I’m curious about how YECs address a variety of practical problems that arise if the Genesis Chapter 1 & 2 accounts are taken literally. Most of the solutions I have heard have no basis science or the Bible and either rely on the God of the gaps argument, and/or on some improbable scenario. Here are a few of them, and I could list many others:
God told the animals to be fruitful and multiply, but if there was no death then unmitigated procreation would have led to far more animals than the earth could support in a very short time.
How did the first pair of chimpanzees know how to do all those things that modern chimpanzees learn over the course of their lifetimes from their parents are from other champanzees? Did God give them false memories of their upbringing?
Speaking of false histories, was every photon of light from distant stars created ex nihilo in transit from that star to earth?
Though not part of the Genesis account, Noah’s ark plays a central role in YEC. How did all the animals get to all the continents?
Basically they have to invoke multiple, undocumented miracles that serve no purpose other than to rescue their preferred interpretation. Noah’s flood being a prime example.
Some YEC organizations have a wholesale approach which is to just ignore the problems.
“No apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field of study, including science, history, and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture obtained by historical-grammatical interpretation.”–Answers in Genesis, “Statement of Faith”
“No apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any field of study, including science, history, and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture obtained by historical-grammatical interpretation.”–Answers in Genesis, “Statement of Faith”
But the teaching of “You shall not bear false witness” is pretty clear, yet AiG does not care if claimed evidence contradicts that. The problem is that AiG pretends that “the clear teaching of Scripture obtained by historical-grammatical interpretation” equals their beliefs, rather than being serious about actually doing good interpretation of Scripture or of creation.
Well, that’s certainly clear. But it makes me wonder why the Answers in Genesis folks bother debating the science at all. Seems it would be easier for them to just repeat this quote any time something contradicts their views.
I studied radiometric dating some time back, and discovered that YECs have produced a creative rebuttal to its use in dating the earth to 4.5 billion years: during the six days of creation when everything was first coming into existence, matter at the atomic level was not yet operating as it does today vis-a-vis radioactive decay. That is, the standard decay rates that we can measure today did not apply to atoms were they were first formed. Thus the dating of rocks using radiometric decay produces ficticious results.
Or being serious about the history or the grammar! Their work is almost always based on English translation, which means they’re not analyzing the actual text, and I have yet to see an AiG article mention anything about the cultural, historical, and literary context – indeed they go out of their way to reject both cultural and literary and use circular reasoning with respect to the historical.
Which means that the AiG statement of faith is the first thing they violate!
Great post and there are simple answers (which have been published for decades)
The first few are basically the same issue
God created man in His own image right…do you read “child” anywhere in that Bible statement?
The point is, the bible says Adam was created fully formed and grown with the ability to walk and talk. We also know that God took the animals he created to Adam and he named each one that God took to him…so Adam could talk, think etc.
The point is, why limit God to the point where the “mouse trap” must evolve given a mouse trap cannot function without all its components…the biocycle and ecosystem is no different. Thej we have gravity, it cant evolve its either there or it isnt…so why the issue with a mature universe, especially when God can travel at the speed of thought?
Now for the last part…Noahs ark. You dont read your bible well…the earth was a super continent even in.evolutionary books. The movement of animals of a similar kind between continents present the same dilemma for you as it does YEC…only we have an historical answer in the bible record. YEC believe that the iceage came after the initial stages of the flood.
Yes, that was the purpose of this post. I assumed there were few if any YECs here, which maybe was wrong. YECs will be the experts on what YECs think, not those who oppose YEC.
Of course, they publish what they think quite a bit, so it is really not assuming to quote them. That said, I think the average YEC leaning person in the pew does not really know what the big organizations put out, and the positions they have, but rather just identify with them without examining their positions, so it is not fair to lump them all together, just as it is not fair to lump all who accept evolution all together as there is a spectrum of belief and diversity of positions.
