Measuring miracles in young-earth creationism

Presenter: Joshua Klose (Thesis review milestone)

Young-earth creationism is a Christian movement which attempts to reconcile scientific evidence with a literal reading of Genesis 1–11 in which the universe was created over six days approximately 6,000 years ago. This thesis presents an internal critique of creationism constructed from within the creationist framework itself. Rather than dispute creationist views of scripture or history, this critique draws on Philip Henry Gosse’s theory of miraculous creation in Omphalos (1857) to deconstruct empirical predictions based on the great miracles of creationist history. Gosse’s model shows that creationist history would produce a world indistinguishable from one which formed according to natural laws. Creationism is accordingly left with the implausible notion that much of the universe’s history is illusory. This milestone presentation focuses on one stage of that argument, namely, the question of whether the creationist understanding of the creation week can constrain the subversive effects of Gosse’s theory.

Image via Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain