Creationism is the religious belief that the universe was created in the way described in religious books. According to Genesis, God directly created life from the nothingness that was before, by fixing the chaos that was. Other religions have different creation myths. The first approach is known as creatio ex nihilo, which is the Latin name for creation from nothing.
The idea that God created the world has been taught for thousands of years by writers such as Augustine of Hippo.
Creationism as it is known today was started in the 19th century by fundamentalist Protestants who were opposed to the theories that scientists began to put forward about geology and evolution.
In the 20th century, creationist movements also started in Islam and Judaism.