biology

Special creation

Special creation is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Special creation rather than just read about it. In short: In Christian theology, special creation is a term with varying meanings dependent on context. In creationism, the term refers to a belief that the universe and all life in it originated in its present form by fiat or divine decree.

Key takeaways

Special creation belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Special creation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Special creation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In Christian theology, special creation is a term with varying meanings dependent on context. In creationism, the term refers to a belief that the universe and all life in it originated in its present form by fiat or divine decree. In Christianity, this is liturgically celebrated as the Feast of Creation. Catholicism uses the phrase "special creation" in two different senses:

in the context of theistic evolution to refer to the "special creation of humans", a point of hominization where evolved near-human animals were given souls by God, and became fully human; this belief is also called special transformism by some scholars. to refer to the doctrine of immediate or special creation of each human soul

Creationism In creationism, "special creation" is a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, viewing it as an accurate description of the creation of the universe in essentially its present form over the course of six 24-hour days. Duane Gish of the Institute for Creation Research defined "special creation" as being creation using supernatural processes:

We do not know how the Creator created, [or] what processes He used, for He used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe. This is why we refer to creation as special creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigation anything about the creative processes used by the Creator. Dennis Jensen of the American Scientific Affiliation states that special creation means that complex living things did not descend from simpler ones but were created independently. James B. Stenson writes that for fundamentalists, special creation follows from a literal reading of the Genesis creation narrative. There is a "special creation" of each separate kind in six 24-hour days, starting a few thousand years ago. In The Mystery of Life's Origin, Charles B. Thaxton argues for "Special Creation by a Creator beyond the Cosmos", and asserts that special creation holds "that the source that produced life was intelligent".

In Catholicism The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued a decree ratified by Pope Pius X on June 30, 1909, mentioning special creation only in relation to humans, not to the other species. In 2004, the International Theological Commission, then under the presidency of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (soon to be Pope Benedict XVI), published a paper in which it accepts the current scientific accounts of the history of the universe commencing in the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago and of the evolution of all life on earth including humans from the microorganisms commencing about 4 billion years ago. The Vatican teaches that God acted indirectly through causal chains operating from the beginning of cosmic history, which prepared the way for the moment of transition to the spiritual with the special creation of the human soul. This special creation, the Vatican says, established the basis for a divine intimacy which embraces every single human person from the first moment of his or her existence.

Notes

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Special creation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Special creation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Special creation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Special creation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Special creation

In research: Special creation appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Special creation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Special creation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Creationism, Genesis creation narrative, Young Earth creationism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Special creation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Special creation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Special creation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Special creation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Special creation in simple terms?

Why does Special creation matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Special creation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Special creation.