在人们探讨创造进化争议时，常常会用过于简单的二分法进行分类，为了消除这一误解，1999年，国家科学教育中心（英语：National Center for Science Education）的尤金妮亚· 斯科特（英语：Eugenie Scott）使用一张图表描述了一系列連續的、在大众中有关创造论的宗教观点——从最极端的圣经直译创造论到另一侧最极端的唯物主义进化论，她的频谱和研究成果随后在大众的讨论中被广泛使用，后又发表在了该年的《国家科学教育中心报告》中[24]。随后又有其他学者提出了其他的分类[25]和比较方式[26]。2009年，斯科特检视并修正了她的研究成果，并认为智能设计论与其他几种创造论有重叠，并认为每一种创造论都是代表着一种信仰和立场。修改后的图表额外增加了各派对地球的年齡的观点，并细化了各派对进化的看法。修改后的图表被最先发表于《进化对创造论：一份导论》[27]，之后国家科学教育中心基于书中修改后的图表重写了官方网站中的内容[14]。
「創造論」一詞在1920年代被專指基督教基要主義者基於對直譯聖經中《創世紀》的理解，並反對人類進化理論的行動。這些組織曾經成功地使美國公立學校停止教授進化論思想。而年輕地球創造論者從1960年代中開始推廣在公立學校科學課上使用「洪水地質學」教授「科學創造論」，以支持《創世紀》。[36]在Daniel v. Waters一案（1975年）中，判決為在公立學校中教授創造論違反了政教分離，而其內容中所有引自聖經的文字均被除去，並重命名為創造論科學。在Edwards v. Aguillard一案（1987年）中，判決為創造論科學有違憲法，教科書中任何提及「創造論」的字眼均換為被認為是一新科學理論的「智能設計論」。在Kitzmiller v. Dover一案（2005年）中，判決為智能設計論非科學，並有違憲法中對在科學課上教授宗教的限制。[37]
^Brosseau, Olivier; Silberstein, Marc. Evolutionism(s) and Creationism(s). Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Lecointre, Guillaume; Silberstein., Marc (编). Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. 2015: 881–96 [2020-11-08]. ISBN 9789401790147. （原始内容存档于2020-12-14）.
^Brosseau, Olivier; Silberstein, Marc. Evolutionism(s) and Creationism(s). Heams, Thomas; Huneman, Philippe; Lecointre, Guillaume; Silberstein., Marc (编). Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. 2015: 881, 884 [2020-11-08]. ISBN 9789401790147. （原始内容存档于2020-12-14）. 创造论并非单纯是一种旧日的教义……进化，[被认为]是神用来间接地创造这个世界的过程，如此，我们便得到了创造论的一个子类-“进化创造论”（Creationism is not a single homogenous doctrine ... Evolution, as a process, is a tool God uses to continually create the world. Here we have arrived at another sub-category of creationism called 'evolutionist creationism'）
^Haarsma 2010, p. 168,"一些常被称为“年轻地球创造论者”的基督教信徒拒绝接受生物进化的理论，以维持对某些圣经内容的半文学的解释；另外一些常被称为“漸進創造論者”接受进化论及地球拥有很长历史的理论，但仍坚持认为神在进化中起到了某些神奇的作用；然后是活跃在北美大陆的漸進創造論者的一种特例，智能设计论者；最后是被称为“神学进化论者”或“进化创造论者”的基督徒，他们认为进化论和他们对基督教信仰均正确无误（Some Christians, often called 'Young Earth creationists,' reject evolution in order to maintain a semi-literal interpretation of certain biblical passages. Other Christians, called 'progressive creationists,' accept the scientific evidence for some evolution over a long history of the earth, but also insist that God must have performed some miracles during that history to create new life-forms. Intelligent design, as it is promoted in North America is a form of progressive creation. Still other Christians, called 'theistic evolutionists' or 'evolutionary creationists,' assert that the scientific theory of evolution and the religious beliefs of Christianity can both be true."
