The purpose of this section is not to explore all known facts and controversies regarding the creation/evolution debate. Rather I wish to provide examples of common theories that Christians, and more importantly Christian Scientists, have about this conflict. The three main views Christians have are:

 

• Young Earth Creationism

• Old Earth (Progressive) Creationism

• Theistic Evolution 

 

Young Earth creationism is widely known as the creationism talked about in the media, in legislature, and the controversies about school curriculums. In the book, Three Views on Creation and Evolution, young earth creationists have four distinguishing features from the two other views

 

• Open philosophy of science

• All basic types of organisms were created by God during the creation week of Genesis 1-2

• The curse of Genesis 3:14-19 profoundly affected every aspect of the natural economy

• The flood of Noah was a historical event, gloval in extent and effect

 

Young earth creationists state, "There are two lines of evidence available to the Christian: religious and natural. In our opinion, both types of evidence point away from evolution."

 

Old earth Creationism or progressive creationism has similar views to both young earth creationists and people who believe in theistic evolution. Old earth creationists tend to view the world as being four to five billion years old. This is a much longer time compared to the view of most young earth creationists that the world is only six to ten thousand years old.  Robert Newman highlights the following characteristics of Old Earth Creationism

 

• God used a combination of supernatural intervention and providential guidance to construct the universe

• God's activity in creation occurred in a progression

• God established and perfected each level of the environment before he added a higher level

• The Earth is actually billions of years old as seen in the evidence of light, geology, and biblical evidence seen in Psalm 90 and John 2:18

 

In summary, "Most varieties of old earth creationism see the Genesis account and the data of cosmology and geology as referring to the same events - the creation of the universe, earth, and their contents."

 

The viewpoint of theistic evolution has a wide range of possible meanings. There are stricter variations and some that are looser in their interpretation. In his excerpt from Three Views on Creation and Evolution, Howard Till shows readers that the whole creation/evolution debate is really just a debate on the meaning of words and ideas. He fully believes that if we had the correct understanding of what creation means and what evolution means then we would not be having such heated debates, but would rather be having deep philosophical discussions. 

 

Till is careful to point out that the misunderstanding of these terms is not only in and out of the Christian community but is also found outside and inside the scientific community as well. He also says that both Christians and atheists have always believed that you must either choose creation OR evolution. Till dispels this notion by saying there is a view in which evolution is not outside our Christian beliefs and in which creation can be accepted by a scientific community. 

 

Summarizing Till's article, he makes the following five major points

 

• Theistic evolution is in line with Christian creation because God created everything and if he were to withdraw his creative hand then creation would die. Therefore theistic evolution can only take place in knowing that God is the creator and everything else that exists is his creation

• Everything in creation has been given "creaturely properties". Everything possesses "not only properties but also the capabilties to act and interact in a remarkably rich diversity of ways."

• A creature can do no more nor less than what God has gifted it with the capabilities to do

• These rich, unique, and diverse capabilities give me cause to praise God for the wonderful creation he has made. I have reason to rejoice everytime science finds a new capability of an individual in creation

• The creation/evolution controversy is a disagreement concerning the extent of the list of creaturely capabilities with which the creation has been gifted by God

 

In essence, theistic evolution works hard to show that science and Christianity do not have to be at odds with each other. It tries to explain to both the Christian and the scientific communities the nature of the debate and how with the correct definitions and understandings of terms, we are able to reconcile faith and science.