Religious Attitudes on Creation (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Religious Studies): Revision Note

Christian view on creation

• All Christians believe that God created the universe and that this truth is revealed in the Biblical creation accounts

• Christians regard the Bible as the “word of God”, giving it a special authority when explaining creation

• However, while all Christians see creation as evidence of God’s power and purpose, not all Christians understand this authority in the same way

  • Literalists see the Bible as infallible (opens in a new tab), meaning that it is without error and factually true

  • Non-literalists see it as inspired by God but written by humans in a pre-scientific age, so it should be interpreted symbolically

• Whether the creation account is taken literally or symbolically true, all Christians believe that scripture reveals important truths about God’s nature

  • God is omnipotent; he has the power to create all things

  • Creation was deliberate and ordered, not an accident

  • Humanity was created in God’s image and is special

  • The world was made “very good” (Genesis 1:31), showing God’s satisfaction with creation

  • Sin damaged the perfect world, leading to the need for salvation: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3)

• Faith leads believers to accept that God is the Creator and that scripture contains truth, whether understood literally or symbolically

• Beliefs about creation are not static: As scientific knowledge grows, many believers reinterpret scripture in ways that fit new discoveries

• Translations of scripture can change meanings and lead to different interpretations between and within religious traditions

  • For example, some English versions of the Bible translate the Hebrew word “yom” (day) as a literal day, while others interpret it as a longer period

Science and the Bible

• Some Christians see science and religion as incompatible because the Bible’s account appears to contradict scientific theories

• Others believe they are compatible because they answer different questions

  • Science explains how the universe began through natural processes

  • Religion explains why it began: as an act of divine creation with a purpose

• Liberal Christians often believe that scientific discovery helps reveal the method by which God brought creation into being

Muslim views on creation

• Muslims believe that Allah is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The Qur’an calls him:

• The Qur’an teaches that Allah created the heavens and the earth in six long periods of time

• It states that everything that exists was made according to Allah’s plan and under his control. Creation was deliberate and perfectly balanced

  • Allah created the sun and moon, night and day, land and sea, all in harmony

  • After creating the earth, Allah made all living things, including humans

• Because Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the final and perfect revelation from Allah; they consider it to be without error and believe that it must be respected as absolute truth

• This means that many Muslims are creationists: They believe that Allah personally created the universe and all life within it

• However, the Qur’an does not provide a detailed step-by-step account of creation

• Passages about creation appear throughout the Qur’an and are often understood as describing six phases, not literal 24-hour days

  • The Arabic word yawm can mean either “day” or “period of time,” so some Muslims interpret the six days symbolically

Science and the Qur’an

• Many Muslims see no conflict between science and the Qur’an

• They believe that the Qur’an was never meant to be a book of science, but that it contains verses that are consistent with modern discoveries

  • For example, the Qur’an describes the heavens and the earth as once being joined together before being separated

    • This is an image that resembles the Big Bang

• Another verse refers to an expanding universe

• For many Muslims, these verses support the idea that science can reveal how Allah created the world, while the Qur’an reveals why

• The Qur’an teaches that Allah’s creation is perfectly ordered and without flaw

• Muslims believe that the beauty and order of the universe point clearly to a Creator

  • Atheists may claim that the universe came about by chance, but Muslims argue that such balance and design are proof of Allah’s power and wisdom

• Muslims are encouraged to seek knowledge and understanding of the natural world, as this leads to greater appreciation of Allah’s creation

• Some Muslim scholars, such as Professor Abdus Salam, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist, see no conflict between science and faith

  • Professor Salam described the Qur’an as inspiring his research into the origins of the universe

• Other Muslims take a more literal view, believing that scientific theories such as the Big Bang contradict the Qur’an’s account of Allah’s direct creation

• Even among those who accept science, faith teaches that Allah is the ultimate cause of all things and that he sustains creation at every moment

Humanist views on creation

• Humanists reject religious explanations for the origin of the universe and believe that science provides the most reliable answers

  • They argue that evidence from cosmology and evolution explains how the universe and life developed naturally over billions of years, without the need for a divine creator

• For humanists, the Big Bang and evolution offer a complete account of how the world and living beings came into existence

• Humanists believe that human reason and scientific investigation are the best ways to understand reality

• They see religious creation stories as symbolic or cultural, not factual accounts of what happened

Intelligent design

The design argument

• The design and order evident in the universe leads many religious believers to say that this is evidence of a creator and designer god

  • They argue that the complexity of nature and the interconnectedness of all living things could not have come about by accident

  • They believe there must be a divine mind behind it, guiding creation

• This is known as the design argument

• A famous example of the design argument is the watchmaker analogy created by the English philosopher William Paley (1743–1805)

  • Paley compares finding a watch on the ground to the world we live in

  • He states that if you found a watch, you would assume that it was designed by a watchmaker because it has many parts working together for a purpose (telling time)

  • Paley argues that just as a watch needs a watchmaker, the complexity of the universe and the natural world suggests there must be a designer — God

Intelligent design

• Intelligent design is a modern version of the design argument, popular among some US Christians today

• They say that some living organisms cannot have come about through a process of slow, random evolution

• Michael Behe is a creation scientist who uses the analogy of a mousetrap to argue for intelligent design. He claims that:

  • A mousetrap is made up of constituent parts, and all of the parts must be there for the trap to work

  • If a part is missing, the mousetrap will not work

  • This is the same for the world: All of its constituent parts cannot have come together by chance; they must have been designed together