Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Why I am a Young Earth Creationist

Vox Popoli and Crystal (of The Crystal Lake Observatory) have both posted about neo-Darwinian evolution. I was a Theist Evolutionist for much of my life, but I am a dedicated Young Earth Creationist. Answers in Genesis, the Institution of Creation Research, and others too numerous to mention have re-enforced this position.

First, let me state my axioms:

  • The Holy Bible, in its original form in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts are documents written by human hands but inspired directly by the Holy Spirit.

  • These manuscripts form the complete, accurate, and exclusive record of God's communications to mankind as a whole.

  • The Holy Spirit has acted to protect the extant manuscripts of Scripture. The differences that do exist in current manuscripts can be reconsiled using textual analysis, and do NOT represent issues that raise doubt on any significant historical or theological issue.

  • The Lord God of Israel is not a liar. His statements (via Scripture) are accurate and trustworthy.

If all of these are true, then the current theories of evolution can't be true. Genesis has the creatures of the sea and air created on day five, and the land creatures created on day 6. For the moment we'll set aside the issue of whether Genesis 1's day is really 24 hours long. We will also not worry about sea mammals, since it's possible in "era days" for the land mammals to "return" to the sea. Neo-Darwinian thought has the birds evolving out of land animals, but Genesis clearly states that the birds came before any land animals existed. This is a flat contradiction.

If God had desired to tell the Creation story in such a way to agree with neo-Darwinian evolution, it would be easy to do so. Most of the other creation myths have differing, or indeterminite times. He could have even kept the "days", and just reordered animal creation. Instead, Genesis presents a creation story that is incompatable with scientific thought of this time.

Time and again, the Bible has stood up to the claim of myth. Civilizations and cities only it mentions are found time and again. Egyptology claimed that the Exodus had to be a myth, because no timeline could match up. Now, it's Egyptology that realizes that its times are all wrong.

The Bible has proven itself time and again, while man's wisdom fails. I see no reason to call Genesis 1 wrong when the rest is right.

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