The Ongoing Debate Between Creationism and Evolution

The debate between creationism and evolution is a never ending one, with both side feeling strong on their theories and opinions. The debate is most common in the United States, however exists all over the world. In a recent poll, 40% of Americans were for evolution while 40% were for creationism, leaving 20% undecided. There are different types of creationism as well as different types of evolution.

Young Earth creationism, a belief in which that Earth was in fact created by God within the last 10,000 years as said in the Bible. They also believe that Earth has a close age to the entire Universe in a sense it was all created together. This belief system is based on the interpretation of the Bible.

Old Earth creationism. Old Earth creationism followers believe that Earth and the universe was created by God, however they often say that some of the scriptures on how the world and universe created in the Bible should not be taken literally.

Neo-Creationism is a belief system where they commonly distance themselves from any other forms of creationism. They focus on making creationism to be accepted more by the public and schools. This is more of a scientific approach than a religious one. This is also known as "Intelligent Design" in the belief that life and the world came from a intelligence or "higher power" if you will.

Naturalistic evolution. In this theory it is strictly biological and rejects any theories of creationism or theistic evolution. Thus believing in no higher power, nor intelligent design.

Theistic evolution. This belief focuses on both creationism and evolution being a factor. They believe that evolution was a tool used by God himself, who created the universe and Earth, and that God created all the creatures in the world that later "evolved" biologically into what we are today.

The world today along with the media surrounding the entire creationism versus evolution argument is said to be more a science versus religion debate. With evolution being portrayed as science, and creationism being portrayed as religion. However, it is said that the creationists tend to have more of a solid basis on their theory, when evolutionists are basing a lot of their theory by having 'faith' in it.

Once Darwin announced and documented his theories, scientists have been searching for over 150 years to try to find signs of evolution and transitioning in fossils. To this day there has been no evidence found, Darwin himself stated that there were many stages of biological development in each transitioning stage, yet no fossils have been found to back this theory up.

The largest issue in the creationism versus evolution debate would be about our public school system, what is to be taught to the children. The separation of church and state was created when some thought that too much religion is being pressed into our schools. Evolution is currently being taught at the majority of American public schools, which may be confusing to a child whose parents believe in creationism and want that to be taught. In the home and church they are being told one thing, and in school another. There are many private schools and Christian schools that teach creationism that you can look into in your local area, also calling your child's public school and asking them questions of what you can do is a good choice as well. Parents should have a choice in what their child will learn, they should supply separate classes for each theory so the ones who support creationism don't have to pay and go to the trouble of sending their child to a private school, or having their child confused and told two different things.

Many believe that it is wrong to be teaching evolution in our public schools over creationism since it is being taught as a science and as a fact, when it is indeed neither science nor fact. The National Academy of Sciences and Creationism stated, "In science, explanations are limited to those based on observations and experiments that can be substantiated by other scientists. Explanations that cannot be based on empirical evidence are not a part of science."

A.C. cited sources: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/creation-vs-evolution-n.htm
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