Jet in Carina WFC3 IR [Courtesy NASA]

Does creationism pose a challenge for geology and evolution?

David H. Bailey
Updated 26 March 2022 (c) 2022

Introduction

In the past few decades, modern science has uncovered a world that is far vaster and more awe-inspiring than ever imagined before, and has uncovered a set of elegant natural laws that govern all the universe, deeply resonating with the notion of a cosmic lawgiver in Judeo-Christian religion. It not just devout believers who find these results inspiring. For example, 46% of Americans (including 54% of atheists, 55% of agnostics and 43% of nones) say that they experience a "deep sense of wonder about the universe" on at least a weekly basis [Masci2016]. With regards to a union between science, philosophy and religion, how could one ask for more?

Nonetheless, some writers, principally of the "creationist" and "intelligent design" schools, are not content with these grand revelations, and argue instead for a worldview that is often at odds with modern science. Old-earth geology and biological evolution are key targets of their objections, although for mostly historical reasons rather than for any fundamental issue. After all, there is no comparable opposition movement to quantum physics, organic chemistry, cetacean biology or any of a host of other scientific theories.

Historical background

What is now known as the "creationism" (also termed "scientific creationism" or "creation science") movement was originally founded in the 1920s by the self-taught geologist George McCready Price. Price was a devout member of the Seventh-day Adventist sect, which adhered to a literal belief in Genesis. In several books that he subsequently authored, Price declared that much of modern science is "in the highest degree improbable and absurd." He focused his attack on geology, charging that geologists date rocks by their fossil content, while simultaneously determining the age of the fossils by their location in the geological column. Instead, Price, echoing his religious teachings, suggested that a miraculous "cosmic storm" buried the bodies of ancient animals, so that the fossil record reveals merely a sorting of contemporaneous antediluvian life forms, and the conventional geological column is a delusion. Price's book The New Geology [Price1923], which was first published in 1923, sold over 15,000 copies.

Price's works were followed by Whitcomb and Morris' The Genesis Flood, which was first published in 1961 [Whitcomb1988]. These authors argued, as did Price, that since the scriptures clearly describe a universal flood, Christian believers have only two choices: reject God's inspired Word or reject the testimony of thousands of professional geologists. According to the authors, God created the entire universe and populated the earth with fully grown plants, animals, and human beings, all in six literal days, using methods and processes completely different from those now in operation in the universe. There was no death before the Fall, so consequently all fossils are the remains of animals that perished subsequent to the Fall. The authors rejected the conventional geologic ages as Price did, by attributing the apparent order of fossils to "hydrological sorting" of organisms in the flood waters and the superior mobility of vertebrates. They acknowledged that by some indications the earth and the universe appear to be very old, but an omnipotent Creator created them with the "appearance of age" [Whitcomb1988, pg. 233-238]. Three other books include Henry Morris's Scientific Creationism [Morris2000], and Duane Gish's Evolution: The Fossils Say No! [Gish1973] and Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record [Gish1985].

Various creationist organizations, including Answers in Genesis, the Creation Research Society and the Institute for Creation Research, have for many years produced creationism-friendly instruction material to be used in parochial schools. They have also made numerous attempts to promote legislation to permit this type of material to be taught in public schools. Most of these attempts have subsequently been blocked by court rulings. For instance, in 1982 a U.S. District Court ruled that a 1981 Arkansas law requiring "balanced treatment" for "creation-science" was an impermissible violation of the separation between church and state. The judge further ruled that "creation science" is not science and is instead a religious notion. Similarly, in 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana "creationism act" that prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools unless accompanied by instruction in "creation science." More recently, in 2005 a U.S. district judge in Dover, Pennsylvania ruled against a local school district that had attempted to require "intelligent design" material to be presented as an alternative to evolution. For additional details on these cases, see Court cases.

