Scientific Creationism

Creation science or scientific creationism is a pseudoscientific form of Young Earth creationism which claims to offer scientific arguments for
certain literalist and inerrantist interpretations of the Bible. It is often presented without overt faith-based language, but instead relies on
reinterpreting scientific results to argue that various myths in the Book of Genesis and other select biblical passages are scientifically valid. The
most commonly advanced ideas of creation science include special creation based on the Genesis creation narrative and flood geology based on
the Genesis flood narrative. Creationists also claim they can disprove or reexplain a variety of scientific facts, theories and paradigms of geology,
cosmology, biological evolution, archaeology, history, and linguistics using creation science. Creation science was foundational to intelligent
design.

HISTORY

Creation science began in the 1960s, as a fundamentalist Christian effort in the United States to prove Biblical inerrancy and nullify the
scientific evidence for evolution. It has since developed a sizable religious following in the United States, with creation science ministries
branching worldwide. The main ideas in creation science are: the belief in creation ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing).

Creationists also challenge the geologic and astrophysical measurements of the age of the Earth and the universe along with their origins,
which creationists believe are irreconcilable with the account in the Book of Genesis.[39] Creation science proponents often refer to the
theory of evolution as “Darwinism” or as “Darwinian evolution.”

The creation science texts and curricula that first emerged in the 1960s focused upon concepts derived from a literal interpretation of the
Bible and were overtly religious in nature, most notably proposing Noah’s flood in the Biblical Genesis account as an explanation for the
geological and fossil record.

Creation science (dubbed “scientific creationism” at the time) emerged as an organized movement during the 1960s.[49] It was strongly
influenced by the earlier work of armchair geologist George McCready Price who wrote works such as Illogical Geology: The Weakest
Point in the Evolution Theory (1906) and The New Geology (1923) to advance what he termed “new catastrophism” and dispute the
current geological time frames and explanations of geologic history.

KINDS OF SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM

BIOLOGY

Creationist arguments in relation to biology center on an idea derived from Genesis that states that life was created by God, in a finite
number of “created kinds,” rather than through biological evolution from a common ancestor. Creationists contend that any observable
speciation descends from these distinctly created kinds through inbreeding, deleterious mutations and other genetic mechanisms.
Whereas evolutionary biologists and creationists share similar views of microevolution, creationists reject the fact that the process of
macroevolution can explain common ancestry among organisms far beyond the level of common species.[46] Creationists contend that
there is no empirical evidence for new plant or animal species, and deny fossil evidence has ever been found documenting the process.

GEOLOGY

Flood geology - Flood geology is a concept based on the belief that most of Earth's geological record was formed by the Great Flood
described in the story of Noah's Ark. Flood geology is a variant of catastrophism and is contrasted with geological science in that it
rejects standard geological principles such as uniformitarianism and radiometric dating. For example, the Creation Research Society
argues that “uniformitarianism is wishful thinking. Geologists conclude that no evidence for such a flood is observed in the preserved
rock layers[3] and moreover that such a flood is physically impossible, given the current layout of land masses.

Radiometric dating - Creationists point to experiments they have performed, which they claim demonstrate that 1.5 billion years of
nuclear decay took place over a short period of time, from which they infer that “billion-fold speed-ups of nuclear decay” have occurred,
a massive violation of the principle that radioisotope decay rates are constant, a core principle underlying nuclear physics generally, and
radiometric dating in particular.

Radiohaloes - In the 1970s, young Earth creationist Robert V. Gentry proposed that radiohaloes in certain granites represented evidence
for the Earth being created instantaneously rather than gradually. This idea has been criticized by physicists and geologists on many
grounds including that the rocks Gentry studied were not primordial and that the radionuclides in question need not have been in the
rocks initially.

Astronomy and cosmology

Creationist cosmologies - Several attempts have been made by creationists to construct a cosmology consistent with a young Universe
rather than the standard cosmological age of the universe, based on the belief that Genesis describes the creation of the Universe as well
as the Earth.