This viewpoint holds to
traditional beliefs for
the interpretation of
the biblical account of creation. It also maintains that the
days
of
creation in Genesis were literal 24 hour days and that the age of the
Earth and the universe is about 6,000 years. The age
is
based
on the work of James Usher, who in 1650, dated the first day of
creation as Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC. In the "Annals of the
Old
Testament", he tabulated dates for creation and other events from
biblical genealogies. He used the latest scientific
information
available in his day to fill the gaps. Though science has
changed,
this viewpoint on creation has not. Young earth creationism has become
doctrine in a
number
of religious institutions.
Biblical
Problems with
Young Earth Creationism
Creation
Must Proclaim the Creator:
The fact that qualities of the Creator will be evident in creation is
not only an expected scientific result, but is indicated throughout
scripture. "The
heavens declare the
glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day
utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no
speech nor language Where their voice is not heard."
Psalm
19:1-3 (NKJ). This clearly states that God's creative acts are apparent
through examination of His creation. In modern times, a great deal of
information is discovered by viewing the heavens, including facts that
prove God's role in creating the universe. This passage
may
very well be predicting the discovery of God through modern scientific
investigation.
The proclamation of creation should not be in conflict with the Bible.
When we look at the heavens, we see a universe that appears to be very
old. This is an undisputed fact within all realms of scientific
methodology. Psalm 19 clearly states that we should learn from the
study of creation (science), and this will reveal knowledge about God
and
His creative work. The dual revelation of God, His creation and the
Bible, both are recordings of His actions that must agree when properly
interpreted.
Blind
Faith Is Not Biblical:
Often proponents of young earth creationism say that their
interpretation of the Genesis creation account should be accepted
by "faith alone", and does not require any evidence or outside
support. This sort of reasoning is an appeal to use blind faith. No
doubt there are biblical truths that must be accepted by faith, but
these are well stated as such in scripture. But any claim of an opinion
that takes the same status as scripture itself is
problematic at best. Scripture does not support the notion of blind
faith as the apostle Paul instructed: "Test
all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil."
1Thes 5:21-22 (NKJ). We are not to test God, but we are to test the
doctrine of men. Through study and prayer we must test all
things.
Young
Earth Internal Inconsistencies:
The Genesis creation account is very self consistent with an old Earth
viewpoint (See the Old
Earth Time Line), but the young
earth view is largely
inconsistent and self
conflicting. As in this verse: "This is the history of
the
heavens and the earth when they
were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the
heavens" Gen 2:4 (NKJ). Here,
the whole creation time period is described with the word
"day". If this day is strictly 24
hours in this passage then there is a contradiction with the previous
passage that described creation occurring over 6 days. But if these
"days" are intended as ages or long unspecified periods of time then
there is no
conflict.
In
the creation account of chapter 1, God often gives
commands to his new creations. And
God blessed them,
saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the
earth."
Gen 1:22 (NKJ). These commands were given and expected to be completed
within the time period of that creation day. How can these creatures
multiply over many generations to fulfill their commission within 24
hours? Some have suggested that these animals experienced hyper
accelerated growth and reproduction so that the Earth could be filled
within 24 hours. But clearly this is a stretch of the imagination. If
such a deviation from natural breeding was intended here wouldn't that
be clearly stated?
The simple explanation is that the time
period in question is not 24 hours, but intended to be a very long
period of time.
Old earth creationism recognizes that the appearance of lights in the
sky (which are not named) on day 4, indicate that these bodies are
allowed to be seen from Earth's surface at this time, having already
been created "in the beginning" before the events of the first day.
Young earth creationism holds that the sun, moon, and stars were
created on day 4. Not only is this logically inconsistent for many
practical reasons, it conflicts with other scripture, such as: "While
as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of
the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there,..."
Proverbs 8:26-27a. No clearer statement can be made than this, showing
that the heavens were made before the dust of the earth. This
actually
matches up well with cosmology, which finds that heavy elements are
formed inside stars and distributed into space when a star explodes at
the end of its life. The earth itself was formed from this star dust
long after the creation of the universe in the beginning.
