Earth and life were created as described in their holy books. Some consider the Earth to be about 6,000 years years old, while others believe the Earth to be billions of years old.

2 Abiogenesis

Main article: Abiogenesis

The origin of life remains elusive to science, and is a limited field of research despite its profound impact on biology and human understanding of our world. Progress in this field is slow and sporadic, but it still draws the attention of many. A few facts give insight into the conditions in which life may have emerged, but the mechanisms by which non-life became life are elusive. The issue revolves around the means by which the chemical ingredients of life, primarily carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, could have become arranged in such a way that they became a single, "living" entity, able to reproduce itself. The defining research in this field is known as the Miller-Urey experimentThe Miller-Urey experiment (or Urey-Miller experiment was an experiment that simulated hypothetical conditions present on the early Earth and tested for the occurrence of chemical evolution (the Oparin and Haldane hypothesis stated that conditions on the, which demonstrated that, under certain conditions, many of the organic components of life may arise spontaneously. However, no experiment has yet managed to produce self-replicating "living" compounds from these organic ingredients.

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