Creationists
Creationist research papers may examine recent trends in creationism ideology. Several other topics may include pitting creationists against evolutionists or the scientific community. Creationism is a great topic for a religion research paper because it insights debate, is a timely issue and is universally known by nearly all people.
Creationists have begun anew with the following declarations in mind:
- The creationists refer to the theory that the universe and all life forms came into existence by the direct creative acts of a Creator external to and independent of the natural universe - the world had one great catastrophic flood which accounted for mass death, destruction, and extinction.
- Born out of the need to provide man with an explanation for the origin of the world, the Genesis theory satisfies an innate desire to understand where humans come from.
- Intelligent design is the modern version of creationism, which basically asserts that human beings and their surroundings were all created by an "intelligent creator", which could be for various people represented by God, gods, or anything else that their belief system holds for them.
Today's creationist teaching materials omit the use of specific religious elements like God or the Bible. Instead, they work toward combating evolution as the accepted scientific theory of origin. Intelligent design is offered up as an alternative theory, asserting that only an intelligent agent could create the complexities found in our world. The most important element of this theory is irreducible complexities, which denies natural selection's ability to describe the intricacies of life. For example, the Kansas School Board is following this line of defeat by omission by abandoning any mention of evolution from their curriculum.
Creationists and the Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank, has joined creationists in their efforts to contest the merits of Darwinism in favor of creationism. A Discovery Institute fellow, David K. DeWolf recently published "Teaching the Origins Controversy: A Guide for the Perplexed". This paper is a guide for educators seeking to work around the Supreme Court decisions. DeWolf writes about directly referring to creationism, "We have to treat such views respectfully, but they can't form the basis of our curriculum- not because they are not true, but because the courts have made it clear that we may not"