A New Look at an Old Earth; Resolving the Conflict Between the Bible and Science

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Summary: Old Earth does not equal evolution
Review: For years, I held on to the YE position. I read Gish, Morris, Ian Taylor and a few others. As a YE, I equated an OE with evolution. An OE was a compromise in my mind. With that view in mind, I decided to read the book with much skepticism.

Upon completion of the book, I walked away a believer of an OE!! Don uses an illustration that I feel needs mentioning. He demonstrates that God's Creation and His Word are revelations of Himself to us. Theology is the interpretation of God's Word. Science is the interpretation of God's Creation. Since both of them, Creation and the Bible, are created by Him a contradiction CANNOT occur. If there is one, we need to re-evaluate our interpretation, whether it is theological or scientific. As a Christian, I believe I had to re-evaluate my interpretation of the Bible. Just as Christians had to re-evaluate their stance about geocentricism, we must do the same with the age of the universe.

There is too much evidence pointing towards an OE. I argued YE tooth and nail with my secular friends. In retrospect, I am embarassed I even used them. Don sheds light on YE arguments and explains how they are deficient. As a YE at the time, I stood in amazement that all of the scientists, geologists, anthropologists, astronomers, and etc. could be wrong about the earth (ie rock dating and fossils) and the universe. The earth, according to the Bible (my interpretation), was created in six 24 hour days. Don gives an alternative explanation for creation which I found enlightening (He does NOT support theistic evolution!!). He also explains how science uses carbon dating, potassium argon, and other methods of dating for rocks and bones in a way anybody can understand.

This book is a must read for every Christian. As Christians we are to make disciples of every tongue and tribe. I sincerely believe that God was patient during His creation just as He is patient and long suffering with us. Let us not make the age of rocks the stumbling block for future disciples, but the Eternal ROCK we love to worship named Jesus Christ.

Rating:
Summary: Great Look at the Fraud of Young-Earthism
Review: Many Christians blindly subscribe to young-earthism, never looking at old-earth creationism. The YEarthers continue to confuse Christians and turn away skeptics. "The world is only 5000 years old!" they so, no wonder they turn people away and confuse others! Read this book and remove this stumbling block from Christianity. Also check out Ross' "creation & time" & "the genesis question" and darrick dean's "is the truth out there?"
Stop the YECs and you will stop the skeptics!

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Summary: A great book that the young-earthers cannot refute
Review: Stoner begins by warning that unscientific books written by Christians bring discredit upon Christianity and drive non-Christians away from the Gospel. Unfortunately, following this thinking, Stoner may be a major culprit. He simply accepts standard uniformitarian thinking as fact. His treatment of dating methods appears to show a complete misunderstanding of them. He says, for instance, that the circular reasoning of using fossils is obviated by the fact that fossils are used for dating only when they first have been shown to agree with isotopic dates. First of all, index fossils, and the concepts behind using them, were used for over a century before isotopic dating even existed. Second, one of the major ways that dating results are evaluated for presumed reliability is their agreement with relative dating based on index fossils. Consequently, the circular reasoning still stands.

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Summary: What do the Hebrew language experts have to say?
Review: The Bible uses allegory, figures of speech and other literary devices on occasion. Often this is obvious, but occasionally scholars disagree on whether a passage is literal or symbolic. But is this the case in Genesis 1-11? What do the Hebrew grammarians, lexicographers and linguists have to say? The answer is a resounding "no". There is no way in which the Hebrew text of Genesis 1-11 can mean anything other than what the fresh-faced child, picking it up for the first time without preconceptions, has always seen as obvious.

The following is an extract from a letter written to David C.C. Watson on April 23, 1984, by Professor James Barr, who was at the time Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. Please note that Professor Barr, consistent with his neo-orthodox views, does not believe that Genesis is literally true, he is just telling us, openly and honestly, what the language means.

Professor Barr said,

"Probably, so far as l know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Gen. 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience (b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story (c) Noah's flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark. Or, to put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the 'days' of creation to be long eras of time, the figures of years not to be chronological, and the flood to be a merely local Mesopotamian flood, are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know."

There are many theologians (as opposed to Hebrew language experts) who insist on long days, for example. But the above makes it clear that it is hardly likely to be the text itself that leads them to this conclusion. Rather, it is almost certainly the desire to accommodate and harmonize opinions and world views (in this case, the idea of long geological ages) which arise from outside Scripture.

Of course, arising from outside Scripture does not necessarily make anything wrong; but in this case, the clear, unmistakable teaching of the scriptural text is completely incompatible with, even opposed to, the extra-biblical viewpoint we are considering. It is, therefore, completely unacceptable to claim that Scripture may actually be teaching this view!

