Progressive creationism
Encyclopedia
Progressive creationism is the religious belief that God
created new forms of life gradually, over a period of hundreds of millions of years. As a form of Old Earth creationism
, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological
estimates for the age of the Earth
, but posits that the new "kinds" of plant
s and animal
s that have appeared successively over the planet
's history represent instances of God
directly intervening to create those new types by means outside the realm of science
.
Progressive creationists generally reject macroevolution
because they believe it to be biologically untenable and not supported by the fossil record, and they generally reject the concept of universal descent from a last universal ancestor
. These individuals thus reject a great deal of the scientific consensus
regarding the evidence for evolution.
in the early 19th century; they proposed it as an explanation for the patterns of faunal succession in the fossil record that showed that the types of organisms that lived on the earth had changed over time. Buckland explained the idea in detail in his book Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology (1836), which was one of the eight Bridgewater Treatises. This idea was proposed in part as a counter to pre-Darwin theories on the transmutation of species
.
Georges Cuvier
also proposed that there had been a series of sucessive creations due to catastrophism
, Curvier believed that God regionally destroyed previously created forms through flooding and after replaced the regions with new forms. The French naturalist
Alcide d'Orbigny
also held similar ideas, he linked different stages in the Geologic time scale
to separate creation events. At the time these ideas were not popular with strict Christians. In defense of the theory of sucessive creations, Marcel de Serres (1783–1862) a french geologist
suggested that new creations grow more and more perfect as the time goes on.
Other advocates of progressive creationism included the geologist
Hugh Miller
who argued for many separate creation events brought about by divine interventions, he explained his ideas in his book The testimony of the rocks; or, Geology in its bearings on the two theologies, natural and revealed in 1857. Louis Agassiz
also argued for separate divine creations. In his work he noted similarities of distribution of like species
in different geological era; a phenomenon clearly not the result of migration. Agassiz questioned how fish of the same species live in lakes well separated with no joining waterway, Agassiz concluded they were created at both locations. According to Agassiz the intelligent adaptation of creatures to their environments testified to an intelligent plan. The conclusions of his studies lead him to believe that whichever region
each animal was found in, was created there “animals are naturally autochthones wherever they are found”. After further research he later extended this idea to humans, he wrote that different races had been created separately, this became known as his theory of polygenesis
.
(ASA) was founded in the early 1940s as an organisation of orthodox Christian scientists. Although its original leadership favoured Biblical literalism
and it was intended to be anti-evolutionary, it rejected the creationist theories propounded by George McCready Price (young Earth creationism
) and Harry Rimmer
(gap creationism
), and it was soon moving rapidly in the direction of theistic evolution
, with some members "stopping off" on the less Modernist
view that they called "progressive creationism." It was a view developed in the 1930s by Wheaton College
graduate Russell L. Mixter
. In 1954 evangelical philosopher and theologian Bernard Ramm
(an associate of the inner circle of the ASA) wrote The Christian View of Science and Scripture, advocating Progressive Creationism which did away with the necessity for a young Earth
, a global flood and the recent appearance of humans.
that these kinds evolved from each other, and believe that kinds are genetically limited, such that one cannot change into another. In other words, progressive creationists deny much of the evidence for evolution that built the scientific consensus. For instance, denial of macroevolution is one of many objections to evolution
which have been addressed (see also introduction to evolution
).
Proponents of the Progressive creation theory include astronomer
-turned-apologist
Hugh Ross
, whose organization, Reasons To Believe, accepts the scientifically determined age of the Earth
but seeks to disprove Darwinian evolution. Answers in Creation is another organization, set up in 2003, which supports progressive creationism. The main focus of Answers In Creation is to provide rebuttals to the scientific claims of young earth creationism which are widely regarded as a pseudoscience.
adopted the view (developed by P. J. Wiseman) that "creation was revealed [pictorially] in six days, not performed in six days", with God intervening periodically to create new "root-species" which then "radiated" out. This allowed geological formations such as coal to form naturally, so that they "might appear a natural product an not an artificial insertion in Nature", prior to the creation of mankind.
Progressive creationist and astrophysicist Hugh Ross
adheres to a literal translation of Genesis 1 and 2 and holds to the principle that "Scripture interprets Scripture” to shed light on the context of the Creation account. Using this principle, Progressive Creationist Alan Hayward
cites Hebrews 4, which discusses in the context of the creation story, a continued Seventh Day of creation. Ross ties this literal view of a lengthy seventh day to the Creation account in which he describes the Hebrew word "yom" to have multiple translation possibilities, ranging from 24 hours, year, time, age, or eternity/always. Ross contends that at the end of each Genesis "day", with the exception of the seventh "day", the phrase, “…and there was evening and there was morning,” is used to put a terminus to each event. The omission of that phrase on the Seventh Day, is in harmony with the literal translation of Hebrews 4’s continuing Seventh Day.
