The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (575 page)

 
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Craving
(Buddhist)
:

see
TA
H
.

 
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Creation
:

see
COSMOLOGY
.

 
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Creationism
.

1
The view that the universe and all things in it were created directly by God and are not the result of a long evolutionary process, in contrast to the theory of evolution associated with Charles Darwin. The immediate ancestry of creationism can be found in the inter-war attempts of fundamentalists to get state laws passed which would ban the teaching of evolution in public schools. These attempts received a set-back in the Scopes trial in Tennessee (1925): John Scopes was convicted for teaching Darwin's theory, but the conviction was later overturned. Creationism emerged more specifically in the 1960s when creationists demanded equal time for the teaching of creationism (hence the importance of insisting on the equal validity of both as theories). The Creation Research Society supports the publication of creation science papers, but these have not been recognized as serious science outside the movement.
2
The view that God creates a soul for each human being, in contrast to pre-existence (that souls pre-exist bodies and enter into them) and traducianism (that souls generate souls as and when bodies generate bodies).

 
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Credence
.

A small table or shelf in the sanctuary of a church near the
altar
, to hold the bread, wine, and water to be used at the
eucharist
.

 
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(Lat., ‘I believe because it is absurd’). A saying frequently used to mock the ‘credulity’ or dogmatic irrationality of religious believers. The saying is sometimes attributed to
Tertullian
, though his nearest statement has a different nuance: ‘Et mortuus est Dei Filius; prorsus credibile, quia ineptum est’ (in paraphrase, so paradoxical is it to say that the Son of God has died that it would have to be a matter of belief). Such a saying does not preclude the recognition of rational support or reasons making evident what has evoked the statement: cf.
ANSELM
. It appears also in the form, ‘credo quia impossibile est’.