Special creation


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 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:
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, 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.