I have known a number of really amazing scientists who are believers. Their faith didn’t stop them from being great scientists anymore than their science stopped them from being faithful. I doubt any of them interpreted the evidence without at least having the thought of God at the back of their minds.
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I guess one could think of some reason why earth would appear old while it is young for all intents and purposes…
One way to think about it is that God had this entire history of Life starting from the big bang to Humanity in his mind when he decided to create, but he just fast forwarded to the point that interested Him and created the universe as how it would be in His mind at a point of time that he was interested in.
This is similar to an author writing a story or a video game. There is always a back story and indications of whatever happened in the back story are found in the story being written…
Such an act wouldn’t necessarily deceptive. I think it would fall more under #3 while leaving extensive evidence of an old creation.
@r_speir is probably reading this book:
The cited sources are Austin and Snelling (1998) and Snelling (2005).
The fact that these weren’t published in geological journals should speak volumes.
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Ahh, Snelling. Isn’t he the guy who took photos of some unconformity with people conveniently “accidentally” placed in front of the rock fractures?
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As so often in natural sciences, radiometric data is imperfect and noisy for all kind of reasons. Nevertheless, with tens of thousands of measurements there is a very strong signal coming through that indicates an old Earth. Trying to use a few examples of noisy data points to invalidate that signal is a logical fail.
Consider this: if there wasn’t a signal, the RATE group would have had no reason to exist.
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Tree rings are not an “eyewitness” in any sense. They do not always form at a constant rate.
I was just wondering, what rock formations on Mars were produced by the Great Flood? What’s the YEC explanation for the geology of Mars? Created with the appearance of age?
On a related note, I wonder what kinds of measurements, if any, have been done in situ on Mars rocks to determine their age, given the numerous rover expeditions to the planet?
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Oh, turns out there are even names for geological periods in Mars’ history:
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Okay, turns out the Curiosity rover did the first in situ radiometric dating experiments on Mars:
Results were apparently unsurprising. But I guess they all lied and threw away unmatching dates because they secretly hate God bla bla bla bla.
Paper here:
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Just because interpretations are different doesn’t mean that all interpretations are equally defensible. This phrase, “same evidence, different interpretations” is meant to draw attention to the fact that when you start with a particular worldview ‘lens’, then all the evidence gets interpreted through that lens. Things that don’t fit are either implausibly ‘made to fit’ or they are labeled anomalies.
It in no way is intended to suggest that people are justified in rejecting the biblical worldview in their interpretations of the evidence we have.
Why? The Bible says that the scoffers willingly deny these things. (2 Peter 3). Biblically, we would not expect that non-believers would be entirely honest in their assessment of the evidence.
However, we do have at least some examples of non-believing scientists agreeing with YEC’s, at least as it regards the evidence for unguided evolution. (Steele et al).
Lynn Margulis admitted that we creationists are right! (She just rejected God so she refused to become one herself). " The critics [of evolution], including the creationist critics, are right about their criticism."
How does this follow? Nowhere in Scripture do we get the idea that mankind should be using our powers of reason autonomously (as in, without any regard of God’s revelation to us). Read the book of Job, and you’ll find out how God reacts to man’s “autonomous reason”.
Yes it would. God is not the author of confusion.
See first response.
No. In fact, I’d say that when God decided to flood the whole earth, that was pretty surprising.
The alleged “appearance of age” largely disappears once one acknowledges the global Flood and God’s supernatural creation (the very things Peter said scoffers would deny). These arguments all depend upon an interpretive paradigm of uniformitarianism that is inherently blind to unique historical events that have no modern counterparts. They also depend on the assumption that our present-day knowledge and understanding are both complete enough to allow us to accurately extrapolate over any period of time we may wish.
It’s unclear what you’re getting at here. Are you unaware that scientists are saying Mars has had massive catastrophic flooding in the past?
Areological, surely?
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Indeed. When did Olympus Mons form, as Mars has long dissipated the internal heat necessary to produce such a volcano? And how on Earth does the flood explain cratering on Mercury?
Questions like these are not deep, technical, and require advance scientific qualifications to pounder. Anyone can see the conclusions to be drawn. There are no YEC explanation which make any sense.
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Why should YECs be surprised or afraid of a date of 4 billion + years? You know there is something that you all should know here but probably do not.
John Hartnett actually came up with a 5D model of a young universe that would perfectly describe accelerated aging of the system. Are you aware of it? Perhaps a study of his model would help you to see why billions of years on planets in the solar system might be expected after all.
How did the Fountains of the Deep flood water make it from Earth to Mars?
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When did Olympus Mons explode, please provide the evidence? And when was Mercury cratered? This I have to hear.
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As far as cratering in our solar system goes, Mike Oard has some ideas:
Simple. During the creation of the solar system in the first 6 days of Creation. Some disagree and say it was during the Flood. I disagree with them because I am with those who believe the much stronger evidence is during Creation Week.