• home
• about
• new
• essays
• AI
• book

Frank Visser, graduated as a psychologist of culture and religion, founded IntegralWorld in 1997. He worked as production manager for various publishing houses and as service manager for various internet companies and lives in Amsterdam. Books: Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (SUNY, 2003), and The Corona Conspiracy: Combatting Disinformation about the Coronavirus (Kindle, 2020).

Who's Who in Creationism

Mapping the Spectrum and Points of Divergence

Frank Visser / ChatGPT

Creationism is not a monolithic ideology but a spectrum of beliefs unified by a rejection of evolutionary naturalism and a shared commitment to the view that life—and often the cosmos—originated through divine action. Yet within this broad framework, creationists diverge sharply in their scientific claims, scriptural interpretations, and philosophical strategies. This essay explores the principal schools of creationism, profiles their key advocates, and maps the internal divergences that fragment the movement.

1. Young-Earth Creationism (YEC)

Core Belief: The Earth and universe were created by God around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, as described in a literal interpretation of the Genesis account.

Key Figures:

Ken Ham – Founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum. Ham is perhaps the most influential public voice in modern YEC. He insists on a strict biblical literalism and is known for high-profile debates, such as with Bill Nye in 2014.

Henry Morris (1918–2006) – Co-author of The Genesis Flood (1961), which launched modern YEC. Founder of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), Morris promoted "flood geology" as the basis for a creationist interpretation of the fossil record.

John D. Morris – Son of Henry Morris and former president of ICR, he continued the family tradition of strict YEC, promoting the idea that Noah's Flood explains virtually all geological phenomena.

Andrew Snelling – Geologist affiliated with Answers in Genesis, advocates for flood geology and attempts to publish YEC-friendly papers in mainstream geology.

Distinctives:

• Rejection of radiometric dating.
• Belief in a global Noachian flood that shaped Earth's geology.
• Claims humans coexisted with dinosaurs.
• Strong emphasis on biblical inerrancy.

2. Old-Earth Creationism (OEC)

Core Belief: The Earth and universe are billions of years old, consistent with mainstream science, but life was created in stages by divine intervention.

Key Figures:

Hugh Ross – Astrophysicist and founder of Reasons to Believe. Ross accepts Big Bang cosmology and an old Earth but rejects biological evolution, claiming instead that God created life forms at different times over billions of years.

Stephen C. Meyer – Philosopher of science and leading figure in the Intelligent Design (ID) movement. While not a YEC, he avoids explicit age-of-Earth claims and focuses on critiquing Darwinian mechanisms.

Fazale Rana – Biochemist and Ross's associate at Reasons to Believe, Rana argues for the sudden appearance of biological complexity through divine intervention.

Distinctives:

• Accepts geological and astronomical dating methods.
• Interprets Genesis "days" as long epochs (Day-Age theory).
• Seeks concord between scripture and science without accepting evolution.
• Critical of both naturalistic evolution and flood geology.

3. Intelligent Design (ID) Movement

Core Belief: Certain features of life and the universe are best explained by an intelligent cause, not undirected processes like natural selection.

Key Figures:

Michael Behe – Biochemist and author of Darwin's Black Box (1996). He introduced the concept of "irreducible complexity" and argues that molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum could not have evolved step-by-step.

William Dembski – Mathematician and philosopher. Known for "specified complexity" and mathematical arguments that attempt to quantify design.

Stephen C. Meyer – As mentioned, Meyer ties together ID arguments with historical philosophy of science in works like Signature in the Cell and Darwin's Doubt.

Phillip Johnson (1940–2019) – Law professor who launched the ID movement with his book Darwin on Trial. Advocated that Darwinism is a materialistic ideology, not a neutral science.

Distinctives:

• Focus on epistemological and scientific critiques rather than scriptural arguments.
• Strategically avoids religious language to make ID acceptable in public education.
• Views Darwinian evolution as insufficient but doesn't always specify the identity of the "designer".
• Divided on age of the Earth—some ID proponents are YEC or OEC, but the movement itself remains officially agnostic.

4. Progressive Creationism

Core Belief: Similar to OEC, it sees God progressively creating new life forms over time, but may accept some limited evolutionary mechanisms.

Key Figures:

Often overlaps with OEC figures like Hugh Ross.

Robert Newman – Theologian and physicist who blends theistic science with aspects of old-earth views.

Distinctives:

• Accepts common ancestry in some cases (e.g., microevolution within "kinds").
• Holds to special creation of humans.
• Often less rigid than YEC, more interested in harmonizing science and theology.

5. Baraminology and Post-Flood Rapid Evolution

Core Belief: A creationist classification system which posits that God created discrete "created kinds" (baramins), and that rapid diversification occurred after the Flood.

Key Figures:

Todd Wood – Leading baraminologist, has argued for post-Flood rapid speciation to explain modern biodiversity within a YEC timeframe.

Kurt Wise – Paleontologist trained under Stephen Jay Gould, accepts YEC but promotes a more nuanced baraminological approach.

Peter Borger – Molecular biologist who critiques evolutionary genetics and supports a form of "frontloaded" genomic design. Borger is a creationist who does not necessarily align with flood geology but still rejects macroevolution.

Distinctives:

• Claims that “hyper-evolution” occurred post-Flood to generate today's diversity.
• Acknowledges much intra-kind variation that traditional YEC ignored.
• Proposes pre-programmed genetic variability (borrowing from frontloading concepts).

6. Creationist Fringe: Pseudoscience and Speculation

Some creationists adopt even more speculative or conspiratorial frameworks:

Jonathan Sarfati – Chemist and prolific writer for Creation Ministries International (CMI), Sarfati is a hardline YEC who attacks any compromise with mainstream science.

Jeffrey Tomkins – Geneticist at ICR who disputes human-chimp genetic similarity and the chromosome 2 fusion evidence. His work is central to modern YEC genetics arguments.

Kent Hovind – Evangelist who mixes YEC with anti-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Hovind promotes pseudo-scientific claims like humans living with fire-breathing dinosaurs and has a large online following.

Carl Baugh – Known for dubious claims about “man tracks with dinosaur tracks” in Texas; considered fringe even within YEC circles.

Main Points of Divergence in the Creationist Camp