The Relationships Among the Three Christian Positions on Origins

1
The Relationships Among the Three Christian
Positions on Origins

• Steve Badger Mike Tenneson
• July 2004

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Christian Views on Origins

• The purpose of this short presentation is to
  illustrate that each group has some opinions
  unique to that group, and each group has some
  opinions in common with the other groups
• Three most common Christian perspectives
• Young Earth Creationists (YEC)
• Old Earth Creationists (OEC)
• Evolutionary Creationists (EC)

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We have organized the five camps linearly as
below
AE
DE
4
We have organized the three Christian camps
linearly as below
EC
OEC
YEC
5
This organizational scheme implies that YEC and
EC (TE) have absolutely nothing at all in common.
But they do.
6
So, perhaps there is another, a better, way to
organize these three perspectives.Consider the
organizational scheme that follows.
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The Views Overlap
These three circles represent the three most
common Christian positions on Origins and the
ways they overlap 1. Red opinions held only by
YEC 2. Yellow opinions held only by OEC 3. Blue
opinions held only by EC 4. Orange opinions
shared by YEC OEC 5. Green opinions shared by
OEC EC 6. Purple opinions shared by EC
YEC 7. White opinions shared by all three groups
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What Opinions?

• Consider some examples of the unique opinions
  (1, 2, 3) and the shared opinions (4, 5, 6, 7)

Notice that the information on the following 3
slides is coded to the previous slide using
numbers, colors, initials.
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Unique Positions

• Each of the three groups holds some opinions not
  shared by folks in the other two groups for
  example
• 1. YECEarth is only a few thousand years old
• 2. OECGods acts of creation were separated by
  millions of years
• 3. ECGod guided evolution to produce the variety
  of life

GCA Genesis Creation Account
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Shared Concepts

• Further, each pair of groups share some opinions
  consider these
• 4. YEC OECMacroevolution is rejected GCA is
  thought to be historical narrative
• 5. OEC ECGod did not intend GCA to be
  understood as a scientific description of what
  happened when He created
• 6. EC YECScience and Scripture should not be
  given equal weight in answering the questions of
  Origins

GCA Genesis Creation Account
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Shared Concepts
Finally, all three groups agree on a couple of
points for example
7. YEC, OEC, EC all agree that God is the
Creator, and the Bible is His Word
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Summary and Conclusion

• This illustrates that each group has opinions
  unique to that group and each has opinions in
  common with the other groups