Ask some creationists if their idea
evolves and you'll hear that it can't. It is a solid, unmovable thing. It upholds a single truth for the ages.
The reality, of course, is different.
There are many ways to be a 'creationist.' The labels YEC and OEC and ID were invented to accommodate the varieties of belief that fall under the category. ID advocates were keenly aware of this. They promoted their idea in part as a 'big tent' under which these varieties of creationist belief could co-exist.
Notice, though, that the big tent was not so big as to include theistic evolutionists. The other varieties of creationist view theistic evolutionists, no matter how devout they may be, as people who have given away the store.
The term 'creationism' thus does not take its meaning from a single idea people believe. It takes its meaning from a single idea they deny. Creationism is really
evolution denial.
This denial goes through its fashions and fads. Today you can still find YECs attributing almost any geological phenomenon to a global Flood, true to 1970s fashion as set by Whitcomb & Morris. But where did the water for the Flood come from? Morris made much of a 'vapor canopy' that supplied. it. YECs today are loathe to mention it. Morris's book made much of the human footprints displayed by Carl Baugh. Prominent YECs repudiate Baugh now.
A number of assertions are being discarded.
Answers in Genesis maintains a page showing 'Arguments We Think Creationists Should NOT Make.' In recent years the list has grown impressively long.
As recently as the 1980s creationists denied evolution in any form. They denied the speciation, natural selection, benign mutation and genetic kinship between species. Now they admit the reality of all these things.
Creationism is evolving.
The burgeoning number of discoveries in recent years has transformed the environment in which creationism operates. The survival of the creationist species is further threatened by its ongoing rejection as science in US courtrooms.
Creationism has responded to this threat as a species of bacterium responds to a new antibiotic. Some organisms die. Others mutate.
What changes have you noticed in creationist beliefs, tactics, fads and fashions?
What further evolution of the creationist genome do you anticipate?
Which mutation of the creationist genome do you think is best adapted for survival in the new environment?
Which varient of creationism is least adapted for survival?
_
Archer
All species are transitional.
™ Version 4.2