Creation vs. Evolution

Creation vs. Evolution

There has always been a conflict between the religious world and the

scientific world. Whether it be when science first challenged that the

earth was not the center of the universe as dictated by the Church, or

when it was discovered that the earth was round rather than flat. Both

these "theories" today are widely accepted and the rest of society

generally ridicules any persons that believe the earth is the center

of the universe or that the world is flat. However, at the time of

their discovery, there was massive outcry by the religious community,

as they believed it contradicted the "facts" in the bible. The

religious community has always been wary of new scientific discoveries

as they feel that it threatens the power of their God. In this paper,

I will focus on one theory that has been in conflict with the church

for the past hundred years. The theory of evolution. For the purpose

of this paper, when referring to religions creationism, I mean the

creationist beliefs held by Christians, Jews and Muslims. The reason I

have chosen to be isolated to those three religions is because they

share a common history, and being three of the world's largest

religions encompasses the majority of world opinion. The theory of

evolution is simple; over millions of years, primitive life forms have

changed to higher life forms and eventually to all the species that we

see today. Religious creationism, or orthodox creationism says that

God created the world exactly the way it is today and more

importantly, God created humans exactly the way they are today. These

two schools of thought are in conflict, but I hope to show that

...

... middle of paper ...

... York: Paulist Press, 1999.

Korsmeyer, Jerry. D. Evolution & Eden: Balancing Original Sin and

Contemporary Science. New York: Paulist Press, 1998.

O'Brien, Joan, and Wilfred Major. In The Beginning:Creation Myths from

Ancient Mesopotamia, Israel and Greece. Chicago: Scholars Press,

1982.

Raymo, Chet. Sceptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection

Between Science and Religion. Sydney: Walker Publishing Company,

1998.

Trefil, James S. The Moment of Creation. New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons, 1983.

Works Consulted

Burke, Derek. Creation and Evolution. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,

1985.

Gamow, George. The Creation of the Universe. New York: The Viking

Press,

1952.

Young, Willard. Fallacies of Creationism. Calgary: Detselig

Enterprises

Limited, 1985