Position · 1814

Old Earth Creationism

The view that the earth and universe are billions of years old, as mainstream science holds, while God created life, and especially humans, by direct acts rather than through common descent.

Its main forms go back to the early nineteenth century, when geology first pointed to an ancient earth. The gap view places a long age between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. The day-age view reads the days of Genesis as long periods. Both were common among conservative Protestants before Young Earth Creationism revived in the 1960s. Today the ministry Reasons to Believe, founded by astronomer Hugh Ross in 1986, is a leading advocate. Young-earth critics say it compromises the plain sense of Genesis, while evolutionary creationists say it rejects strong evidence for common descent.