Geocentric creationism is a religious belief held by a small subgroup of radical Young Earth Creationists who, in addition to asserting that the Earth was created between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, also endorse the geocentric view of the Earth, which claims that Earth is stationary at the center of the universe. Advocates of Geocentric creationism believe that God placed the Earth at the center of the Universe to symbolize the uniqueness and centrality of humanity. This view is in direct contradiction to established scientific consensus on the movement of the Earth, biology and the age of the Earth and is thus classified as pseudoscientific. It is primarily followed by small segments of Protestant and Catholic fundamentalists alongside a few Orthodox Jews and Salafi Muslims. Geocentric creationism primarily grew out of a minority within the Creationist movement in the 20th century, particularly through the influence of Walter van der Kamp and Gerardus Bouw. The advocates of Geocentric creationism often relied on a variant of the Tychonic model, which attempted to preserve a geocentric framework while attempting to replicate the predictive accuracy of the heliocentric model’s account of celestial motions, however this view is generally rejected by the majority of modern Young Earth Creationists. Geocentrism differs from modern flat Earth beliefs as they nevertheless affirm the scientific fact of the Earth's spherical shape, however despite being largely insignificant, the view has had a somewhat greater influence within the anti-evolutionist movement than those who believe in a flat Earth. However, like flat Earthers, geocentrists also reject much of modern physics, astronomy, and biology. Geocentrism is rejected by the vast majority of Christians today, instead understanding the text of scripture to use phenomenological language that they believe was misunderstood to imply geocentrism in the medieval age.
Background and history
Historical background The geocentric view of cosmology—especially the Ptolemaic model influenced by Greek thought—remained the dominant framework until the Copernican Revolution of the 16th century. During which multiple Christian theologians such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Philip Melancthon and the Catholic Robert Bellarmine rejected the implications of heliocentrism due to their understanding of the Bible.
Such individuals like Luther often were strong in their critiques of the Heliocentric model, and Luther is famously recorded as saying that Copernicus was a "fool who turned the whole science of astronomy upside down," reflecting his view that the new model contradicted Scripture and centuries of accepted truth.
Resistance to heliocentrism continued beyond theological objections. The Protestant Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, also rejected the Copernican system. However, Brahe attempted to find scientific explanations for Geocentrism. Aware of the observational advantages of Copernicus's model of the Universe, particularly in explaining planetary motion—Brahe developed a compromised system that attempted to preserve the Geocentric model while attempting to explain the observations of planetary movement. In his model, the Sun and Moon revolved around the Earth, which remained stationary at the center of the universe, while the other planets orbited the Sun. This system was also adopted by many Jesuit astronomers of the 16th and 17th centuries. However, Tycho's successor and a fellow Protestant Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) did not follow Tycho's compromised theory, but instead defended the heliocentric view that all the planets orbit the Sun. Nevertheless, according to the Reformed professor R. Scott Clark, some Reformed theologians such as Wilhelmius A Brakel resisted heliocentrism even until the 18th century.
Eastern Christianity The "Galileo affair" happened in Western Christianity, for which Pope John Paul II later issued a verdict that admitted the condemnation of Galileo to have been an error. However, some Eastern Orthodox writers were also affected. Like in the West, many Eastern Christians had taught geocentrism, although they did not accept the Ptolemaic model of Geocentrism, but rather the system of Cosmas Indicopleustes. The first contacts with Russian Orthodoxy to Copernicus' heliocentrism came around the 17th century through a cosmological book which noted both models of Cosmology. For some time the hybrid model of Tycho Brahe was propagated as a better solution to the debates surrounding Geocentrism, although neither the Russian and Greek Orthodox ever condemned the Heliocentric, as they did not believe different cosmological theories to be dangerous.
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