Creationism

The false idea that Knowledge or otherwise complex entities can come about by fiat.

Creationism applies beyond biology — to cosmological, economic, and educational contexts. It avoids providing proper explanations for how complexity arises, substituting an act of will or authority for the actual processes of Conjecture and Criticism (in epistemology) or variation and selection (in biology).

Connections

• •Denies the role of Conjecture and Criticism in knowledge growth
• •Related to Conspiracism — both invoke intentional agents where emergent processes operate
• •The educational form denies that children learn through Creativity
• •Opposed by Critical Rationalism — knowledge is created through error correction, not fiat
• •Genetic Knowledge grows through variation and selection, not design
• •Undermines understanding of Emergence — complex outcomes from simple rules