His reply was basically 'you are entitled to your opinion but I disagree'. He then essentially assrted that his understanding was different and equally valid because words can mean different things to different people. He made not real attempt to engage with what I wrote in any specific way. here'a my reply:
I agree everyone is entitled to their own opinion but no one is entitled to their own facts.
You can't just reduce a verifiable fact (such as the generally accepted definition of a word) to a matter of personal opinion. It's irrelevant what your (or my) opinion is regarding the meaning of creationism – It is what it is. It could be my opinion that creationism is another word for chicken but that would not make it true. What counts is what you can demonstrate as true.
Creationism is a belief in creation. This is not my opinion; this is how it is described by most dictionaries, encyclopaedias and authoritative websites:
Creationism: Theory attributing all matter, biological species to separate acts of creation by god rather than to evolution (Australian Oxford Dictionary)
Creationism: 'creationism' is a very broad term. In the most general sense, it refers to views that reject scientific explanations of certain features of the natural world and instead posit direct intervention (sometimes called "special creation")....Some creationists believe that the universe and Earth are only several thousand years old, a position referred to as "young Earth" creationism. (American Academy of Sciences)
Creationism: The position that God created the universe. There are two views within creationism; Young earth creationists generally believe that God created the universe, the earth, and living things on the earth and that the Old Testament literally describes six, 24-hour periods. Old earth creationists still maintain that the universe, the earth, and all living things were created by God, but that the Universe is very old. (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry)
Creationism: belief system which postulates that the universe, Earth, and life were deliberately created by God. There are two main schools of study known as religious creationism and scientific creationism, and a spectrum of beliefs on issues such as the age of the Earth(creationwiki.org)
creationism: doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis (Merrian Webster online dictionary)
Creationism: the belief that the Universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation'... Day-age creationism (is) the belief that 'the "six days" of the Book of Genesis are not ordinary 24-hour days, but rather much longer periods (Wikipedia)
Creationism: The belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, as in the biblical account, rather than by natural processes such as evolution (Oxford English Dictionary)
Creationism: literal belief in the account of creation given in the book of Genesis (Webster online dictionary).
Creationist: someone who believes in a God who is absolute creator of heaven and Earth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Creationism: refers to a wide range of beliefs... Old-Earth Creationists accept the evidence for an ancient earth but still believe that life was specially created by God, and they still base their beliefs on the Bible (TalkOrigins.org)
Creationism: belief that the earth and universe and the various kinds of animals and plants were created by God or some other supreme being...Within creationism...there are various ideas...one form of creationism holds that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old and is referred to as Young Earth Creationism. The other form of creationism is called Old Earth Creationism and holds that the earth and universe are billions of years old' (Conservapedia.org)
Creationism: (belief in creation) based on the revelation from God as found in the first part of the book of Genesis in the Christian Bible Old Testament (or the Jewish "Torah"). The creation is described as taking place over a six-day period, after which God rested (and therefore no more creating has taken place since). Strict creationists believe that these were 24-hour earth days and that the earth is quite young,while others calling themselves creationists take these to be "long periods of time" (millions of years) and typically believe the earth to be very old (around 4.6 billion years as is commonly taught). (Bestbiblescience.org)
Creationism: the belief that the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Creationism: the doctrine that matter and all things were created, substantially as they now exist, by an omnipotent Creator, and not gradually evolved or developed (dictionary.com)
Creationism: refers to the religious belief in a supernatural deity or force that intervenes, or has intervened, directly in the physical world. Within that broad scope, there are many varieties of creationist belief.(National centre for science education)
Creationist: person who believes the world was made by God exactly as described in the Bible (Cambridge dictionary)
Creationism: belief that the universe was created exactly as the Bible describes it (Macmillan dictionary)
Creationism: the belief that the universe and everything in it were specially created by God rather than natural means....Creationism is often used as a synonym for the specific ideology of 'Young Earth Creationism'....creationists can be of virtually any religious stripe, from fundamentalist Christians to Pastafarians (rational wiki.org)
There are 18 definitions and descriptions of creationism referenced above. Six acknowledge that there are a broad range of creationist beliefs and five specifically mention ‘Old-Earth Creationism’. Not one defines creationism exclusively as ‘Young-Earth Creationism’. I believe this sample is representative of the overall body of literature on the subject. I am very confident about this.
It’s also worth noting that The American National Academy of Science and the National Centre for Science Education are recognised authorities on this subject as both organisations have been actively involved in court cases against creationists and advocate against creationism being taught in schools. Talk Origins and Creationwiki are also the two most well known websites on the internet (not including Wikipedia) covering the subject of creationism. I also included definition of creationism in both the Australian Oxford Dictionary and the English Oxford dictionary definitions – I hope you agree that the Oxford English Dictionary is an authority on the generally accepted meaning of common words.
'Other' people might agree with your idiosyncratic understanding of creationism (and I’m sure if looked hard enough you could find a dictionary or encyclopaedia entry that supported you) but there does not have to be universal agreement for the meaning of a word to become generally accepted.
You are entitled to disagree with the generally accepted definition of creationism, of course, and I suppose you can call yourself what you like. But this does not the change the fact thatyou are a creationist as the word is widely defined and commonly understood. Telling people that you are not a creationist is therefore misleading. You should, at the very least, be specific and tell people that you are an ‘Old-Earth Creationist’ and not a 'Young Earth Creationist'.
Just so you know, I am not accusing you of intentionally misleading people. I believe you genuinely thought you were not a creationist.
'some creationists believe that the six days of creation were literal 24-hour days' (http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/creationism-belief/)
If only 'some' creationists believe this then ‘some’ creationists do not which means creationism is not restricted to 'Young-Earth Creationism'. How do you explain this?
If creationism refers only to 'Young Earth creationism' then why does the term 'Young Earth Creationism' even exist?
