Creationism is the religious belief that the universe and life originated "from specific acts of divine creation," as opposed to the scientific conclusion that they came about through natural processes. The first use of the term "creationist" to describe a proponent of creationism is found in an 1856 letter of Charles Darwin describing those who objected on religious grounds to the emerging science of evolution. In the 1920s it became associated with Christian fundamentalist movements that insisted on a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative. By the 1980s creationism had gained a significant presence in further countries and faith traditions, and in the United States the traditional constitutional separation between church and state has sometimes been challenged in an