Creationism is the scientific framework for what the Bible teaches that the world was created the way God says it was. There are different flavors of creationism for Christianity and other Abrahamic religions. For example, Old Earth Creationism tries to fit millions of years into Genesis by reinterpreting the 7 days of creation into millions of years, but that is not consistent with the sabbath being based on a literal 7th day of creation. Then there’s Gap theory which says that there was a gap of time between Genesis 1 and 2 where a bunch of events happened regarding Satan falling and maybe dinosaurs getting killed. However, that one has its own flaws and issues like how the creation of light initiated on the day part of day one, yet this Gap happens before day one? Were dinosaurs walking around in the dark? Day one is the creation of light itself, then the Sun, Moon, and Stars were made on Day 4, so there was no light until Day one which is after Genesis 1:2.

Then there is the biblical direct literal translation view called, Young Earth Creationism, where God literally created the world in six days just like the Bible says and rested on the 7th. The Sabbath is based on this concept, so we know there are literal days. However, there are some Christians who try to mix naturalism with Christianity and reinterpret the days as thousands of years. I often hear and see 2 Peter 3:8 quoted in reference to longer age creation. 2 Pt 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. It’s out of context. Peter is using a metaphor for God’s patience based on Psalms 90:4. This was in response to an objection by false teachers that Jesus was never coming back because Christians keep waiting but haven’t seen him yet. Peter’s answer is that God is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18), and is patient with the fallen world so that more people can get saved. He explains in the verse afterward: 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

“2 Peter 3:8 (NLT )But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

In contrast to Creationism is evolution which is an alternative creation story for naturalists. Those who compromise between Evolution and creation are theistic evolutionists, who believe that Genesis is a metaphor and allegory, and they believe Adam was a metaphor for all of humanity and not a real person. This idea however conflicts with the idea of the fall, which led to sin and death, and the reason Jesus died for us. There is also the issue of Jesus referencing Genesis events like the flood and people in it like Abel as real historical figures. Lots of Christian struggle with the idea that the Bible teaches that the world is around 6000 years old and often come up with alternative interpretations to fit with secular science. Meanwhile, other Christians stick to the script and challenge secular science and reveal flaws in their theories. Nonbelievers specifically atheists, will parrot the idea that the bible is man-made and contradicts science, which is not true because it doesn’t fit the mold.

It makes no sense to me that a person can believe in the virgin birth, or that Jesus could raise the dead (and was himself raised from the dead), but not that God made Adam from dust on day 6 of creation as the bible says. Likewise, there are those that deny the resurrection of the dead in Revelation, and say it’s all metaphor and that Revelation already happened around 66-70 AD with Nero (the anti-christ) attacking Christians and Titus destroying Jerusalem. However even this contradicts Jesus’ own view on the subject since he tells the Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrections) that the resurrections are literal. This is something that Jesus and the Pharisees agreed on why. This would explain why Paul, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea were all on Jesus’ side at one point or another, even though they were Pharisees. Even Paul has to defend the future literal resurrection in 1 Cor 15 and in 2nd Timothy 2.

The same process God used to create Adam is the same process he will use at the end (Rev 20:1-6) to resurrect the bodies of people whose bodies were not preserved. This applies to those whose bodies were destroyed by fire, nuclear weapons, or devoured by animals. How else can there be resurrections of everyone in existence for judgment day since some people’s bodies were not buried or have been dug up? So we know God is capable of doing, what he has to, otherwise, Jesus was wrong about the resurrection when talking to the Sadducees in Matthew 22:22-33, Mark 12:18-27, Luke 20:27-40. Jesus confirms that there are two resurrections yet to come, one for the righteous and one for the wicked in John 5:28-29. In John 11:24-29, Martha shows a belief in the final resurrection when confronting Jesus about Lazarus, and Jesus confirms to her that he is the reason that there even is a resurrection, that belief in him leads to a post-resurrection eternal life. Also in Luke 14:14, Jesus mentions the first resurrection as a reward for dinner host who invites the poor, lame, and blind to their parties instead of just their rich friends.

These supernatural actions are not bound to the laws of nature. Hebrews 11:3 says nothing existed as it is until God spoke it into existence, so none of the laws existed until the lawgiver gave them. That means supernatural acts are allowed by God for the formation of the universe and anything he wants to do like virgin birth and resurrections. He is not bound by natural laws, since he created them himself. God can only limit himself, and that is by his own words. The limits he places on himself are on purpose so that he can justly refer to himself as righteous because he meets his own standards. This means God won’t do something that goes against his moral standards and character, like breaking his own covenant. If he makes a promise he will keep it. He is faithful even when we are unfaithful (2 Tim 2:13). So there is no point in trying to explain the forming of humankind by God at creation through natural means because it would violate the laws that uphold the universe for the matter to pop into existence. Yet, the Big Bang model itself implies that the universe has a beginning, but the universe itself can’t create a new reality since it is a creation bound by natural laws, but the maker of all reality is above the limitations of nature itself, and he alone can commit supernatural actions that are beyond what happens in nature.

This issue isn’t Christianity vs observable science, it’s Christianity vs assumptions about the past. Unfortunately, there are some Christians that deny things in reality like the existence of dinosaurs, and people view creationists as all on the same level, of extreme anti-science foolishness. Christians respond to that by accepting that if they don’t believe the world’s theories they are denying reality. Both denying observations in reality, and trying to retrofit secular science based on antigod naturalistic assumptions in the Bible, are two extremes on either side of the Bible’s truth. Dinosaurs don’t have to be fake for the Bible to be true. Sedimentary layers can be laid down by a cataclysmic global flood, and millions of years are not absolutely required. There is a difference between operation science which is based on testable observable laws of physics, biology, and chemistry and historical science which requires assumptions to be made about variables that are presumed to be constant enough to be the same value now as they were in the early age of the universe. Without any specific proof that these things are absolutely constant, our measurements can be way off. There are limitations to things like carbon dating. Therefore, unobserved long-age assumptions about how the earth operated pre-historically and assuming things work exactly the same as they do today, without disproving the opposite is bad science, the laws of thermodynamics suggest things are gradually climaxing towards a new more disordered state every day.

Evolution ties with the big bang, it is the idea that life came about randomly and that there is no God or outside force, but everything emerged randomly from some pond scum. Even though DNA chemically can’t survive or from in water because of the dissolution of sugar. Evolution clearly goes against natural laws. Evolution says that the Bible’s shortage for the earth is incorrect and says it took millions of years. A scientific understanding of the biblical flood is that it would have terraformed the earth and added multiple layers of sediments causing it appears to be older based on geology. Just like Mt St Helens in the 80s, 600ft of sediment deposits can be put down in as short as 3 days just imagine what multiple volcanic eruptions and a worldwide deluge can do in a year and 10 days (this is the duration of the flood in Genesis). A lot of this is based on the idea of true randomness which goes against the laws of thermodynamics. Things cannot go from chaos to order, however, physics suggests things go from order to chaos. So the randomness principle driving secular science and anti-biblical philosophies goes against actual observable laws of physics.