Is there a difference between "creationism", and "intelligent design"?

Question

I think they mean the same thing.

Personally, I believe God created, and he guided evolution through his mighty hand.

What is the difference between "creationism", and "intelligent design" If any?

Thank you all for your answers!

Answer 1

I agree with you...i believe that we evolved....but with Gods help...I dont think there is a difference between creationism and intelligent design...

Answer 2

As it seems to me, creationism as per the Bible is at odds with evolution (science, naturally).

Intelligent design is recognition of a higher law, a synthesis (and simplification) of the two. In the truth I see while observing the world around me (quantum mechanics and string theory aside), I have noticed that things are not "poofed" into existence. (Oh wouldn't it be nice if things could be!!) Things have origin, while matter is neither created nor destroyed, and so on and so forth.

Now, to me, this makes the Creator all that more fascinating.

I think what the Bible's creationism has against this is that Intelligent Design contradicts it, and destroys the Bible's credibility. People naturally have very strong defense mechanisms surface when their foundation doesn't seem so stable . . .

This is unfortunately a major flaw in organized religion that is terribly stifling its growth in this wonderfully scientific era.

Truth is dynamic. The moment you try to crystallize it, it escapes you.

So, in an effort to make a long answer even longer . . .

Asking the difference between Creationism and Intelligent Design is like asking the difference between a cat and an animal.

Answer 3

I don't think that there has in the past been a distinction between the two. I feel, however, that with more and more "creationists" accepting evolution as the way God ordered things, there should now be a distinction. I believe that God created things thet way He wanted them to be and for specific purposes- I do not believe evolution was the means for this , though I do believe that there has been extreme degeneration over time because of sin in this world. I believe in intelligent design- there was a plan, a purpose and our creator created according to his purpose and plan.
Still, I look at it and I would say it means the same thing- people just have different ideas about exactly how God carried out his purpose and plan.

Answer 4

Creationism is the belief that God created the everything.
Intelligent Design is the belief that something created everything, this means that they teach it may have been a God or an intelligent alien life.
So basically one teaches that God created everything, the other teaches that something created everything but claims not to know what it was.
I personally think that ID is just a way to try to get religion back into schools.

Answer 5

As an older reader of this forum, I am impressed by the answers to this question given by you young people. They are much more reasoned and thought out than other answers I run across. There is a place to debate Intelligent Design, but it must not be the science classroom or laboratory. Everyday we learn a little more about our world and tiny bits of its mystery are unraveled. Accept Intelligent Design and you now have all the answers and once that is accomplished why ask any more questions?

Answer 6

Yes, there is. Creationism is a bona fide religious mythology, whereas intelligent design is an attempt to try to marry god and science in a covert plot bent on slipping god into public education and undermine real science on the sly. After all, if intelligent design is allowed to slip in and be taught as a theory without the rigorous testing required to become a scientific theory, what's next? The whole education system falls apart.

Answer 7

Since I was young, I always believed that there was a creator. I also believed that just as we grow, plants grow, animals grow....so does everything over a long period of time. Everything is in a constant state of change. The mountains, even though very slowly, change with the weather. If you look at humans on film from 100 years ago, I think that they looked slightly different then we do today. What we thought was important 10 years ago, isn't as important today and have been replaced by different important things. As time goes on religion changes to suit each time period. This is all evolution in one form or another.

There is a difference between Creationism and ID. Creationism deals only with the 6 days work, one day rest, 6000 years ago and nothing has changed. We live, we die, we get rewarded or punished. But ID is about the 6 days, 1 day, 6000 years, but things have evolved. This seems too simple and too short a time span for me personally. But to each his own. What ever makes you comfortable.

Answer 8

As far as I know, and I could be wrong, but Creationism is belief that God created everything.

Intelligent design is the belief that something unexplainable, a higher power, or a higher intelligence created life on earth. There are many scientists who believe in the Intelligent Design theory, though they don't really want to comit to saying it was God or not.

I hope this helps.

Answer 9

David Mills, in his book Atheist Universe, draws a distinction. By his standard, creationism demands a more literal interpretation of the bible than intelligent design does -- the latter proposing only some sort of creator, not necessarily according to the biblical tales. Neither view has any predictive power (this is provable), so both are useless.

Answer 10

Literally, no.

the book put out by the folks responsible for ID originally said "Creation Science" throughout and in order to try to get it into the Dover PA school system LITERALLY cut & replaced "Intelligent Design" into the book for every instance of "Creation Science"

It was one of the most damning pieces of evidence entered at that trial which demonstrated that ID is a religious belief system.