Intent
of Biblical Genealogies: The
biblical genealogies were not meant to be used as a means to date the
Earth. They are included in many passages to demonstrate ancestry, as
this was important in Jewish tradition. But we know that it was
customary to abbreviate an ancestral lineage, skipping many
generations, and include only the more notable individuals. Many
examples of this are found when comparing genealogies of the same
individuals from different places in the Bible, where one genealogy is
shorter and more abbreviated.
Scientific
Problems
with Young Earth Creationism
Speed of Light:
Due
to the vast distances between celestial objects, ample time must have
elapsed since the beginning to allow light to reach us. Since light
travels at a fixed speed, its distance in light years equals the time
since the light was emitted. Many stars in our own galaxy are
100,000 light years away, some galaxies in our local group of galaxies
are millions of light years away, and the most distant galaxies we can
see are over 13 billion light years away.
A supernova is the explosion of a far away star at the end of its
life. A certain class of these explosions can be accurately measured
for distance, due to having the same peak brightness at the source.
Since
the apparent brightness of any light source decreases with the square
of distance, this measurement yields its distance. The vast
majority of these explosions are billions of light years
away. These explosions occurred billions of years
ago, the light taking this amount of time to make the trip across the
universe.
For the universe to be merely thousands of years old, nearly all the
star
light we see
would have to have been created in transit. This doesn't make sense. We
see ancient explosions and many slow processes that would be made to
have the appearance of age and even past history. God is not
capable of deception, but the young earth position seems to suggest
that God created the world to appear older than it really is.
Age
of rocks: Radiometric
dating is an accurate means of obtaining the age of a sample. Its use
is validated by the dating of historical artifacts of known age. The
age of the sample is found by careful analysis where the proportion of
parent and daughter isotopes for a given radioactive material within
the sample. Since the radioactive parent element decays at a known
rate, the age can be inferred by the amount of parent material
remaining in the sample. There are many radioactive elements that occur
naturally in common materials. While there may be a margin of error,
due to difficulty measuring trace quantities, using multiple
measurements from different samples improves accuracy. Any inaccuracy
is not going to be orders of magnitude off, especially when
averaged from many samples.
The age of the oldest mineral grains on Earth is 4.4 billion years.
Apollo moon rocks have been dated to 4.5 billion years ago, along with
some of the oldest meteorites. All of these sources
agreeing
closely, so the age of the solar system is estimated at 4.5 billion
years.
Layered
Strata: Over time
sediments collect in some areas like in seabeds and erode from other
areas like mountains. Where sediments collect, they form
layers
that are characterized by the conditions from which they
formed.
Since they form sequentially, one on top of the other, they provide
another avenue for dating. The major layers within this strata
and
certain markers are identifiable by there composition and are
consistent world wide. Some of these layers form with the seasons and
leave annual sub-layers. Within the major layers there are
radioisotopes that can be used for dating. Once an identified
layer is dated, that date can be applied globally for specimens within
that layer. The United States Geological Survey publishes the
established dates for all major layers within the strata.
One common young earth creation claim is that these layers were formed
during the biblical flood. But this is simply not the case. Such an
event would jumble everything up in no order at all.
What we actually see are narrow layers, with consistent composition
reflecting atmospheric and oceanic compositions of each age.
Additionally, fossils are always found within the appropriate layer for
their age. Simple small shelly fossils in the Cambrian layer, dinosaurs
in the Triassic through the Cretaceous layers, and finally large
mammals in the uppermost layers of the strata. Of course the strata is
much
more detailed than this and is very consistent on a world wide basis.
There is no singular disaster mechanism that could produce such an
ordered sorting of fossils and deposition of minerals as we find in the
strata.
Cosmology:
The theory of
relativity forms the basis for big bang cosmology. The many
verifications of the big bang provide sound evidence for old earth
creationism, but
runs counter to the young earth creation point of view. Big bang
cosmology shows how the universe expands over time. The age of the
universe can be estimated from the rate of this expansion yielding 13.7
billion years since the moment of creation.
