Five Camps in the Origins Debate

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Five Camps in the Origins Debate

• Steve Badger and Mike Tenneson
• April 2004

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1. Young Earth Creationists

• YEC like to call their position Scientific
  Creation. YEC generally claim that both the
  Bible and scientific evidences support these
  conclusions

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1. Young Earth Creationists

• YEC believe that
• (1) God suddenly made the physical realm and life
  
• (2) out of nothing,
• (3) in six consecutive 24-hour periods,
• (4) about 6,000-15,000 years ago.

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1. Young Earth Creationists

• Thus, all contemporary theories of evolution
  (common ancestry, macro-evolution) are rejected,
  as is a universe that is billions of years old.
• Creation accounts in the Bible are interpreted
  literally.

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2. Old Earth Creationists

• OEC accept the scientific evidences for a
  universe that is billions of years old, but argue
  that God created every-thingincluding lifeby a
  series of creative acts that took place over a
  long period of time.
• This position is also known as Progressive
  Creation.

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2. Old Earth Creationists

• Adherents disagree on when each of these creative
  acts occurred.
• OEC generally reject evolution (macro-evolution,
  common ancestry) but believe that God directly
  created life in its various forms pretty much as
  they exist today.
• Creation accounts in the Bible are usually
  interpreted less literally.

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3. Evolutionary Creationists

• EC agree with most natural scientists that the
  universe is billions of years old and accept
  modern biological theories of evolution, but they
  stress that God guided the evolution of existing
  life forms from the original life forms that He
  created.
• Thus, some EC emphasize that they too are
  creationists.

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3. Evolutionary Creationists

• Creation accounts in the Bible are inter-preted
  more figuratively by EC.
• EC generally attempt to harmonize theories of
  evolution (macroevolution) with the biblical
  account of Origins, and some of them like to call
  their position Evolutionary Creation.
• Many reject the reality of a literal Adam and
  Eve.

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Origins Five Camps

• People in any of these first three groups may
  embrace some form of the Gap Theory, which
  suggests a large period of time between Genesis
  11 and Genesis 12.
• They may also embrace the arguments of the
  Intelligent Design theorists.

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Origins Five Camps

• Dont confuse the Gap Theory with the God of
  the Gaps.

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4. Deistic Evolutionists

• DE claim that God is no longer involved in the
  physical realm.
• They also usually maintain that the physical
  realm is a superior and more trustworthy
  revelation of God than the Bible (which is
  usually rejected as neither inspired nor
  authoritative).
• DE argue that if God created the physical realm,
  he left it to evolve on its own.

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5. Atheistic Evolutionists

• AE deny the existence of God and propose that
  life arose from non-life (spontaneous generation)
  and one kind of life changed into other kinds of
  life by random natural processes
  (macroevolution).
• AE do not consider the Bible Gods Word.

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5. Atheistic Evolutionists

• People who are not necessarily confirmed
  atheists, but who attempt to answer the questions
  of Origins without invoking God, are also
  included in this camp.
• Some people call this Ateleological Evolution.

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Origins Five Camps

• While some people (e.g., Buddhists and Hindus) do
  not fall into one of these five groups, this is a
  general description of the vast majority of
  Westerners today.
• Three Views on Creation and Evolution, edited by
  Moreland and Reynolds, is a recent presentation
  of the first three views with good critiques of
  the strengths and weaknesses of each view
  (Zondervan, 1999).

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Origins Five Camps

• People who belong to the first 3 camps (YEC, OEC,
  EC) generally believe in the God of the Bible and
  generally agree that the Bible is Gods Word
  (although they disagree about how the creation
  accounts in the Bible should be understood).
• We find Christians belonging to one of the first
  3 groups (YEC, OEC, EC).

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Now What?

• After years of reading, listening, teaching, and
  reflecting, we have reached a few conclusions.
• None of the positions on Origins is correctly
  called a scientific hypothesis or theory (IMHO).
• Rather they are interpretive paradigms.

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Interpretive Paradigm

• Once people embrace a position, they then
  organize, evaluate, and interpret relevant
  observations and arguments according to their
  chosen paradigm.
• Thus YEC, OEC, EC, DE, and AE all organize,
  evaluate, and interpret the same data to fit
  their positions.

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All Observations Fit My Paradigm!

• And since most of the questions of Origins cannot
  be answered with any degree of certainty, people
  in every camp find their paradigm validated by
  any new evidence or observations.

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How do you know?

• Where does your theory of Origins fit into your
  overall worldview and apologetic?
• Ultimately creation is a faith statement. The
  writer of Hebrews said it like this By faith we
  understand that the universe was formed at God's
  command, so that what is seen was not made out of
  what was visible. (Heb 113, NIV)

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Everyone Uses Faith

• In the same way that a creation position is a
  faith statement, all of the other positions on
  Origins are faith statements too.
• Evolution is a faith statement Faith is placed
  in the scientific method and human reasoning to
  discover what happened a very long time ago.

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Im Not Sure What I Think!

• As a Christian, you dont have to reach a
  definite conclusion on all Origins questions.
• But recognizing God as Creator is very important
  in the spiritual life of Christians.
• However, we should also recognize that the Bible
  does not answer all of our questions about the
  methods the Creator used as He created or when He
  created.

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Were Not All Alike!

• And Bible-believing, Spirit-filled, spirit-ually
  mature, dynamic Christians can be Old Earth
  Creationists, Young Earth Creationists, or
  Theistic Evolutionists.
• The friend who witnessed to me years ago and led
  me (Badger) to faith in the Lord was a theistic
  evolutionist named Ed.

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Self-Reported Position All Respondents
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Self-Reported Position Faculty and Students
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Interesting Comparison with a Local A/G Church (n
46)
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The Challenge

• When it comes to our beliefs and convictions
  about Origins, lets live up to the old saying
• In essentials, unity.
• In non-essentials, liberty.
• In all things, charity.