In spite of these court rulings, creationist groups continue to press their cause to alter or block the teaching of evolution, big bang and related theories in public schools. In one recent case of this sort, creationists on a Texas state textbook panel questioned material on evolution in high school biology books, writing, "The fossil record can be interpreted in other ways than evolutionary with equal justification." [Rich2013]. The most common motivation for these efforts is the belief by creationists that the Bible must be regarded as inerrant, and that the Bible should be read as a scientific document. For example, many of these writers, even today, insist that the earth was created in six approximately 24-hour days [Ham2013]. However, the vast majority of biblical scholars sharply disagree with these premises. For additional details, see Bible-inerrant and Bible-science.

Modern-day popularity

In recent years the intelligent design movement has garnered considerable attention, but traditional creationism continues to be very popular. In a 2013 Pew Research poll, given a choice "Humans existed in present form since the beginning of time" or "Humans and other living things have evolved over time," 33% of American adults selected the first option [Pew2013]. A 2014 Gallup poll found that 42% of Americans believe that "God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years." [Newport2014]. These results are essentially in agreement with a 2009 poll, which found that 39% agreed that "God created the universe, the earth, the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals and the first two people within the past 10,000 years." In this same 2009 survey, 35% agreed that "The theory of evolution is not supported by any confirmed facts," and 43% agreed that "Human fossils have been found mixed in with dinosaur fossils showing that humans existed at the same time that dinosaurs existed." [Bishop2010].

Another indication of the continuing (and perhaps growing) influence of creationism is the popularity of the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (near Cincinnati, Ohio). This facility features a series of exhibits depicting, among other things, the creation in 4000 BC, a global flood in 2350 BC that deposited all fossil layers, and humans and dinosaurs living together. Murals contrast "human reason" with "God's Word." Since it opened in 2007, the museum has attracted over 3,000,000 visitors (as of May 2017). In July 2016 the Answers in Genesis organization, which operations the Creation Museum, opened an even larger museum devoted to Noah's Ark. The Ark Encounter, like the Creation Museum, presumes a highly literal reading of the Bible, and takes a hostile stance to modern science in general and to evolution in particular.

Groups supporting creationism and intelligent design are very active politically, pressing their case in the U.S. and internationally [Lebo2008; Lebo2010]. Some of these groups have now joined forces with opponents of environmental protection measures. Together they are promoting legislation to require that students be taught "all sides of evidence" on evolution and global warming [Kaufman2010; Zimmerman2010].

Along this line, a 2013 study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the surprising result that only 11% of Americans belong to religions that openly reject evolution. These results suggest that the main issue here is not between science and religion, but instead between religious movements that have made their peace with science and small fundamentalist groups who have not. Evidently many religious adherents who oppose evolution do not understand the official positions taken by their own denominations [Lee2013].

Creationism and scientific evidence

Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science who testified in the 1981 Alabama creationism case, describes science as a discipline that (1) is guided by natural law, (2) is explanatory by reference to natural law, (3) is testable against the empirical world, (4) reaches conclusions that are tentative, and (5) is falsifiable [Pennock1999, pg. 5]. So how does creationism measure as a scientific theory?

At this point in time, the conventional scientific picture of the earth as approximately 4.5 billion years old, with primitive bacteria in the distant past to flowering plants and vertebrates several hundred million years ago and ultimately to Homo sapiens within the past million years, is very well established. Geological dates are particularly well established, confirmed by numerous independent schemes that rely on fundamental processes such as radioactivity. As biologist Kenneth Miller has observed, "The consistency of the [radiometric] data ... is nothing short of stunning." [Miller1999, pg. 76]. This is discussed in more detail at Ages and Reliability.

In other words, the central tenet of creationism, namely that the earth is only a few thousand years, has been overwhelmingly refuted by modern scientific data. The only rational option for those creationists who still nonetheless hold to a young-earth paradigm is to accept the theory advanced by Whitcomb and Morris that an omnipotent Deity created the earth (or even the entire universe) a few thousand years ago, but meticulously designed it to have an "appearance of age" [Whitcomb1988, pg. 233-238; Morris2000, pg. 203]. In addition to the severe difficulties presented by the "God the Great Deceiver" theology implicit in this speculation, such a notion is non-falsifiable and thus unscientific -- one could just as well assert that the world was created two weeks ago, with everyone's memory intact, and no one could cite any empirical evidence to prove otherwise. This is discussed in more detail at Deceiver.