^(Scott 2009，第57, 97–98頁)："对于许多人来说，创造论一词意味着神学教条中的特创论：上帝创造了我们今日所见的宇宙，而宇宙自创世以来就未有大的变动。特创论包含了上帝直接创造万物形态的理念，特创论反映了圣经直译视角下的观点。特创论与“创世科学”的联系十分紧密，后者认为宇宙只有大概10000年的历史。但特创论中最重要的地方还是上帝直接创造万物形态这一理念。（The term creationism to many people connotes the theological doctrine of special creationism: that God created the universe essentially as we see it today, and that this universe has not changed appreciably since that creation event. Special creationism includes the idea that God created living things in their present forms, and it reflects a literalist view of the Bible. It is most closely associated with the endeavour of "creation science," which includes the view that the universe is only 10,000 years old. But the most important aspect of special creation is the idea that things are created in their present forms.）"
^Poole, Michael. Creationism, intelligent design and science education(PDF). School Science Review. 2008, 90 (330): 123–129 [2021-02-24]. （原始内容(PDF)存档于2022-03-18）. 一个用来形容[创造论]最常见變体的术语，“年轻地球创造论”，其代表除了相信世界由神创造外还相信世界是被祂于6000-10000年前的6天内直接创造，而不是通过创造星系、生物进化来间接创造一切（a term commonly used as shorthand for its most common variant, ‘young-Earth creationism’. As well as a belief in creation, it includes the additional belief that creation occurred by specific, non-natural divine events in six ‘days’ some 6000-10,000 years ago, rather than by God’s creative actions through the natural processes of stellar, chemical and biological evolution）
^David de Pomerai; Mark Harris. Creationism and Evolutionary Biology(PDF). Philosophy, Science, and Religion for Everyone (Routledge in Philosophy, Science and Religion for Everyone). 2017: 27–39 [2021]. （原始内容(PDF)存档于2020-10-16）. 一开始，年轻地球创造论者和进化生物学拥护者之间的争论就围绕着科学是什么展开。双方都声称自己是科学的，年轻地球创造论方试图利用创造科学、科学创造论和洪水地质学来证明自己的科学性，争论双方都指责对方不够科学，或者说是伪科学。（At first sight, the debate between YEC and evolutionary biology tugs at the heart of what it means to ‘do science’. Both sides claim to be ‘scientific’—with ‘creation science’, ‘scientific creationism’, and ‘flood geology’ being prominent examples on the creationist side—and both sides accuse the other of being ‘un-scientific’, or in other words, of being a ‘pseudoscience’ at best.）……相较之下，年轻地球创造论方的理论很明显不是经验科学。在这一点上，年轻地球创造论者所拥护的东西甚至可能不配是伪科学。（In comparison, YEC fails dismally as an empirical science. Indeed, there’s a strong case for suggesting that YEC doesn’t even qualify as a ‘pseudo-science’ on this score.）
^"Young Earth Creationism", "Creation Science" and "Intelligent Design". Geological Society of London. [2021-03-22]. （原始内容存档于2021-04-17）. The idea that the Earth was divinely created in the geologically recent past ("Young Earth Creationism"); attempts by Young Earth Creationists to gain acceptance for what they misrepresent in public as corroborative empirical evidence for this view ("Creation science");
^Numbers 1998，第50頁 “自最晚1840年代，达尔文就开始在他未发表的写作中使用‘创造论者’一词，在当时这个概念没什么关注度”）"Since at least the early 1840s Darwin had occasionally referred to 'creationists' in his unpublished writings, but the epithet acquired little public currency."） – sketch written in 1842（达尔文1842年的草稿） （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） – “如果说这些发生在一座小岛上，那么新的物种是如何出现的？—在这里，地质学家向创造论者抛出了这个难题”（"if this had happened on an island, whence could the new forms have come,—here the geologist calls in creationists."）
Darwin, Charles. Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa. Darwin Correspondence Project. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Library. 1863-05-31 [2010-08-11]. Letter 4196. （原始内容存档于2015-09-23）.
^Numbers 1998，第50頁 “1873年亞薩·格雷称‘特殊创造论者’（他使用引号引了起来）持有物种‘本身起源自超自然’这一观点（"In 1873 Asa Gray described a 'special creationist' (a phrase he placed in quotation marks) as one who maintained that species 'were supernaturally originated just as they are',"） – The Nation. J.H. Richards. 1873-10-16: 260.
^Richard F. Carlson, Tremper Longman III, Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins, p.25
^Xiaoxing Jin. Translation and transmutation: the Origin of Species in China. The British Journal for the History of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The British Society for the History of Science). March 2019, 52 (1): 117–141. PMID 30587253. doi:10.1017/S0007087418000808.
Barlow, Nora (编). Darwin's Ornithological Notes. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Historical Series 2 (No. 7). 1963: 201–278 [2009-06-10]. （原始内容存档于2009-05-25）.
Forster, Roger; Marston, Dr Paul. Genesis Through History. Reason Science and Faith Ivy Cottage: E-Books. Chester, England: Monarch Books. 1999 [2009-03-24]. ISBN 1-85424-441-8. （原始内容存档于2009-04-27）.
Hayward, James L. The Creation/Evolution Controversy: an annotated bibliography. Scarecrow Press/Salem Press. 1998: 253. ISBN 0-8108-3386-7.
Ian BarbourWhen Science Meets Religion, 2000, Harper SanFrancisco
Ian Barbour Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues, 1997, Harper SanFrancisco.
Stephen Jay GouldRocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the fullness of life, Ballantine Books, 1999
Aryeh Kaplan, Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View, Ktav, NJ, in association with the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, NY, 1993
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