Progressive creationism is a form of Old Earth creationism that accepts
mainstream geological and cosmological estimates for the
age of the Earth, but posits that the new "kinds" of plants and animals that have appeared successively over the
planet's history represent instances of God
directly intervening to create those new types by means outside the realm of science. In
contrast, theistic evolution holds that natural, evolutionary mechanisms were guided by God. Progressive creationists generally reject macroevolution as biologically untenable and not supported by the fossil
record, and they generally reject the concept of universal descendence from a last universal ancestor.
Historical development
In the early 19th century many such theories were produced by scientists looking to explain developments in geology but
opposed to what they saw as atheistic Lamarckian
evolution, disreputably associated with the French Revolution and radical democratic agitators, although the term "creationism" would not be coined until the late 19th
century. In the early 1830s the geologist Sir Charles Lyell set out a gradualist theory in which each species was sequentially produced in its "centre of creation" and was
designed for the habitat, but would go extinct when the habitat changed. This view was supported by John Herschel and developed in the direction of Evolutionary
creationism by Charles Babbage.
By 1836 the anatomist Richard Owen had theories influenced by Johannes Peter Müller that living matter had an "organising energy", a life-force that directed
the growth of tissues and also determined the lifespan of the individual and of the species. In the 1850s Owen developed ideas of
"archetypes" in the Divine mind producing a sequence of species in "ordained continuous becoming". Following publication of
The Origin of Species Owen became a bitter critic of Darwin, arguing his
own "axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things" in which new species appeared at birth, not
through natural selection.
Modern progressive creationism
Although many Young Earth creationists equate progressive creationism with
theistic evolution, it is distinct in that God is seen to regularly involve himself
in the process of species development through special creative acts. Most notably, most
progressive creationists would state that God specially created Adam directly as opposed to breathing life into a sub-human primate.
Proponents of the Progressive creation theory include Millard Erickson,
neo-evangelical theologian Bernard Ramm, and
astronomer-turned-apologist
Hugh Ross, whose organization, Reasons To Believe, accepts the scientifically
determined age of the Earth but seeks to disprove Darwinian
evolution.
Interpretation of Genesis
- See also: Creation according to
Genesis
Most progressive creationists reject a strict literalist approach to Genesis chapter 1, and
prefer interpretative options such as the day-age theory or the literary framework view. A range of views regarding the literal historicity of
Genesis chapters 2-11 exists. The majority of progressive creationists would contend that Noah's flood was a regional rather than global event, although differences of opinion might exist
concerning its precise geographical extent.
External links
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