How many of the following are connotations of the theory of special creation?
A. All living organisms that we see today were created as such.
B. The diversity of living organisms was always the same since creation and will be the same in future also.
C. The earth is a few thousand years old.
D. Life comes from pre-existing life.
E. Life came out of decaying and rotting matter like straw and mud.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Three
The theory of special creation comes from conventional religious literature. NCERT gives it three connotations, and all three were strongly challenged during the nineteenth century.
A. All living organisms that we see today were created as such. — A connotation (the first one).
B. The diversity of living organisms was always the same since creation and will be the same in future also. — A connotation (the second one).
C. The earth is a few thousand years old. — A connotation (the third one). The theory took the earth to be about 4000 years old.
D. Life comes from pre-existing life. — Not a connotation. This is what Louis Pasteur showed by experiment.
E. Life came out of decaying and rotting matter like straw and mud. — Not a connotation. This is the theory of spontaneous generation.
So three of the five are connotations of special creation.
NCERT Extract:
Evolution of Life Forms – A Theory – “Conventional religious literature tells us about the theory of special creation. This theory has three connotations. One, that all living organisms (species or types) that we see today were created as such. Two, that the diversity was always the same since creation and will be the same in future also. Three, that earth is about 4000 years old. All these ideas were strongly challenged during the nineteenth century.”
Origin of Life – “… For a long time it was also believed that life came out of decaying and rotting matter like straw, mud, etc. This was the theory of spontaneous generation. Louis Pasteur by careful experimentation demonstrated that life comes only from pre-existing life.”