(Note: Many people don't fall into any one category below, but allow
for some range of possibilities, and a mixture of scenarios. And of
course it doesn't do justice to all the subtleties. Use with discretion.)
1a. Young Earth Creation: Appearance of Youth.
Genesis 1-2 is interpreted as recent literal history; the earth and
the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old. Although some
"appearance of age" may have been included in creation (e.g. active
stars, light from the stars "on its way" to earth), proper scientific
measurements would yield ample evidence that the earth and life were
recently created.
1b. Young Earth Creation: Created with Apparent Age.
Genesis 1-2 is interpreted as recent literal history; the earth and
the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old. However, the
universe and the earth were made to "appear" several billion years
old.
1c. Young Earth Creation: Apparent Age Due to the Fall.
Genesis 1-2 is interpreted as recent literal history; the earth and
the universe are a few tens of thousands of years old. However, due
either to the fall of man or the fall of Satan, the earth was made to
appear "old."
2a. Progressive Creation with Special Creation of Each Lifeform.
The earth and the universe are several billion years old. At various
times during the creation period, God performed a distinctive
miraculous creation to produce each new lifeform. (de novo creation
or supernatural transformation of an existing lifeform.)
2b. Progressive Creation.
The earth and the universe are several billion years old. At various
times during the creation period, God performed distinctive miraculous
acts to produce lifeforms with certain new features or increased
complexity. (Microevolution can produce some amount of species
diversity, but novel biological or biochemical structures were
specially and miraculously created at the appropriate times. (e.g.
perhaps through miraculous genetic transformations in zygotes.))
2c. Progressive Creation through "Miraculous" Evolution.
Creation occurred through evolution, but the success of evolution is
"surprising;" that is, one would not have expected the evolutionary
process to be as successful as it has been. Thus God must have been
"directing" the evolutionary process, perhaps arranging (or pre-
arranging) for the process to travel along preordained paths, leading
to much better-than-expected outcomes.
3a. Evolutionary Creation with Special Creation of Life.
Creation occurred through evolution and there is nothing surprising
about its success -- we would expect evolution to produce something
like what we see. Nevertheless, creation occurred at God's hand and
evolution was the tool. However, the fact that evolution got started
in the first place is surprising.
3b. Evolutionary Creation.
Creation occurred through evolution and there is nothing surprising
about its success; nor is it surprising that evolution got started in
the first place. We would expect abiogenesis and evolution to produce
something like what we see. What is surprising is that the laws of
the universe and physical constants are just right for giving
conditions conducive for a successful evolutionary process.
3b1. Evolutionary Creation with Designed Outcome.
The laws which govern biochemistry and biological evolution are
designed to ensure that life will "self-organize" into certain kinds
of lifeforms. (Existing lifeforms being analogous to "strange
attractors" in phase space.) God ordained and intended our existence,
and designed the process to achieve it.
3b2. Evolutionary Creation with Determined Outcome.
Biological evolution could, in theory, have followed many different
paths with divergent outcomes. However, the exact path which
evolution took on earth, and the final outcome we see today, were
entirely ordained by God, since every event which appears to be
"chance" to us is actually determined by God.
3b3. Evolutionary Creation with Flexible Outcome.
The exact path which evolution took on earth, and the final outcome we
see today, were not entirely predetermined by God; rather, God gave
his creation a certain degree of "freedom." God also knew that this
process would eventually produce intelligent, personal creatures to
whom he could reveal Himself.
3c. Evolutionary Creation Known only via Special Revelation.
The fact that "the laws of the universe gave rise to a successful
evolutionary process" is not really surprising. Nevertheless, we
believe that creation occurred through God's hand because of God's
special revelation.
4. Deistic Evolution.
God created the universe and the laws of nature, "set them in motion,"
and let them "do their thing" without any intervention.
5. Atheistic/Naturalistic Evolution.
The universe is self-existing; there is no creator.
----------
That covers the acronyms YEC, PC, EC, DE, and NE.
Most of the action in Intelligent Design (ID) these days is around
2b and 2c.
Theistic Evolution (TE) usually isn't differentiated from EC in my
experience. If it is differentiated, it'd probably be 3b3 and/or 3c.
Loren Haarsma