From a theological perspective, Robert Newman addresses a problem with this particular model of lengthy Genesis days, in that it puts physical plant and animal death before the fall of man, which according to most Young Earth Creationism is considered unscriptural. Old Earth Creationists interpret death due to the fall of man as spiritual death specifically related to the context of man himself. Another problem with Progressive Creationism is due to the complicated nature of a model that arises from an attempt not to favor science over Scripture and vice versa, potentially angering both schools of thought with this compromise.
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
created new forms of life gradually, over a period of hundreds of millions of years. As a form of Old Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism is an umbrella term for a number of types of creationism, including gap creationism and progressive creationism...
, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
estimates for the age of the Earth
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
, but posits that the new "kinds" of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s and animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s that have appeared successively over the planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
's history represent instances of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
directly intervening to create those new types by means outside the realm of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
.
Progressive creationists generally reject macroevolution
Macroevolution
Macroevolution is evolution on a scale of separated gene pools. Macroevolutionary studies focus on change that occurs at or above the level of species, in contrast with microevolution, which refers to smaller evolutionary changes within a species or population.The process of speciation may fall...
because they believe it to be biologically untenable and not supported by the fossil record, and they generally reject the concept of universal descent from a last universal ancestor
Last universal ancestor
The last universal ancestor , also called the last universal common ancestor , or the cenancestor, is the most recent organism from which all organisms now living on Earth descend. Thus it is the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth...
. These individuals thus reject a great deal of the scientific consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
regarding the evidence for evolution.
Historical development
The idea that there had been a series of episodes of divine creation of new species with many thousands of years in between them, serving to prepare the world for the eventual arrival of humanity, was popular with Anglican geologists like William BucklandWilliam Buckland
The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...
in the early 19th century; they proposed it as an explanation for the patterns of faunal succession in the fossil record that showed that the types of organisms that lived on the earth had changed over time. Buckland explained the idea in detail in his book Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology (1836), which was one of the eight Bridgewater Treatises. This idea was proposed in part as a counter to pre-Darwin theories on the transmutation of species
Transmutation of species
Transmutation of species was a term used by Jean Baptiste Lamarck in 1809 for his theory that described the altering of one species into another, and the term is often used to describe 19th century evolutionary ideas that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection...
.
Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
also proposed that there had been a series of sucessive creations due to catastrophism
Catastrophism
Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. The dominant paradigm of modern geology is uniformitarianism , in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, create the Earth's appearance...
, Curvier believed that God regionally destroyed previously created forms through flooding and after replaced the regions with new forms. The French naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
Alcide d'Orbigny
Alcide d'Orbigny
Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology , palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropology....
also held similar ideas, he linked different stages in the Geologic time scale
Geologic time scale
The geologic time scale provides a system of chronologic measurement relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologists, paleontologists and other earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth...
to separate creation events. At the time these ideas were not popular with strict Christians. In defense of the theory of sucessive creations, Marcel de Serres (1783–1862) a french geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
suggested that new creations grow more and more perfect as the time goes on.
Other advocates of progressive creationism included the geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
Hugh Miller
Hugh Miller
Hugh Miller was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian.- Life and work :Born in Cromarty, he was educated in a parish school where he reportedly showed a love of reading. At 17 he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and his work in quarries, together with...
who argued for many separate creation events brought about by divine interventions, he explained his ideas in his book The testimony of the rocks; or, Geology in its bearings on the two theologies, natural and revealed in 1857. Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
also argued for separate divine creations. In his work he noted similarities of distribution of like species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
in different geological era; a phenomenon clearly not the result of migration. Agassiz questioned how fish of the same species live in lakes well separated with no joining waterway, Agassiz concluded they were created at both locations. According to Agassiz the intelligent adaptation of creatures to their environments testified to an intelligent plan. The conclusions of his studies lead him to believe that whichever region
Region
Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...
each animal was found in, was created there “animals are naturally autochthones wherever they are found”. After further research he later extended this idea to humans, he wrote that different races had been created separately, this became known as his theory of polygenesis
Polygenesis
Polygenesis can refer to:* Polygenesis , a theory of multiple independent origins of organisms from a common genetic pool. See work by Leonid Moroz, Christian Schwabe, or Periannan Senapathy....
.
Revival
The American Scientific AffiliationAmerican Scientific Affiliation
The American Scientific Affiliation is a Christian religious organization of scientists and people in science-related disciplines. The stated purpose is "to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science." The organization publishes a journal, Perspectives of Science and Christian Faith...
(ASA) was founded in the early 1940s as an organisation of orthodox Christian scientists. Although its original leadership favoured Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
and it was intended to be anti-evolutionary, it rejected the creationist theories propounded by George McCready Price (young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
) and Harry Rimmer
Harry Rimmer
Harry Rimmer was an American creationist, evangelist and writer of anti-evolution pamphlets. He is most prominent as an early pioneer in the creationist movement in the United States.-Early life:...
(gap creationism
Gap Creationism
Gap creationism is a form of Old Earth creationism that posits that the six-day creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, explaining...
