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Evolution is a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. Charles Darwin proposed a theory, now called the Theory of Evolution, stating that animals differentiated into species when the survivors of a changing environment were able to pass their genetic traits to their offspring. The theory of evolution is a scientific theory that can be tested by observations and application of the scientific method. Support for the theory of evolution is based on fossil evidence that has accumulated throughout the geologic history of the Earth.
Creationism, or Intelligent Design, is the religious belief that a higher power created the animals and everything that exists today through supernatural intervention. Religious beliefs, such as creationism, have to be accepted on faith and cannot be tested or investigated. Creationism beliefs are usually based on a strict interpretation of the Bible. The book of Genesis starts with the statement "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth", and goes on to describe how in six days God created the plants, the animals, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Conflicts between Evolution and Creationism occur when supporters of either view criticize the other. Evolutionists argue that creationism is not a scientific theory because it cannot be tested by the scientific method, whereas creationists argue that evolutionists do not take God into account and that evolution is just a theory rather than a fact. Scientific methodology which is based on physical evidence can never be reconciled with the creationist faith-based belief that the Old Testament of the Bible, which was written by Israelites around 1400 BC, is the only true account of creation.
Science requires that a hypothesis or theory should be testable and supported by physical evidence, whereas religion requires acceptance of a doctrine or belief without analysis or judgment. For this reason, conflicts between evolution and creationism can never be resolved. DNA testing has shown that humans and chimpanzees have a 98-percent genetic similarity, providing overwhelming evidence that apes and humans have a common ancestry. Scientists are willing to accept these results as evidence that man is a specific type of ape, but this is what creationists find most revolting, since they believe that "God created man in his own image", as stated in Genesis 1:27.
