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Hundreds of diverse, conflicting, beliefs promoted by various religions. This includes about a dozen theories of Creation Science derived from the book of Genesis in the Bible. |
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The theory of evolution. |
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Theistic beliefs about origins: a blending of scientific and religious beliefs. This includes theistic evolution and Intelligent Design (ID). |
Overview:
The media delight in talking about the warfare between evolution, creation science, and the new kid on the block: intelligent design. However, there are not just three conflicting belief systems concerning the origin of plants and animals. There are literally hundreds of theories which can be grouped into three categories:
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Many diverse, conflicting religious views: According David Barrett et al, editors of the "World
Christian Encyclopedia" there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups,
and many thousands of smaller ones. Among these various faith groups, we estimate that there are hundreds of significantly different creation
stories to draw from. Included among these hundreds of belief systems is
a group of beliefs which is particularly popular in North America:
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Scientific view: The origin of the universe occurred about 15 billion years ago. The earth coalesced about 4.5 billion years ago. Life subsequently began, probably as bacteria deep in rocks, and has been evolving ever since. These various processes have been driven by purely natural forces, without input from a God or a Goddess or multiple deities. | |||||||
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Theistic evolution view: Evolution, etc. happened just as scientists believe. However, it is viewed as a tool created, used, directed, and/or controlled by God in order to accomplish a higher purpose -- the creation of humans. This includes Intelligent Design (ID). |
Some of the material in this section extends beyond the study of the origins of plant and animal species. They discuss many related topics:
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Cosmology: The study of the origins and development of the universe. Of particular importance is the "big bang" model which describes the initial explosion which most probably occurred at the origin of the universe. |
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Geology: This includes the study of the Earth's tectonic plates, volcanoes, mountain formation, etc. |
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Abiogenesis: The study of the origin of life in its most primitive form: the transition from non-living matter to living matter. |
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Other specialty scientific studies from acarology (the study of ticks and mites) to virology (the study of viruses). |
Topics covered in this section are:
Note: The term "billion" is used in its North American sense to refer to one thousand million.
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You can safely order the following books from Amazon.com's online bookstore.
On evolution:
On Creation Science:
On Intelligent Design:
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Site navigation: Home page > "Hot" religious topics > here |
Copyright © 1995 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally published: 1995-NOV-3
Most recent update: 2006NOV-05
Author: B.A. Robinson
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