With regards to biological evolution, in recent years some powerful new tools have arisen to test and explore the details of evolutionary history. These new tools, based on comparisons of DNA and amino acid sequences, have confirmed the traditional taxonomy of the biological world, determined in earlier years solely by similarities of anatomy and function, and now permit scientists to estimate times to evolutionary branching events in the past. To cite but one well-known example, the 141-amino-acid-long human alpha globin molecule (a component of hemoglobin) is identical with that of chimpanzees, differs by one location in gorillas, by 18 in horses, by 25 in rabbits, and by approximately 100 locations in various fish species. This is discussed in more detail at DNA.

A summary of the huge body of studies that have analyzed evolutionary science and affirmed its central tenets is given at Evolution evidence.

Technical issues raised by creationists

In any event, what are we to make of some of the specific technical issues that creationists have raised? Here is a short summary of some of these arguments, plus a brief statement of the scientific response:
  1. Flood geology. As mentioned above, John Whitcomb and Henry Morris advanced the theory that the entire column of rocks and fossils that geologists have found were deposited in a cataclysmic flood at the time of Noah. They suggest that the reason that we see more advanced organisms at the higher levels of the geological column is because they were able to maneuver and swim better than others. Even setting aside the unmistakable testimony of radiometric dating, which shows the various layers to be millions or even billions of years old, flood geology meets insuperable obstacles. For example, in a huge flood surely some individuals of a certain species would be more successful than others in swimming or reaching higher ground. So why didn't the aged or infirm individuals drown and appear in much lower geological strata? In general, why do fossils appear only in very specific layers worldwide, and not helter-skelter in multiple layers as one would expect as the result of a cataclysmic global flood? Also, as pointed out by a recent article by Davidson and Wolgemuth, salt layers require water to have evaporated; how then are huge layers of rock and soil deposited on top of salt layers? Numerous other very severe difficulties could be cited [Davidson2010]. Creationists' continuing attempts to defend this absurd theory does not speak well for the movement. See Noah's flood for more details.

  2. Space dust. As mentioned above, various creationists have argued that the moon can't be as old as ordinarily thought, because otherwise it would be covered with several meters of dust. This claim was based on a 1960 study, published in Scientific American, of the space dust infall rate, estimated from measurements made at the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii [Petersen1960]. However, when the actual space dust flow rate was later directly measured in much more careful studies, the result was lower by factor of more than 100. When this and other adjustments are made to the calculation, the result is completely consistent with what the astronauts found on the moon [Pennock1999, pg. 222]. The above facts were made known to the creationist community 50 years ago, yet creationist speakers and writers continue to promote this argument. For example, the space dust argument appeared in the 2000 printing of Morris' Scientific Creationism [Morris2000, pg. 151-153]. This has prompted Howard Van Till, a Calvinist physicist, to comment, "The continuing publication of those claims by young-earth advocates constitutes an intolerable violation of the standards of professional integrity that should characterize the work of natural scientists." [VanTill1988, pg. 82].

  3. Paluxy River tracks. In their book, Whitcomb and Morris drew attention to "human" footprints and dinosaur tracks side-by-side near the Paluxy River in Texas. A team of anthropologists who subsequently examined this site found that the "human" footprints were 16 to 22 inches long. Subsequent analysis of subtle coloration effects confirmed that the "human" toe marks were dinosaurian. Based on such results, in 1988 an evangelical scientist wrote that it was no longer appropriate for creationists to use the Paluxy River tracks as evidence against evolution [Hastings1988]. Nevertheless, the tracks are mentioned in recent printings of The Genesis Flood and Scientific Creationism, and they were also featured in the 1995 NBC broadcast "Mysterious Origins of Man," narrated by Charlton Heston, which claimed that much of the traditional scientific account of the creation is false [Whitcomb1988, pg.174; Morris2000, pg. 122].

