[An excerpt The Young Earth:  The Real History of the Earth--Past, Present, and Future by John Morris]

"They bow before a different philosophy--that of naturalism, evolution, and uniformitarianism (John Morris)."

Biblical Model:

1.  Special creation of all things by God in six solar days

2.  The curse on all things because of sin, all things are dying

3.  The global flood of Noah's day which deposed rocks and fossils

The Creation Model:

1.  Supernatural origins of all things with design, purpose, and interdependence of parts

2.  Net basic decrease in complexity over time and limited horizontal change

3.  Earth history dominated by catastrophic events

The Evolution Model:

1.  Naturalistic origins of all things through chance, random mutation, natural selection

2.  Net basic increase in complexity over time with unlimited vertical change

3.  Earth history dominated by uniform events:  neo-catastrophism

Biblical Creationism:  Supernatural creation of all things in six literal days by the God of the Bible.

Scientific Creationism:  Each basic category of life appeared abruptly, without descending from an ancestor of a different sort. Much variation within a category is expected, but each prossesses genetic limits to its variability, and thus exhibits stasis. 

Stasis:  The tendency of types of organisms to remain unchanged over time; static or stationary with respect to evolutionary progress.

Catastrophism:  There have been episodes in the past that occurred at rates, scales, and intensities far greater than those possible today, or which were of an entirely different nature than those of today.  This certainly includes special creation and the great flood of Noh's day, which would have restructured the entire planet and been the source of the rock and fossil records.

Evolution:  The idea that all of life has come from a common ancestor through a process of modification over time.  Thus, man and the apes are thought to have descended from an ape-like common ancestor.   All vertebrates came from fish, which in turn came from an invertebrate.  All life descended from a single-celled organism that arose spontaneously from non-living chemicals.  Changes occurred through natural processes, including mutation, natural selection, and genetic recombination.

Micro-evolution:  Small adaptations within a population of organisms which allow a certain trait to be expressed to a greater or lesser degree than before; variation within a given category.  This regularly observed to occur within living populations.

Macro-evolution:  Large hypothetical changes with are thought to occur in an individual or in a population of organisms that produce an entirely new category or novel trait.  These changes have never been observed to occur within living populations.

Mutations:  Changes in the genetic material of an organism, potentially expressed in offspring.  Many times a single mutation affects more than one trait.  While some are neutral, many are lethal.  No beneficial mutations that add information to the genome have been observed.

Natural Selection: The process observed within populations of organisms that select those traits best suited for a given environment.  This conservative process tends to maintain the status quo and never produces new genetic material.

Punctuated Equilibrium:  Macro-evolution on a rapid pace in brief periods during otherwise long ages of no change.  Invoked to explain and allow for evolution in the absence of fossil transitional forms.

Uniformitarianism:  "The present is the key to the past."  Episodes of dramatically different rates or character than processes possible today have never occurred.  Present processes are extrapolated into the past under the assumption that things have remained "uniform."

Geologic Column:  The column of fossils, with ancient ones on the bottom and more recent ones on the top, within the observed local sequences of the rock layers with have been systematized by correlation on a global scale.  Does not exist in complete form in any one location, but as a trend on a global scale.  Index fossils are thought to be unique to individual eras, periods, and systems.  The time interpretation superimposed on the rock layer sequences is called the geological time scale and is liked to evolutionary dogmas.

Index Fossils:  While almost every stratum of rock contains many of the same basic fossil types (i.e., clams, coral, etc.), certain individual organisms or variations are thought to have existed in only a brief period of supposed geologic time, and thus can be used to determine the layer's age.

Neo-Catastrophism:  Natural catastrophes occurred in the past, which, while perhaps of great intensity and scale, were no different in character from processes possible today.  These catastrophes were episodic, separated by long periods of uniformity.  Popular theory among geologic thinkers today.

Theistic Evolution:  Essentially the same as atheistic evolution in its relation to scientific data.  God may have either started the evolution process, and then left it to natural processes, or many have guided the evolution process.

Progressive Creation:  Sometimes called the day-age theory.  The days of Genesis were long periods of time, roughly equivalent to the supposed geologic ages.  Each basis category of life was created by supernatural intervention at various times throughout the ages.

Framework Hypothesis:  The idea that the Bible, when it speaks of things historic or scientific, is to be understood in a theological sense only, assuming that God was involved but not actually recorded.  Genesis is not to be taken as factual history.  This view is very popular in many modern evangelical seminaries, and allows theologians to fully accept evolution and/or long ages.

Local Flood Theory:  The teaching that the flood of Noah's day covered only the Mesopotamian Valley--a major flood, but not global.  This view (or its counterpart, the tranquil flood theory, which says that the Flood was global but had no discernible effects, i.e. no erosion, no rocks, no fossils--is a necessary part of any compromise with evolution or old-earth ideas, since the world's rock and fossils record is usually misinterpreted as evidence for evolution and an old earth.

Evolutionism:  The application of evolutionary ideas in the public arena.  Includes concepts such as social Darwinism, man is an animal, animal rights equivalent to human rights, low view of human life, etc.

New Age Thinking:  The modern equivalent of ancient pantheism, melding evolution science with Eastern mysticism, espousing a one-world government, a combination of all religions, and evolutionism in society.