1.7.2 Old Earth Creation

Old Earth Creation (OEC)

So-called “Old Earth Creation” (OEC) or "Progressive Creation" acknowledges the scientific evidence which points toward an earth that is approximately 4.6 billion years old, and a universe which is approximately 13.7 billion years old. During the long history of nature, God intervened miraculously (or supernaturally; that is, outside the normal course of natural cause and effect) to perform acts of special creation. In particular, the appearance of first life was an act of divine creation, rather than occuring through natural processes, and the creation of mankind was another act of special creation, rather than through evolutionary development from earlier forms of hominid.

Along with YEC, the OEC view often advocates a strong “concordism”. That is, the Bible is reconciled to science in such a way that the Bible account in fact agrees with the scientific account. In order to reconcile this view with the first chapter of Genesis, some OECists claim that a “day” of God’s creation was actually an extremely long unspecified period of time, corresponding with the scientific evidence for the origins of light, planets, flora and fauna, and mankind.

One variation of OECism says that at various points in time, God acted with independent acts of creation, creating “from scratch” various organisms, species, and people. This would mean that each species would not have a direct biological inheritance from older species (as predicted by the theories of evolution), because each species was specially created; or at least, most importantly, that mankind is distinct from other species.

Another variation of OEC agrees that the earth is old and there is a progression indicated in the fossil from older to more recent species, and that God brought about the creation of species by extensive modification of existing genetic material (adding, deleting, modifying genes in existing species to create new species over time). In effect, this view recognizes the genetic and fossil evidence of gradual change in species, but claims that it was specific, miraculous acts of God in history which caused this development. This perhaps begs the question of whether science could detect the difference between supernatural “tweaking” of the genetic code versus natural effects causing the variation.

One organization which promotes an OEC view is Reasons to Believe (http://www.rtb.org/), founded by astronomer Hugh Ross. See also a list of quotes from 100 “Notable Christians Open to an Old Earth Interpretation”.