  4. The second law of thermodynamics. For many years creationists have cited the second law of thermodynamics (a principle that closed systems tend to evolve to increasingly disordered states) as fundamental evidence that biological evolution cannot occur. But those who cite it ignore or downplay the key condition "closed system," namely a system that has no influx or outflow of energy. The earth's biosphere is clearly not a closed system, since it not only receives prodigious amounts of energy from the sun, but also from radioactive processes within the earth itself. This energy influx is more than enough to account for the evolution of life on earth. Indeed, life can be thought of as a process that creates order from its environment by extracting energy. Some creationists have discontinued using this argument, but it is promoted at length in the 2000 printing of Morris' Scientific Creationism, and it is also featured prominently in the museum of the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego [Morris2000, pg. 38-46]. This is discussed in more detail at Thermodynamics.

  5. Gaps in the fossil record. Creationists have long assailed geologists and biologists for gaps in the fossil record. It is certainly true that gaps exist, particularly in sections of the geological column for which there are few accessible fossil sites. In addition, scientists now recognize that the fossil record documents periods of relative stability, punctuated with periods of rapid change. But many of these gaps have been filled during the past few decades with discoveries of transitional fossils. These include many of the gaps that creationists and intelligent design writers have claimed could not possibly be bridged. Also, many "missing link" fossils have been found in transitions between ancient primates and modern humans [Prothero2007]. This is discussed in more detail at Fossils and Prehuman fossils.

  6. Out-of-order fossil layers. In several locations, including a region of Montana and Canada, fossil layers appear out of their normal order. But these cases are readily explained by "over-thrusting," namely the movement of one section of rock over another, a phenomenon that can be verified by visual inspection [Eldredge2000, pg. 110-113].

  7. No observed speciation today. Creationists and ID scholars often assert that the splitting of a species into two species has never been actually observed. Although speciation typically requires many thousands of years, biologists cite examples of present-day species that appear to be in the process of splitting [Coyne2009, pg. 5-8, 168-189]. One example is a certain salamander species in California, which is sufficiently different at one end of its habitat to another that by established standards (such as failure to interbreed), specimens from the two ends would be classified as from two distinct species [Wake2001]. This is discussed in more detail at Speciation.

  8. Probability. Several creationists have argued that the probability of a biomolecule such as human alpha globin (a sequence of 141 amino acids) forming at random from scratch is so remote that it could not be expected to have occurred even once in the history of the universe. These probability calculations are, in many instances, significantly flawed. But more importantly, this type of argument suffers from the fatal fallacy of presuming that a structure such as alpha globin arises by a single all-at-once event (which, after all, is the creationist theory, not the scientific theory, of its origin). Instead, available evidence suggests that alpha globin and other proteins arose as the end product of a long sequence of intermediate steps, each of which was biologically useful in an earlier context. Thus all such calculations are invalid from the start. This is discussed in more detail at Probability and Intelligent design.

  9. Origin of life. Scientists readily acknowledge that the origin of the first bimolecular species, for instance, is still not understood, although intriguing advances have been made recently. In any event, it is not clear what is to be gained for the creationist cause by highlighting these unknowns, since the evolution of living organisms since the origin of life is very well grounded experimentally (and dated in the geologic record), completely independent of how the first biomolecules formed. Thus concerns about the origin of life, with regards to the scientific support of the evolutionary hypothesis, are largely irrelevant. This is discussed in more detail at Origin.
An encyclopedic collection of creationist claims, together with brief responses from the scientific community, is available in a 2007 book by Mark Isaak [Isaak2007]. Much of this material, along with some additional material, is also available an online compendium produced by Isaak [Isaak2006].

Do creationists publish in peer-reviewed scientific publications?

Creationist writers have published their arguments dissenting from conventional science in books and in online articles, but, as far anyone can determine, not in any recognized peer-reviewed scientific journal. There are, however, a few instances where known creationist writers have published peer-reviewed articles on scientific topics not closely related to creationism, showing that there is no fundamental prejudice against these authors in the scientific community [Isaak2007, pg. 28-29]. For additional details, see Peer review.

