God’s word on creation
Plenty of devout Christians have no problem with evolution, a geologically ancient Earth, or other theories backed by scientific consensus. The ideas below are espoused by a narrow brand of young-Earth biblical creationism that includes Answers in Genesis.
Fossils Genesis says God created both man and the beasts of the Earth on the sixth day, which creationists believe was a literal 24-hour day in a literal seven-day week. So they don’t believe the fossil record shows animals existing before humans, or layers of geologic time. Instead, they think one catastrophic event, Noah’s flood, is responsible for the entire fossil record. Speciation
Creationists reject the idea that animals can evolve into new groups — that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs, for example. They dispute all examples of transitional fossils (the feathered dinosaur archaeopteryx, the hominin Lucy). They believe there were feathered birds, scaly dinosaurs and perhaps feathered dinosaur “kinds” aboard the Ark. Every animal, even if it later went extinct, can trace its ancestry back to these kinds, and nature can’t produce new kinds that God didn’t originally create. Carnivores
The Creation Museum’s Garden of Eden exhibit features a Tyrannosaurus rex, but insists the dinosaur would have been a herbivore, since Genesis states that thorns, disease and meat eating were products of Adam and Eve’s sin. Geology
The Creation Museum makes a fuss over the Grand Canyon because it shows different bands of rock. To try to invalidate the evidence of geological phenomena dating back billions of years, the Creation Museum cites examples of volcanoes and other catastrophes creating canyon-like structures very quickly. Human origins
This is a big one, since the Bible says God created man in his image. The Creation Museum has dressed Lucy, the Australopithecus fossil, with gorilla-like fur and posture under a statement that says: “Man’s word says humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor, but God’s Word says THERE’S NO APE IN YOUR ANCESTRY!” Race
Genesis says that eight people disembarked after the flood: Noah, his three sons and the wives of all four men. Creationists believe all humans are descended from them, so we are all one “race.” (The story of Babel explains our different traits and languages.) Biologists increasingly agree, but for different reasons: there is more genetic variation within populations of individuals than between them, making race a tenuous biological construct. Creationists celebrate this finding. Kate Allen