Old Earth creationism
the idea that creation is consistent with scientific evidence
Old Earth creationism (OEC) is an umbrella of theological views encompassing certain varieties of creationism which may or can include day-age creationism, gap creationism, progressive creationism, and sometimes theistic evolution.
Broadly speaking, OEC usually occupies a middle ground between young Earth creationism (YEC) and theistic evolution (TE). In contrast to YEC, it is typically more compatible with the scientific consensus on the issues of physics, chemistry, geology, and the age of the Earth. However, like YEC and in contrast with TE, some forms of it reject macroevolution, claiming it is biologically untenable and not supported by the fossil record, and the concept of universal descent from a last universal common ancestor.
For a long time Evangelical creationists generally subscribed to old Earth creationism until 1960 when John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris published the book The Genesis Flood, which caused the Young Earth creationist view to become prominent.
History
Augustine postulated an instantaneous creation and interpreted the six stages or phases (six "yom" in the original Hebrew texts, translated as "days" in English) allegorically, and his views also influenced Gregory the Great, Bede and Isidore of Seville. Augustine was not alone in viewing the "days" of Genesis as allegorical; others with similar views include Didymus the Blind, possibly Basil the Great, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Athanasius. However, they should not be understood as rejecting the literal interpretation, which patristic commentators believed could stand side by side with the allegorical.
Cyprian argued that each of the phases ("days") of Genesis symbolically represented 1,000 years of the world's history, believing the world would endure for 7,000 years. Irenaeus and Justin Martyr also suggested that the "days" of Genesis could prefigure 6,000 years of earth history, quoting Psalm 90:4 and perhaps 2 Peter.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Old Earth creationism” as the idea that creation is consistent with scientific evidence. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as the idea that creation is consistent with scientific evidence. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1203436. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old Earth creationism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.