Nearly all cosmological processes require large amounts of time to
complete. We see these processes ongoing in various places at different
stages. Processes like star formation, galaxy mergers, planet
formation, star life cycles, element production, the fading of
supernova
remnants, stellar orbits, etc all occur over long periods of time and
are seen at all stages of completion.
Misinformation
and
Falsehood
Junk
Science:
Junk or fringe science represents the erroneous claims of science from
non-expert, often uneducated individuals. Often these are over zealous
individuals looking to prove their belief, and propose wild theories
that disregard known principles to legitimize their view. They often
rationalize their form of science with their belief that the Bible can
only be interpreted one way, and that interpretation is infallible.
This
leads to quick acceptance of incomplete or inaccurate findings because
it fits their point of view. These people may sincerely believe their
claims are valid, but simply lack the scientific understanding or the
will
to see the error in it. Fringe science is not limited to
young earth theories, there are
many forms of junk science that generally have a non-scientific agenda.
Fraud:
Some individuals have
learned to capitalize on the demand for young earth "science", and so
produce the sought after data by deception. One famous young earth
creationist, known as "Dr Dino" created a ministry aimed at teaching
young earth science and made a multi-million dollar business out of it.
He gave lectures, took donations, sold books and fossil replicas, and
even has his own theme park. Most of the information he distributed
was false or grossly misrepresented. He is now serving a ten year
prison term for tax evasion and other forms of fraud. In spite of this,
his son still runs his organization while he is in prison.
Spread of Misinformation: Due
to the lack of scientific evidence in support of a
young Earth, some proponents of young earth creationism resort to the
acceptance and use of junk science. Once an unqualified or deceptive
individual produces a piece of false information, it is gladly accepted
by those eager to find justification of a young earth. These people
trust those supplying it because they are endorsed by pastors or other
leaders in
the young earth movement. They believe that the sources of this
information would not mislead them, and so they pass it along as well.
The problem is that there is no check to junk science. Without any
mechanism for evaluating the accuracy of the content, it is easy for
false or erroneous information to be spread. Mainstream science is
subject to peer review before even being allowed to be published. All
sources must be documented and original work must be backed up with
data. The theory or finding receives further
scrutiny after publication from the scientific
community at
large. Any error found in the work will then be publicly exposed. By
this process mainstream science maintains a high level of quality
control that is not practiced in the fringe science arena.
Practical
Considerations
for Young Earth Creationism
A young earth view rejects some of the very science that
provides
proof of
God. This evidence was incorporated into creation for us to discover
and to share with those who have not yet met the Lord. But this
powerful message is denied, and hidden away, when it should be
celebrated.
Another problem that accompanies the rejection of science is that
through science the creation account is verified. The old
earth view
of
creation lines up beautifully with scientific findings. It is not
just compatible, but shows how Genesis provides a stunning degree of
precision in predicting the future discovery of our time. Again, young
earth creationism misses grand revelations of God in nature, that are
proclamations of His glory and proof to the world.
Science has accidentally unearthed so many lines of evidence in support
of a created universe that atheism's best argument, are the failures of
young earth creationism. First, by the young earth claims
from junk
science, which are easy to disprove. And second, by making scripture
out
to be in conflict with well established facts. So young earth
creationism is really the atheists best friend and only hope of
maintaining credibility in public view.
Often times it is difficult to admit when you are wrong, especially
with such a core belief. I know this was the case for me, having been a
young earth creationist most of my life. I used to just avoid any
subject matter that conflicted with my own world view. Refusing to
listen to other opinions. But eventually I realized that this
approach was not rational or biblical. If
my views were true, then they should hold up to testing and scrutiny.
It was through years of pursuit and study that I came to realize the
validity of the old earth position. Through this experience I realized
faith and reverence for God as I had never known. I had to admit I was
wrong, I had to trust God when data didn't appear to go right. Then I
saw revelation of God within the discoveries of those who deny Him. In
my
lifetime, science has turned 180 degrees, revealing God everywhere. As
believers, we have nothing to fear from science. The case for God
keeps getting stronger, and I believe this will continue as
science advances.
Return
to Creation Models.
updated Oct 22, 2012
(c) 2012 RareUniverse.Org
