Biblical Creationism and Biological Evolution
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Shortly after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, there began a conflict that has been raging to this day. Theologians with their biblical creationism have sought to contest the ideas of biological evolution as stubbornly as scientists have attempted to prove them. While it may seem that the scientists and their theory of evolution, having logic and hard scientific method on their side, have dominated in modern society, the creationists have not given up. With the new development of what is called "creation science," or the attempt to establish a scientific basis for the biblical creation stories, the creationists have managed to regain at least a foothold in the modern scientific world.1 In response to this, there have been several scholars strongly opposing this movement, labeling it a fad and building up a wealth of arguments against it.2 Before the idea of biological evolution was forwarded by Darwin, Theologians valued and practiced science and theology alike, each coexisting and complimenting the other most of the time. While many apparent conflicts did arise, most did their best to understand and bring the two together into a balanced relationship that did not exclude the other. This ended with the rift that was generated by the taking of sides in the scrutinization of Darwin's theories. Things remained separated like this until recently when a number of scholars attempted to use the processes of science to lend validity to the stories of cre
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ecause there can be no communication until one side can accept the possibility of the other being correct.9 Not as fundamental but still creationists are those who will allow the time frame mentioned in the Bible to be expanded large enough to accommodate evolutionary theory to a degree. A bit less extreme, these are the people who would like for equal attention to be given to both the possibility of a biblical creation of some sort as well as evolutionary theory.10 Still more liberal creationists are those who are more along the lines of how Darwin saw himself, that is believing that a supreme being set the natural laws of evolution into motion so that they could be self governing. Relegating biblical creation stories to relative myth, this idea is actually Deistic and is not often included with Christian creationism. Having little or no conflict with evolutionary theory, the number of people representing this group has grown as more and more people find that they can transcend this conflict.11
As mentioned above, despite Darwin's best efforts, the conflict arose from the taking of sides between religion and science. Since most scientists were also religious men, if not clergy, there taking sides in affect excluded them f
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2099
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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