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Old Earth, Or Progressive Creationism

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Old earth, or progressive creationism shares similarities with theistic evolution in that it places the age of the earth at 4-5 billion years ago and the universe at 10-20 billion years ago. However, they are not satisfied with the claim that God-guided evolution brought the world into existence, eventually arriving at the world we live in today. Robert C. Newman, an astrophysicist and New Testament professor acknowledges that it would be possible for God to use evolution as a creation tool, just as it is possible that God created solely through supernatural means. However, he thinks that there are too many unanswered questions left for both positions. It is from this conviction that Newman places himself in the progressive creationist camp. This view is named such because it sees creation as occurring in a progression with various levels which built upon one another, using a combination of supernatural intervention and providential guidance to harmonize the histories found in both the biblical account of Genesis and the scientific account we find in nature. Newman is quick to point out that there are many variations of the old earth creationist position. Of these, however, he finds three main varieties, which differ primarily in their views on the nature of the days of the creation week. These three categories are: (1) The day-age view. As implied by the title, this view considers the days to be chronological, but not 24-hour periods. Rather, they are long spans of time,

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