What is the definition of Creationism?

Websters writes:cre”a”tion”ism n : a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing ” cre”a”tion”ist \-nist\ n or adj

The (false) belief that large, innovative software designs can be completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of the void by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented programmers. In fact, experience has shown repeatedly that good designs arise only from evolutionary, exploratory interaction between one (or at most a small handful of) exceptionally able designer(s) and an active user population ” and that the first try at a big new idea is always wrong. Unfortunately, because these truths don't fit the planning models beloved of management, they are generally ignored.

Belief in the literal interpretation of the account of the creation of the universe and of all living things related in the Bible.

WorldBook1999 writes:Modern Christian creationist belief stems from a time line published in the 1650's by James Ussher, an archbishop of the Church of Ireland. Ussher constructed the time line by interpreting literally the birth and death dates of figures in the Bible.
According to Ussher, God created the earth and its life forms in 4004 B.C. Today, however, considerable disagreement exists among creationists concerning the date of what they believe was the Creation.In the 1700's and 1800's, Ussher's ideas were called into question by the theory of evolution and other scientific developments. Christian leaders argued increasingly among themselves about the role of science in understanding Biblical accounts of the Creation. Some maintained the Bible should still be the basic source for information on the origin of the earth and its life.In the early 1900's, public high schools in the United States began teaching evolution in science classes. In the 1920's, creationists proposed laws in 20 states to ban public schools from teaching evolution. They considered the teaching of the theory to be part of a dangerous trend toward the separation of religious beliefs from everyday life. Several states, including Arkansas and Tennessee, passed such legislation.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the laws, saying that they violated the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. The ACLU challenged the Tennessee law in 1925 by defending a teacher named John T. Scopes, who had volunteered to stand trial on the charge of teaching evolution.The ACLU lost the Scopes case, and the laws against teaching evolution remained in effect. However, public opinion of creationism suffered as a result of the trial because the press portrayed creationists as uninformed and out of touch with mainstream science.In the 1960's, more public schools again began to teach evolution, in part because of a fear that the United States was falling behind other nations in the teaching of science. In 1968, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that laws banning the teaching of evolution were unconstitutional because they made religious considerations part of the curriculum. Despite these setbacks, the creationist movement gained strength in the 1960's.In the 1970's and early 1980's, scientific creationists proposed laws that would have made creationism a required subject in classrooms that taught evolution. These people argued that creationism, like evolution, is based on science and so should be taught along with evolution. They also said that because evolution is "just a theory," it should be considered a religion. Thus they claimed that teaching only evolution would violate the Constitution both by limiting academic freedom and by supporting one religion over another..

Perhaps you would be willing to follow up with your 2LOT thread?

Can't Jesus Christ be literal without the unlikely prospect of trudging up North and dragging two large Polar Bears down to an Ark in the Middle East---among other plausible scenarios...having to be true and just so?

Why can't Genesis be symbolic? Why need every single word of the Bible have to be so inerrent?

What defines a creationist?

I would like some of our more conservative creationists to explain to me why the teaching of Biological Evolution is a threat to Christianity----aside from being at odds with Genesis.

Why can't Genesis be symbolic? Why need every single word of the Bible have to be so inerrent?

Can't Jesus Christ be literal without the unlikely prospect of trudging up North and dragging two large Polar Bears down to an Ark in the Middle East---among other plausible scenarios...having to be true and just so?

The explanation I heard (from an evangelical Christian source), is that pastors were noticing that the youth members of their Church would be strong Christians. Then they would attend college and take a biology class, and come out as atheists. The decision to emphasize literalism (Young Earth Creationism) was, according to this report, a counter measure attempting to stem the loss of youth to atheism.Sorry, but I don't remember exactly where I heard this. It was on an evangelical radio program a number of years ago. I have no way of confirming its accuracy.

There is a theological reason that is often given. It is said that Genesis must be taken literally to support the doctrine of original sin. Personally, I think this is bogus. A symbolic understanding of Genesis works just as well to support original sin. And, in any case, the doctrine of original sin is non-biblical. It seems to have been an invention by Augustine.

i've seen the very same phenominon with ancient literature classes. christians go in thinking the bible is special, and then have to read ten other books just like it. what are christians going to do about that? ban gilgamesh?

That's probably less of a worry, in that the number of people who study gilgamesh is small compared to the number to take a biology class.

There are probably cases of people who study theology and come out atheists. (I wonder if prophex is reading this ).