Since the beginning of time, humans have questioned their existence and many different theories concerning the physical world have been popularized. One such theory is the creation theory. It asserts that humans, as well as the rest of the natural world, were created by one or more supernatural beings or gods. For instance, Genesis, a book of the Bible, is one such theory, telling the story of God creating the world and the first humans in seven days. It is important to understand that Biblical creationism is not the only theory of creation, however; humans do have other theories regarding the creation of life by a supreme being.
Different types of creationism can be found under this heading. One type is young Earth creationism, asserting that only 10,000 years or less have passed since God created the Earth. Young Earth creationism takes Biblical creationism literally and opposes scientific forms of dating the Earth, such as radiometric dating. It also opposes evolutionary concepts; however, it does not negate such concepts as natural selection or mutation.
The Omphalos hypothesis theorizes that God created the Earth in its mature form. This hypothesis asserts that scientific evidence used to date the Earth, such as growth rings on trees, is unreliable. Those who believe this state that growth rings and other presumed evidence of the Earth’s age were placed here by God at the time of creation.
Old Earth creation theory asserts that God did create the universe, but includes the idea that Genesis is not a literal description of its creation. This branch of creationism accepts scientific dating of the Earth and the physical universe, but questions evolution theory. It can be separated into three different categories: gap, day age, and progressive creationism. Each category accepts God as the creator of the physical universe, but supports different views concerning the processes involved in creating the world as we know it.
Though creation theory is often discussed in terms of the Hebrew or Christian Bible, other religions have their own ideas about creationism. For example, the Vedas, the oldest texts of Hinduism, assert that living beings are part of a cycle of creation and destruction that began millions of years ago. Based on this theory, the existence of humans and the rest of the physical world is eternal. Hinduism does not support the concept of evolution, as Hindus believe humans have been unchanged since the beginning of time.
