There are many types of Creationism, or rather Theories of Creation out there. They all hinge on different interpretatons of Scripture. They fall mainly into two categories: Young Earth Creationists and Old Earth Creationists. Young Earth Creationists suppose that the Earth, as well as the Universe were created a matter of thousands of years ago, within a literal six day period of time. The Old Earth Creationists vary on their interpretations, but mainly agree that the Earth and the Universe are billions (not thousands) of years old. They range from the Gap Theorists to the Theistic Evolutionists. Here is a brief sample of the various kinds of Creationism:

Young Earth

Young Earth Creationists believe that the Universe, Earth, and all life thereon were created some thousands of years ago by God, during the six literal days of creation. This age of the Universe and the Earth are not supported by modern science.

Old Earth

Gap Theorists contend that there is a "gap" between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, a span of time of billions of years. This theory hinges on the translation of the Hebrew word "hayah" in Genesis 1:2. It is translated as "was" in the KJV, but it literally means "became." In the KJV, the "earth was without form and void." In the CLV, the "earth became a chaos and vacant." Gap Theorists believe that the Earth was originally created in a better state of being, but over a period of billions of years, it became "a chaos and vacant" or "without form and void."

Day-Age Creationists believe that each of the "days" of creatioin represent periods of millions or billions of years. This type of creationism is related to Progressive Creationism.

Progressive Creationsists hold to the theory that God directly created life on Earth, but that life evolves in a guided process. They do not believe in a global flood reshaping the Earth.

Neo-Creationists distance themselves from other forms of creationism and attempt to state their belief in a Creator in terms that would be accepted by the scienfific community, without appealing to Scritpure.

Theistic Evolution is not really a form of a creationism, but rather a belief that God creates through evolution.

As you can see, there is a wide range of creationists out there, and all of these various opinions, philosophies, and interpretations of Scripture lead to confusion over exactly what to believe. The Young Earth Creationists contend that you cannot have a literal interpretation of Scripture and believe that the Earth is billions of years old. The Old Earth Creationists hold that science has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Earth is exactly that old. Who is right? Well, let's examine all of these various types of creationism.

The Young Earth Theory does not hold water under scienfic scrutiny, not just from an evolutionary stand-point, but from areas of science that have nothing to do with evolution. The Day-Age and Progressive Theories, as well as the Theistic Evolutionists, are more acceptable (though not completely) to evolutionary science, but hold to the tenent that macro-evolution is probable, which it is the purpose of this website to demonstrate that it is not. Neo-Creationists stand on the edge of rejecting the Bible as a source of reliable information altogether.

To put it simply, you cannot have both a scientificly acceptable age of the Universe and Young Earth Creationism. But, on the other end, you cannot have a literal interpretation of the Scriptures with most forms of Old Earth Creationism. So, should you reject science for a literal interpretation, or embrace science and reject a literal interpretation of Scripture?

There is a simple answer: the Gap Theory. The Gap Theory embraces not only science (which is to be differentiated from evolutionary science) but also a literal interpretation of Scripture. It allows for the Universe and the Earth to be billions of years old, while maintaining six literal days of creation. The Gap Theory will be explained more in the next article: A Modified Gap Theory.