Faced with such a unanimous consensus of scholarly linguistic opinion (backed by the common sense understanding of countless millions of Christians through the ages), it is no longer intellectually honest to say that the issue of the time and mode of creation (or the related issue of global versus local flood) is in the same category as disagreements over mode of baptism, church government, or prophecy. Disagreements over these latter issues arise from different understandings of Scripture itself, not from seeking to accommodate (or to defuse debate over) a world view that directly opposes a teaching of Scripture which is unanimously declared by experts to be the plain meaning of the text!

I suggest that the only intellectually honest approach for a Christian is either to believe what the writer of Genesis is saying, or reject it as untrue.

To disbelieve it brings the following problems:

1. How can you know which other parts of Scripture are in error as well--that is, how can you reliably know anything at all about Christianity?

2. What about the New Testament evidence that Jesus and the Apostles (including Paul) regarded Genesis 1-11 as inspired Scripture, giving us 'true truth' about historical characters and events?

3. What happens to the very basis of the Gospel - that is, the Fall into sin, death and bloodshed of the whole creation for which the Saviour shed His blood in death (I Corinthians 15:21, 22; Romans 5:12; Romans 8:19-22)? Those who insist that the days could be millions of years often forget that these "millions of years", in the popular view, are represented by layers of fossils which are interpreted not as the results of the biblical Flood, but as creatures having lived (with struggle/pain/bloodshed) and died before anyone called Adam could have appeared.

To put it simply, there were Genesis "days" before man appeared and if you read the days as "ages" (remember that these "ages" are said to be shown by layers containing dead things called fossils) you've just put death and bloodshed before Adam!

If the reader is by now feeling despair, the answer to the dilemma is to look again at the modern world view you may have been trying to harmonize with Scripture. It is not--it cannot by definition be--based on the scientific method (repeatable testing and observation). It is based on faith in the opinions of men who were not there at the beginning, and who are part of a humanity in rebellion against its Maker.

Finally, there is a large amount of scientific evidence consistent with a recent, six-day creation and a global flood. To accept, by faith, the biblical statement "Thy Word is true from the beginning" (Psalm 119:160) is a reasonable position, which reasonable people, including large numbers of highly qualified, intellectually honest scientists, have accepted over the popular, atheistic, philosophical alternative.

For additional information, I recommend visiting the "Answers in Genesis", "Institute for Creation Research" and "True Origin" websites.

Also, I'd recommend picking up a copy of books like, "Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe" by Steve Austin, "The Mythology of Modern Dating Methods" by John Woodmorappe and "The Revised Quote Book" (available from the Answers in Genesis online book store).

Rating:
Summary: Great Look at the Fraud of Young-Earthism
Review: This book fights the spiritual war against the "end-justifies-the-means" young earth cult. If you paid hard-earned money to send your children to a Christian school (as I have) only to have them exposed to hideous Kent Hovind videos, you will appreciate this book's clear exposition of the young earth fallacy. I never understood how World War II Germany could follow Hitler until the young earth propaganda machine deceived so many Christians. I hope others will join me in loaning a copy of this book to a young earth follower in their area. This book does a great job in challenging us to reduce the young earth following by taking a stand for God's truth.

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Summary: Best Layman's book available on Age of Earth / Creation
Review: This is an excellent read for both the scientific expert, and layman alike.

As other fellow Christians have expressed here, I am absolutely heartbroken at the level of damage which the fraud purveying "Young Earth" cult has done within the Christian church. Not only damage to the Christian witness and affirmation of absolute truth, but the creation of absurd and unecessary "stumbling blocks" which YEC'ers insist on placing in the way to faith in the Christian Gospel. All while using fraud, deception, anti science, phony credentials, untested and/or fully discredited arguments, false information, and an embrace of virtual gnosticism in their total denial of empirical reality.

If the Christian community could somehow come together on this creation issue and focus on the battle against Atheistic Darwinism (which truly has a huge number of discrediting scientific problems)...instead of arguing over the age of the Earth and the Universe (which are simply not in dispute per any rational approach to the incontravertible mountain of undisputed evidence), then the Christian voice would have credible access to the "creation" debate. Within science, academia, the media, the educated unbeleiver mission field, etc etc etc.

It is inexcuseable, that a book like this even needs to be written, but, nonetheless it certainly did need to be. Couple this book with Hugh Ross's "Genesis and Time" among many others, and you can rest once again on the firm foundation of reasoned faith, matching transcendant truth and matching physical reality. And put aside the absurd and discredited claims of the YEC cult.

I don't understand how this book can be out of print now, considering the demand. Have to check with the publisher. I need several more copies to loan out and give away.

This is the single and only topic area, where certain small elements of the Christian church have fully embraced the abomination of absolute deception, instead of embracing the light of general revelatory truth. As such, this battle needs to be fought, and fought well, (with the truth in the spirit of love).

This YEC business is simpy a repeat of inquisition era Geocentrist type thought, which has no place in the arena of God's revealed truth. Come together brethren and let's unite around God's revelation, instead of ruining our collective witness by coupling it to pseudo scientific!