Creationism - National Center for Science Education

creation-science organizations—devoted to development and propagation of ideology and
theory. The consequence is continuing open and vigorous debate about doctrinal and
ideological differences. Doctrinal and exegetical specialists spend lifetimes interpreting
Scripture, and in developing theories which maintain it against competing theories and
against external threats such as evolution. These theories, in turn, become widely
available to contemporary and future readers, and become part of the available
ideological resource pool. And the anthropological analyst as well can study all of these;
he can also study the specific personal, historical, and sociocultural context of these
various theories and ideological developments.
Thus, while there is general agreement about the core creationist concepts—the
absolute inerrancy of the Bible, and supernatural creation by God rather than descent of
living species from common ancestral forms—there is widespread divergence of
subsidiary, lower-level hypotheses. Given the nature of fundamentalism (its
dichotomizing view and claim to possession of absolute Truth via the Bible),
disagreement regarding these subsidiary theories among various creationist schools and
factions is taken very seriously. Competing theories are held to be un-biblical, dangerous
and false.