strict biblical creationists

"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."

This was the statement published in newspapers around the country in 2001. This was signed by 200 PhD. scientists, including Nobel Prize nominees and evolutionary biology textbook authors. The list has now grown to over 300 scientists. This growing debate within the scientific community continue.

But aren’t there various attempts to challenge Darwinian evolution in public schools today? Yes. There are many camps in this debate. I will look at four. Today the first.

Strict biblical creationists-

Also called, “Six-Day creationists” or “Young Earth creationists.” Believe that the universe and its content were created in 6 literal days by God. Examples of organizations that support this are Institute of Christian Research and Answers in Genesis. This view has in common a belief that the scientific evidence for the 13.7 billion year old universe and such is just an “appearance” of age by a God who created the universe mature to begin with. Their basic motto would be, "If God chooses to create the universe and all of life in six days, he is certainly capable of doing it."

There are few scientists who hold this view and they don’t use scientific method to support it. They do provide a valuable critique of Darwinian evolution models, however.

When those who are skeptical of Darwinian evolution are mentioned in the public arena (e.g. media and education) they are almost always lumped in with strict biblical creationists, though those who follow this point of view constitute only a fraction of those skeptical. This is a logical fallacy called the “straw man” approach. You take the most extreme position of those who disagree with you, and then attack that position as if it were the general position. Whenever you see the word “creationist” in the media, you know this is an attempt to discredit the validity of a person’s point of view. “Creationist,” in actuality, simply means, “A person who thinks there is a creator of the universe.”