This lack of peer-reviewed publications, or even serious attempts at submitting material for peer review, presents a severe obstacle to creationism being taken seriously in the scientific world. After all, if creationists (individually or collectively) believe that any of their technical issues have significant merit on purely scientific grounds, why do they not compose them into well-researched and well-analyzed articles and submit these articles to recognized peer-reviewed scientific journals? After all, as emphasized in a recent Science letter signed by numerous prominent scientists (after brief mention of the prevailing theories of geology, big bang cosmology and evolution), "Even as these are overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, fame still awaits anyone who could show these theories to be wrong." [Gleick2010]. For additional details, see Peer review and Conspiracy.

Conclusion

The creationist movement was founded out of deeply felt concerns that modern science in general, and evolutionary theory in particular, are a challenge to the Bible and Judeo-Christian religion. Many of its adherents are deeply religious people and practice their religion in daily life. Their general notion that a supreme Being oversaw or governed the creation is one that many scientists, religious or not-so-religious, can accept.

However, with regards to the technical arguments raised by the creationist community, the consensus of the vast majority of scientists who have examined these issues is that their arguments are overwhelmingly refuted by well-known evidence. Virtually all of these issues were settled long ago in the scientific literature. And the latest DNA sequence data (produced thanks to a dramatic drop in the cost of DNA sequencing technology) all but scream "common ancestry between species" -- there is no other reasonable way to interpret these data (see DNA), sharply contradicting the creationist view of separate creation of individual species.

In any event, the creationists' arguments have not been published in reputable peer-reviewed scientific journals, so they cannot be taken seriously by the scientific community. If any of these writers do believe that they have solid arguments that could stand peer review, they are welcome to write these arguments in a soberly written, well-organized technical paper, and submit it to a prominent journal. After all, the requirements for a good peer-reviewed article are well known -- see Peer review. If the resulting article has true merit, many journals would jump at the opportunity to herald a major challenge to some aspect of evolutionary theory. Some prominent journals in the field include The Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Journal of Geophysical Research, Science and Nature. Each of these websites include a facility for submitting papers.

One overriding difficulty with both the creationist and intelligent design movements is that invoking a Creator or Designer whenever one encounters a difficult question is a "thinking stopper." Such an approach places numerous grand questions of our existence off-limits to human investigation, buried in the inscrutable mind of a mysterious supreme Being: "Why was the earth (or the universe in general) designed the way it was?" "How did the design and creative processes proceed?" "What physical laws were employed?" "Why those particular laws?" "What prompted the creation?" "Have other earths or universes been designed or created?" "Where are they?" Surely there is a more fruitful avenue for finding a harmony between science and religion than just saying "God created and/or designed it that way" and then deeming it either unnecessary or inappropriate to inquire further.

It is ironic, in a way, that the creationist and intelligent design movements seek to "prove" the hand of God in creation by seeking scientific evidence that certain aspects of the creation could not possibly have occurred by natural processes. By placing God on the anvil of scientific verification or refutation, these writers are implicitly affirming the scientific materialist worldview of the atheistic critics who are their most implacable foes -- see Atheists and God hypothesis. Further, these movements inevitably lead to such theological disasters as "God the Great Deceiver" theology, wherein God is thought to have constructed the world with an appearance of ancient evolutionary development [to mislead diligent seekers of truth?] (see Deceiver), and "God of the gaps" theology, wherein God is sought in the ever-shrinking gaps of what is currently unexplained in science [tantamount to theological suicide?] (see God of the gaps).

For these reasons, neither creationism nor intelligent design can be recommended for those seeking rational harmony between science and religion, to say the least! Other approaches, which acknowledge basic scientific precepts, and do not attempt to "combat" the world of science, are recommended instead -- see Harmony for a high-level discussion of these issues.

For additional information, see Ages, Complexity, Court cases, Deceiver, Design, DNA, English text, Evolution analogues, Evolution evidence, Evolution progress, Falsifiable, Fast evolution, Fossils, God of the gaps, Information theory, Intelligent design, Novelty, Origin, Peer review, Prehuman fossils, Probability, Punctuated equilibrium, Radiocarbon dating, Radiometric dating, Reliability, Scientists evolution, Speciation, Theory, Thermodynamics, Time machine and Uniformitarian.

References

[See Bibliography].