), and it was soon moving rapidly in the direction of theistic evolution
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...
, with some members "stopping off" on the less Modernist
Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
The Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy was a religious controversy in the 1920s and 30s within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that later created divisions in most American Christian denominations as well. The major American denomination was torn by conflict over the...
view that they called "progressive creationism." It was a view developed in the 1930s by Wheaton College
Wheaton College (Illinois)
Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...
graduate Russell L. Mixter
Russell L. Mixter
Russell L. Mixter was an American scientist, noted for leading the American Scientific Affiliation away from anti-evolutionism, and for his advocacy of progressive creationism.- Academic career :...
. In 1954 evangelical philosopher and theologian Bernard Ramm
Bernard Ramm
Bernard L. Ramm was a Baptist theologian and apologist within the broad Evangelical tradition. He wrote prolifically on topics concerned with biblical hermeneutics, religion and science, Christology, and apologetics...
(an associate of the inner circle of the ASA) wrote The Christian View of Science and Scripture, advocating Progressive Creationism which did away with the necessity for a young Earth
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
, a global flood and the recent appearance of humans.
Modern progressive creationism
In contrast to young Earth creationists, progressive creationists accept the geological column, of the progressive appearance of plants and animals through time. To their viewpoint it reflects the order in which God sequentially created kinds, starting with simple, single-celled organisms and progressing through to complex multicellular organisms and the present day. They do not however accept the scientific consensusScientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
that these kinds evolved from each other, and believe that kinds are genetically limited, such that one cannot change into another. In other words, progressive creationists deny much of the evidence for evolution that built the scientific consensus. For instance, denial of macroevolution is one of many objections to evolution
Objections to evolution
Objections to evolution have been raised since evolutionary ideas came to prominence in the 19th century. When Charles Darwin published his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, his theory of evolution by natural selection initially met opposition from scientists with different theories, but came to...
which have been addressed (see also introduction to evolution
Introduction to evolution
Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology is the study of how evolution occurs. The biodiversity of life evolves by means of mutations, genetic drift and natural selection....
).
Proponents of the Progressive creation theory include astronomer
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
-turned-apologist
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
Hugh Ross
Hugh Ross (creationist)
Hugh Norman Ross is a Canadian-born astrophysicist and creationist Christian apologist.He has a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, and later established his own ministry called Reasons To Believe, that promotes progressive and day-age forms of old Earth creationism...
, whose organization, Reasons To Believe, accepts the scientifically determined age of the Earth
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
but seeks to disprove Darwinian evolution. Answers in Creation is another organization, set up in 2003, which supports progressive creationism. The main focus of Answers In Creation is to provide rebuttals to the scientific claims of young earth creationism which are widely regarded as a pseudoscience.
Interpretation of Genesis
Bernard RammBernard Ramm
Bernard L. Ramm was a Baptist theologian and apologist within the broad Evangelical tradition. He wrote prolifically on topics concerned with biblical hermeneutics, religion and science, Christology, and apologetics...
adopted the view (developed by P. J. Wiseman) that "creation was revealed [pictorially] in six days, not performed in six days", with God intervening periodically to create new "root-species" which then "radiated" out. This allowed geological formations such as coal to form naturally, so that they "might appear a natural product an not an artificial insertion in Nature", prior to the creation of mankind.
Progressive creationist and astrophysicist Hugh Ross
Hugh Ross (creationist)
Hugh Norman Ross is a Canadian-born astrophysicist and creationist Christian apologist.He has a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, and later established his own ministry called Reasons To Believe, that promotes progressive and day-age forms of old Earth creationism...
adheres to a literal translation of Genesis 1 and 2 and holds to the principle that "Scripture interprets Scripture” to shed light on the context of the Creation account. Using this principle, Progressive Creationist Alan Hayward
Alan Hayward
Dr. Alan Hayward was a British engineer and physicist who was also active as an old-earth Creationist writer, and Christadelphian.Hayward's primary field of research was fluid density and flowmeters, writing a textbook on the subject...
cites Hebrews 4, which discusses in the context of the creation story, a continued Seventh Day of creation. Ross ties this literal view of a lengthy seventh day to the Creation account in which he describes the Hebrew word "yom" to have multiple translation possibilities, ranging from 24 hours, year, time, age, or eternity/always. Ross contends that at the end of each Genesis "day", with the exception of the seventh "day", the phrase, “…and there was evening and there was morning,” is used to put a terminus to each event. The omission of that phrase on the Seventh Day, is in harmony with the literal translation of Hebrews 4’s continuing Seventh Day.
From a theological perspective, Robert Newman addresses a problem with this particular model of lengthy Genesis days, in that it puts physical plant and animal death before the fall of man, which according to most Young Earth Creationism is considered unscriptural. Old Earth Creationists interpret death due to the fall of man as spiritual death specifically related to the context of man himself. Another problem with Progressive Creationism is due to the complicated nature of a model that arises from an attempt not to favor science over Scripture and vice versa, potentially angering both schools of thought with this compromise.