Episode 25. Young Earth Creation is the view of origins that states, God created the universe and life in six 24 hour days about 6000 years ago. The first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1, is read through a strict literal interpretation. Young Earth Creation is the common view of a creationist and it is often seen as THE Christian position on origins. Progressive creation asserts that God created life intermittently. That is, progressively, at different points over billions of years. This position claims that in Genesis 1, the creation days are not 24 hours long, but instead they are geological periods, millions of years long. Evolutionary Creation believes that a personal God created the universe and life through evolution. According to this position, Genesis 1 reveals spiritual truths and not modern scientific facts. More specifically, Genesis 1 has an ancient science, in particular an ancient understanding of origins. Evolutionary creation uses the academic definition of the term creation. First and foremost, Evolutionary Creationists believe in a creator, and that the world is His creation. Deistic Evolution claims that an impersonal God created the universe and life through evolution. Being Deists, they disregard Genesis 1 and reject Biblical revelation. Notably, this was Darwin's view of evolution through most of his adult life. Our next category is Theistic Evolution. We need to be careful with this term, because it can be confusing. The common definition refers to the belief that an impersonal God created through evolution, therefore this is really Deistic Evolution. The academic definition of Theistic Evolution asserts that a personal God created through evolution, thus, this is the same as Evolutionary Creation. I need to add a few more comments regarding the evolution of the categories Theistic Evolution, and Evolutionary Creation. In English grammar, the substantive, that is the noun, is the more important term in a category. With Theistic Evolution, the term evolution is primary, and theistic, referring to God, is secondary. Personally I don't care for this inversion of order. God should not be secondary to any scientific theory. It's also worth noting that Theistic Evolution is the older term, and it tends to be used today by liberal Christians. In contrast with Evolutionary Creation, the term creation is primary, and evolutionary is secondary. This is a newer category and tends to be used today by conservative Christians like myself. Our next origins category is Dysteleological Evolution. This position asserts that the universe and life evolved without any ultimate plan, purpose, or final goal, and that natural processes like evolution are run by nothing but blind chance. Dysteleologists reject Genesis 1, God, and Biblical Revelation. Dysteleological Evolution is the common view of an evolutionist, and it is often seen as THE scientific position. Richard Dawkins is the best example of a dysteleological evolutionist. Please turn to page 9 in the class handouts for a summary on Origins and Hermeneutics. In this chart, we can see that there is a relationship between scientific concordism and the different origins positions. Young Earth Creation and Progressive Creation accept concordism in the Genesis 1 creation account. In doing so, they reject various evolutionary sciences. In contrast, Evolutionary Creation, Deistic Evolution and Dysteleological Evolution reject scientific concordism, and do not use the Bible as a book of science. As a result, these origins positions fully embrace all the evolutionary sciences. It is clear from this chart that anti-evolutionism is connected to scientific concordism. Let me close this episode with a question I would like you to start thinking about. If the Bible has an ancient science of origins, then is anti-evolutionism ultimately based on poor hermeneutics, that is, scientific concordism? This might be a very troubling question for Christians, because most of us were raised in churches that teach and support concordism. But maybe we need to re-think this issue. End of episode.