The Age of the Earth, Evolution, and the Flood

I am a Christian, and yes I agree with the theory of evolution. Let me just say from the poll, you can't "believe" in evolution... You can agree with the theory, but you can't believe in something like that. Just in the opposite way, you can believe in a God, but you can't really agree with it. They mean two different things. But to start off, one big belief about Christians (and Jews) is that we can't agree with evolution because the Bible has the creation story. However, most people really don't understand is that the Old Testament was written in the world of the ancients. To them, the stories and facts really did not matter. It was the theme or lessons from stories that mattered to them. This is true among most historical epics. The meaning behind the creation stories is that God created the earth and made man in his image. They are not meant to be a way to explain how the earth came to be, but rather that God created it all. I believe that evolution is a very good theory, with God as the one in control of it all, guiding it with His plan. With the story of Adam and Eve, the main principal of the story is that with knowledge, we lose our innocence and that we are sinful people. Do I believe that God created the earth in 7 days and He destroyed the world with a flood? I accept the theory of evolution as a means of how mankind came about, and I have my doubts about the flood, but I simply do not know, and will not know until I die. But I also accept the fact that they could have very well happened. But the main theme behind these stories is what is important. The Bible IS NOT a science textbook for Christians! If it was, the earth would be 10,000 years old. It is meant to be a spiritual and moral guide for us. We have to look past these basic stories and look for the lessons, just as in the parables Jesus offers us. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when evaluating if science and religion can make sense together. The fact is, that they cannot! To humans, God cannot make sense because human knowledge cannot comprehend him. However, our faith is what can save us.

Jesusrules You are right when you say that the Bible is not a science text book. But IT IS a historical book. It is well known that the Jew’s reverence for the Torah resulted in a very accurate transmission of the texts, and this applies to the book of Genesis as well. (Below is a link to an example of the Old Testaments amazing accuracy)

The Bible explicitly states that the earth was created around 6000 years ago with a world wide flood 1500 years after that. If you start doubting that foundational part of the Bible, then why not doubt the New Testament as well? For me I have no problem believing that God made the earth just as He said He did, and after many years of study into creationism AND evolution, I am confident that I can back up this decision up with hard facts.

Believe me when I say this; the WHOLE bible can be trusted to be historically accurate, the theory of creationism can prove this, you have absolutely NO reason to resort to fanciful stories like the ‘theory of evolution’, creationism explains the world around us much better! Have a search through the FAQ’s in the website below, you will be amazed at how easily the Bible can be substantiated through science!!! The theory of evolution is just not necessary!

http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5255/

There are currently several hundred independent scientific methods for dating the age of the earth and life on the earth. All show that the earth is billions of years old. However, all the methods depend upon the laws of nature not changing. For example, some dating methods assume that radioactive elements have always decayed at the same rate. Other methods depend upon the theory of special relativity always operating the same way it does today. For the earth to be 6000 years old, it is necessary for God to have altered the laws of nature to fool us. This theory is sometimes called "God the trickster." It is also possible that the earth was created last Thursday, with all the human memories, remnants of antiquity, fossil evidence, and radioactive elements all created precisely so as to fool us into thinking the creation was well before last Thursday.

I don't see any particular harm in believing in God the trickster. The key is that all of God's tricks are consistent with a universe that is billions of years old. So you cannot blame scientists for believing what God wanted them to believe based on the evidence.

Probably the best and the ONLY evidence that is in favour of evolution is the uranium decay chain dating mechanisms, I am happy to admit to that. But creationism has come a long way to fitting this into a 6000 year old earth; it’s called accelerated nuclear decay; http://www.icr.org/rate/

The best evidence against radiometric dates that produce ages of billions of years is the fact that the short-lived isotope of carbon14 is found in almost ALL substances on earth. C14 decays at a rate that in 100 000 years after its origin there shouldn’t be ANY C14 left, but almost all substances on earth have enough C14 in them to indicate that they are no older than 50 000 years. This fact basically negates the old ages from other dating mechanisms. http://www.icr.org/article/117/

God isn’t tricking us; we just have to understand nature properly.