Why write this book?
Over the years, I found that I was asked about the age of the earth many times. Some had heard or been taught the Young Earth Creationist interpretation, that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old and that Noah’s flood covered the whole earth about 4000 years ago. Sometimes they found it difficult to understand that the science really has good reasons to believe that the Earth is much older. They often had been told that the rocks really show that a global flood was required to explain them. I knew these interpretations were false, but I had never put together a coherent explanation. I decided to write an article to help. I decided to choose examples from an area that I am really familiar with, and I knew had many great examples that I could include. The more I thought through it, the more examples I found, and it expanded into a book.
I found that despite explaining that, as a Christian, I believe that the Bible is telling the truth throughout, including the first chapters of Genesis, I needed to go farther to show that discoveries can fit with scripture. It really wouldn’t be fair to just demonstrate that Young Earth Creationist (YEC) explanations are wrong from the data in nature. I needed to examine the Young Earth Creationist’s arguments from scripture. Afterall, no YEC started by looking at nature and decided that Earth must be a few thousand years old or that rocks on the Earth were mainly deposited by on giant flood. They all started with their choice of how to interpret Genesis.
I also needed to look at other possible interpretations and see if there are options that honor both the Bible as the Word of God and the record of God’s work that we find in nature. The book became divided into two parts as described below. In Part 2, where I look at data from the Bible and how it compares to archaeology and other sciences, I consider options that I see for correlating the two. Spoiler alert. While I give my preferences for interpretation, some other explanations could be viable as well. While we can be sure that some options are not the answer, all options have strengths and points that are not so certain. When we compare the various options with the scientific data to questions like: when did Adam and Eve live? and when was Noah’s flood?, we can decide if some are ruled out or which options are better.
What’s in the book?
There are two main sections:
Part One: Evaluates Young Earth Creation explanations, especially using one area (but a big one): Texas, New Mexico, northern Mexico and the Western Gulf of Mexico. I don’t think there is a better area anywhere to study the entire geologic record and I have studied and worked here for a long time (not geologically).
Part Two: Here we try to go back and look what both the Bible and science tell us about our history. I look at three questions:
- Can the Genesis 1 account of creation over seven days be reconciled with the scientific understanding of time?
- Can the biblical account of Adam and Eve be reconciled with scientific data?
- Is the biblical account of Noah’s flood a record of a real historical event and if so, what can we say about it?
Here are some of the topics discussed: (Bold signifies most significant discussion):
- Questions about Science
- How does a geologist date a rock? 30-31
- Was the geologic time scale built to make fossils prove evolution? 18-19, 73-74
- Is geology uniformitarian? (And what is that anyway?) 32, 124-125
- What about evolution? 69-70, 74-75, 214, 231, 281-282
- What about fossils? 69-77
- What other evidence is there besides geology that tells us the earth is really old? 187-188
- What about radiometric and carbon-14 dating? 293-299
- What rocks are claimed to be from Noah’s flood? 142-144
- Examples from rocks that are difficult to place in Noah’s flood:
Young earth creationists claim that much of the rock record formed during Noah’s flood. We see things in the record that just were not part of a major flood.
- Rocks deposited in deserts and arid environments: 99-101, 109, 156
- Ancient reefs: 82-83, 95, 103-105, 113, 117, 157-162
- Ancient caves (paleokarsts): 84
- Fossils
- Stromatolites: 79-80, 82-83, 101
- Coal: 121-122, 132-133
- Dinosaur tracks: 113-116, 122, 163
- Rocks hardened then folded: 41, 90-94, 118-120, 152-156
- Ancient soils: 81, 87, 97-98, 162
- Volcanic rocks formed on land (subaerial): 45, 120, 126
- Intrusive igneous rocks: 126-127
Chart of Examples: 151
List of key problems: 44, 185-186
Examples that tell us that the rocks after the YEC “flood deposits” took more time than they say
Young earth creationists claim that various parts of the rock record formed after Noah’s flood? Could they have formed since Noah’s flood?
- Too much rock: 142-144, 166-168
- Ancient reefs: 117, 136, 175
- Rocks hardened then folded: 135-136
- Ancient soils: 128
- Volcanos: 126-127
- Coals: 132-133
List of key problems: 186-187
Young Earth Creation’s Claims
How old is the earth and when was the flood? 26-28, 37-38
What about human and dinosaur tracks? 113-116
What about “plate tectonics”? Was the earth flatter before the flood and the mountains formed later? 58-59, 108-109, 155-156, 272
If Noah’s flood was the biggest geologic event in earth’s history, do “flood geologists” agree about with which rocks were deposited by the flood? 142-143
Questions about the Bible
Did God create the world “mature” and that is why it looks like is millions of years old? (Appearance of Age) 24-25, 26, 29, 39, 145
How does an old earth affect how we look at God? 192-193, 282-288
Chart of basic ways to interpret the creation and Adam: 238
How does this author view Genesis 1? 208-210
What is a day in Genesis 1? 197-210
Was Adam real? 212-213, 277
Was there death before Adam’s sin? 27, 203-204
Does genetics prove that Adam and Eve were real? 225-230
Was Noah’s flood real? 255-256
Was Noah’s flood global? 256-268
Is there enough water for a global flood? 263-265
What about the animals? 267-268
How does this author interpret Noah’s flood? 277-278
What about pre-Adam hominids? 214-236
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