7 Replies to “Should the term “creationist” be retired?”

  1. 1
    Barb says:
    June 13, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    It shouldn’t be retired but it also shouldn’t be applied to everyone who believes in God, either. I can believe in creation without believing in a literal interpretation of Genesis. The terms “creationist” and “creationism” are generally used when discussing fundamentalist religions, those who do interpret Genesis literally.

  2. 2
    jerry says:
    June 13, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    The term “creationist” is misleading at best. It is used by those who want to distort the issues in the life/cosmology origins debate.

    So I suggest we ban it at UD except to refer to those who want it to apply it to themselves. In a sense anyone who believes that there is a God who created the world is a creationist and as such the word then has no meaning in any debate.

  3. 3
    humbled says:
    June 13, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    I have found the term creationist now means anyone that is skeptical of or disagee’s with Darwinian dogma, be it RM, NS, common descent, tree of life or a wide range of Darwinian myths and fantasies in between.

    This is why, much to their horror and disgust, dissenting atheists have been branded creationist too.

  4. 4
    Mung says:
    June 13, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    If we are all creationists does that mean we can all get along?

    Should Atheist creationists be called Atheationists?

    Even Darwinists are little c creationists, they just believe that the power of creation lies in an impersonal unguided “force.” How absurd is that?

  5. 5
    Robert Byers says:
    June 14, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Creationist is a good word as it powerfully says the universe and life was created by a thinking being. So God.
    The speciation is fixed with other qualifying terms.
    since evolutionists really do take on God and not just genesis then a unity under the creationist term is worthy to keep.

  6. 6
    TimT says:
    June 14, 2014 at 4:26 am

    I suppose everyone is a creationist in some sense. Even atheists who believe nothing created everything have nothing as their creator.

    But I tend to think Barb’s guideline above should be the one used to identify creationists when no other criteria are applied, i.e. those who take Genesis literally. This gets rid of nutcases like PZ Myers, who wouldn’t be invited to a creationist dinner party even if he said he’d sit at a table on his own.

  7. 7
    bornagain77 says:
    June 14, 2014 at 5:02 am

    as to:

    “I suppose everyone is a creationist in some sense”,,,

    More so than even atheists realize:

    Design Thinking Is Hardwired in the Human Brain. How Come? – October 17, 2012
    Excerpt: “Even Professional Scientists Are Compelled to See Purpose in Nature, Psychologists Find.” The article describes a test by Boston University’s psychology department, in which researchers found that “despite years of scientific training, even professional chemists, geologists, and physicists from major universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Yale cannot escape a deep-seated belief that natural phenomena exist for a purpose” ,,,
    Most interesting, though, are the questions begged by this research. One is whether it is even possible to purge teleology from explanation.
    http://www.evolutionnews.org/2.....65381.html

    i.e. Seeing purpose in nature is an innate ‘God given’ ability. An ability without which it would be impossible to do science,,

    Children are born believers in God, academic claims – 24 Nov 2008
    Excerpt: “Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....laims.html

    Geometric Principles Appear Universal in Our Minds – May 2011
    Excerpt: Villagers belonging to an Amazonian group called the Mundurucú intuitively grasp abstract geometric principles despite having no formal math education,,, Mundurucú adults and 7- to 13-year-olds demonstrate as firm an understanding of the properties of points, lines and surfaces as adults and school-age children in the United States and France,,,
    http://www.wired.com/wiredscie.....-geometry/

    “Geometry is unique and eternal, a reflection from the mind of God. That mankind shares in it is because man is an image of God.”
    – Johannes Kepler

    That ‘everyone is a creationist’, even atheists, is also revealed by the fact that atheists sweat when they dare God:

    Daring God Makes Atheists Sweat – 11/19/13
    Excerpt: This research conducted by the University of Finland found that having atheists dare God to do terrible things causes them stress to the point of sweating. Conversely, the same individuals did not exhibit those same stress levels when simply wishing for awful things to happen.
    http://fixedpointfix.com/darin.....sts-sweat/

    i.e. if atheist truly believed God was imaginary, why should they sweat if they dare Him? Indeed why should they have a tendency to be so angry at Him in the first place:

    When Atheists Are Angry at God – 2011
    Excerpt: I’ve never been angry at unicorns. It’s unlikely you’ve ever been angry at unicorns either.,, The one social group that takes exception to this rule is atheists. They claim to believe that God does not exist and yet, according to empirical studies, tend to be the people most angry at him.
    http://www.firstthings.com/ont.....gry-at-god

    Verse and Music

    John 15:24-25
    If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
    But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

    1 John 4:19
    We love because he first loved us.

    Jewel – Who will save your soul – Video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LukEq643Mk

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