In this post, I discuss 13 issues that come from the study of nature and which point to the reality of “deep time” and contradict the Flood Geology (FG) models for History. It would not be difficult to keep going. When we interpret the Bible, we are concerned about exegesis vs eisegesis. Are we finding in scripture what we want to find? The same applies to the world. When we examine God’s revelation in nature, are we forcing our views onto the scientific data? Eisegesis of God’s creation is also error. In each of these issues, the data point toward an old earth and away from flood geology.
When most scientists discover that some process or bed took far less time to form than previously believed, they are excited and often will work hard to get the ideas published. One problem for the YE creationist positions is that every hill is a hill to die on. If one bed or set of beds takes longer than a year to form then it cannot be part of a deposit from the Genesis flood. If any scientific measurement tells us that more than 10,000 years is involved in the universe, then the YEC model fails. Here, I have not touched some of the other examples like other arid environment examples, cave systems and paleo-caves, salt dome formation, other coal characteristics, deltas and their history, glaciation, incised valleys, dendrochronology, etc.
I understand that for many Christians, the age of the Earth is strictly an issue of Biblical interpretation. Nevertheless, if the YEC position is that the scientific data supports their models, then these issues should be recognized and discussed. For many, a few pages from a YEC author on a scientific question satisfies them but it seldom impresses many scientists. It has to hold up under critical examination.
I hope these will be helpful to those who are not sure about the age of the Earth but want to learn. I hope they will be helpful to some who lean toward scientific explanations but see the YEC websites as perhaps being valid alternatives. I do not wish to be a stumbling block in the faith for those who hold the YEC view. Regardless of which view we hold, God is still on His throne.
PS I want to thank Dr. Lorence Collins for reading though these and providing many helpful edits.
I think that the real issues are whether God could create a Universe without a history, and whether He could create a Universe with a history.
We can see the edge of the Universe 46 billion miles away.
A absolutely powerful god could choose to make a universe with an apparent universe. Such a god would be deceptive. The God of the Bible is always truthful. When we are saying that we see a galaxy such as GN-z11 that is 13.4 billion light years away, that is a measure of distance, but it also tells us about the time that it took the light to reach us. I trust that God did not deceive us by making light travel faster or be created in transit. If He created it with a history, then we know little about him.