creationism, the belief that the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo). It is a response to modern evolutionary theory, which explains the emergence and diversity of life without recourse to the doctrine of God or any other divine power. Mainstream scientists generally reject creationism.
Biblical creationists believe that the story told in Genesis of God’s six-day creation of all things is literally correct. Scientific creationists believe that a creator made all that exists, but they may not hold that the Genesis story is a literal history of that creation. Both types of creationists, however, believe that changes in organisms may involve changes within a species or downward changes (negative mutations), but they do not believe that any of these changes can lead to the evolution of a lower or simpler species into a higher or more-complex species. Thus, the theory of biological evolution is disputed by all creationists.
Creationism became the object of interest among conservative religious groups following the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1809–82), the first systematic statement of evolutionary theory. Within two decades most of the scientific community had accepted some form of evolution, and most churches eventually followed suit. In the early 20th century, some state legislatures in the United States banned the teaching of evolution on the ground that it contradicted the biblical creation story, which they considered a revealed truth. The result was the famous Scopes Trial (the so-called “Monkey Trial”) of 1925, in which a high-school teacher, John T. Scopes, was convicted of unlawfully teaching the theory of evolution (he was later acquitted on a technicality).
Beginning in the late 20th century, many creationists advocated a view known as intelligent design. This view, which claimed to draw from modern science, was a contemporary interpretation of the argument from design for the existence of God as set forth by the Anglican clergyman William Paley (1743–1805). Intelligent design is not accepted by all creationists, however, because many of its proponents leave open the identity and nature of the “intelligent designer” of the universe, rather than equating it with the God of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Today most creationists in the United States favour the elimination of evolution from the public school curriculum or at least the teaching of creationism alongside evolution as an equally legitimate scientific theory.