History of creationism

The history of creationism traces beliefs and movements that explain life and the universe through divine creation, from ancient religious accounts to modern political and scientific debates.

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Genesis creation narrative: The opening biblical account of God creating the world and humanity. Its readings have shaped Jewish and Christian accounts of creation across centuries.
Ussher chronology: A biblical chronology by James Ussher dating creation to 4004 BCE. It became a prominent example of calculating the age of Earth from scripture.
James Ussher: An Irish archbishop who calculated a biblical chronology placing creation in 4004 BCE. His date became one of the most recognizable products of scriptural chronology.
Evolution: The change in heritable traits of populations across generations, including the formation of new species. Creationist positions differ over whether evolutionary processes explain life's diversity.
Creation–evolution controversy: A public and intellectual dispute over evolutionary science and religious accounts of life's origins. Creationist movements have repeatedly shaped the controversy's arguments and institutions.
Church Fathers: Early Christian theologians whose writings shaped Christian doctrine and biblical interpretation. Their varied readings of Genesis established precedents for literal and figurative interpretation.
William Paley: An English theologian whose 1802 book argued that organisms imply a divine designer. His design argument influenced later creationist reasoning before Darwinian evolution.
Charles Darwin: An English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biology. Publication of his work intensified conflicts between evolutionary explanations and some creationist readings.
Young Earth creationism: The belief that Earth and life were created within the past several thousand years. It is the most literal modern reading of biblical creation chronology.
Butler Act: A 1925 Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in public schools. It prompted the Scopes trial and embodied early twentieth-century anti-evolution activism.