National Academy of Sciences

About the author: The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.

Scientific observations have confirmed many hypotheses related to the origin and age of the universe and the earth. Even questions involving the origins of life have graduated from the uncertainty of "could" life have originated from non-living components to the more confident "how" did life originate. The beliefs held by divine creationists, namely that the earth is no more than 10,000 years old and/or that living things resulted from supernatural intervention are inconsistent with contemporary scientific discoveries. Nor can they be substantiated scientifically. For these and other reasons, creationism...