Creationism and Biology

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleKreacionizam i biologija
3. Language term Serbian
4. Alternative title Evolutionary Biology and Diverse Confessions (en)
5. lemma author Stevanovic, Aleksandra
6. lemma category Scientific theories and disciplines - Biology:evolution
7. Publication date 2-9-2016
8. lemma work Tarasjev, Aleksej [Author]. Evolutionary Biology and Diverse Confessions. 73–76, 109–115, Creationism as Faith: Strict Creationism and Theistic Evolution
9. lemma manifestations Biology and Creationism - Belgrade: IP Signature, 1999.
10. Keywords
    1. Tarasjev, Aleksej
11. Keywords Evolution - Creationism - Theistic evolution
12. Lemma body

    1. The chapter “Creationism as Faith: Strict Creationism and Theistic Evolution” begins with the explanation of the term “creationism” equating it, in its broadest sense, to belief in the God as Creator, and presenting it a part of different religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Those practices generally do not clash with science and such belief in evolution as God’s creation is very common and regarded as “theistic evolution”. The author states that according to official Catholic Church there is not science–religion dispute. Contrary to the Catholic Church, the Orthodox one has no official stance regarding the issue in question. However, according to the papers and available data, the author claims that the Orthodox Church does not regard evolutionary biology as an attack on religious beliefs, but as a scientific field. The author states that there are also groups strongly opposing evolutionary biology and science in general and hence known as “strict creationists”. Therefore, the general conclusion is that the views of different religious thoughts on evolutionary biology are different. However, there is another question – what is the view of evolutionary biology on religious thought? Regarding theories stemming from evolutionary biology, are not consistent like the ones related to creationism and they do not belong to science itself, but constitute just different views, despite being inspired by evolutionary biology. 

       Another interesting issue addressed in this part of the book is the origin of life. Based on numerous theories, there is a dissent regarding the creation of life. Strictly speaking, the creation of life does not belong to the field of evolutionary biology since it only considers further evolution. Many scientists have tried diverse experiments in order to reconstruct the initial life conditions on the Earth. Many of them have succeeded in getting a number of compounds that comprise the base of life formation. What has to be taken into consideration is the fact that there are hundreds of unresolved questions regarding life creation and many theories; hence no solid stance can be claimed.

       The author presents different theories and hypotheses defended by creationists and evolutionary biologists. The general conclusion is that the dissent does exist and nothing can be claimed unless solid ground for it exists. There is a wide range of conditions leading to the formation of basic compounds essential for life, but also the conditions in which these compounds can spontaneously form more complex structures. Although this field is still obscure, it is not possible to apply it to merely unnatural phenomena, which would be “gods of the gaps”, as prominent biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky has named it. Such belief would hinder both religious and scientific thought as it would put them into dissent. According to the author, religion and science are simply different fields and views; hence, it is as meaningless to confront them as it would be to confront evolutionary biology with an artistic genre.

       The general conclusion is that although the paper enhances the necessity to further examine evolutionary biology and creationism, without creating theories beforehand, there is the impression that the author speaks mostly from the perspective of a biologist, without regarding creationism or religious beliefs as solid grounds for the research. Nevertheless, the paper is found significant because it tracks the history of evolutionary science and some of the major beliefs and conflicts that have to be regarded as an important part of the further investigation.