Bible and Science: False Premise Old Earth

After their first year of college, an overwhelming majority of Christian youths give up their faith in favor of an atheistic worldview built upon the foundation of evolution. Granted this reality, it is reasonable for evolutionists to claim that the belief in evolution is not based off of presuppositions, but scientific proof that is irrefutable. After all, the presupposition of the believer is that God exists. The presupposition of the non-believer is that there is no God. Thus, if your presupposition can only be swayed based on strong evidence to the contrary, clearly the secular concept of evolution is the only premise that holds up against scientific scrutiny. But, consider the possibility that the premise of the atheist is not that God doesn’t exist. What if there is another factor that makes the theory of evolution appealing and atheism the likely conclusion that both believers and non-believers hold in common? I contest, this X factor exists and it is nothing less than the presupposition that the earth is billions of years old.

The first assumption by most Christian apologists is that the presupposition that sways people toward disbelief is something more like evolution. I contest that most Christians used to be taught that the theory of evolution was incompatible with the teachings of the Bible. Saying that things naturally evolved from a non-living state into complex organisms completely eliminates the necessity of God, in most people’s minds. If not, it at least discredits the possibility of a literal Biblical Creation. Young people are normally the ones who are swayed toward disbelief, through the teaching of evolution, but not exclusive to the idea that the world is billions of years old.

From the earliest days of my memory, I remember learning from a variety of sources that the earth was billions of years old. In all of my years in public school I was never even exposed to Young Earth Creationism, be it in the church, on television, or in the classroom. It was my freshman year of high school when I was first exposed to the notion that some people believed that the world was no more than 10,000 years old. And the way it was presented to me was from my biology teacher.

He was talking about the theory of evolution and wanted his students to be clear that it does not necessarily teach that there is no God. But, he asserted, the belief in God is not scientific. And there are groups out there who believe that they can prove that the belief in God is scientific.  These people, he told us, are creationists. Creationism, he dictated, is not science. If you needed any proof that creationism was not science, creationists believe that the world is less than 10,000 years old.

After hearing him say that, my conclusion was, “He’s right. Creationism cannot be science because it is a proven fact that the earth is billions of years old.” To suggest that the world is any younger than billions of years means you are not intelligent and possibly crazy. Even worse, it could mean that you are a science denier. Why?

The central doctrine to Institutionalized Science is evolution and evolution cannot happen aside from billions of years. The likelihood of anything evolving in a godless universe are practically zero. The logic of evolutionists acknowledges that the odds are nearly non-existent, but that that there is a slim chance. Given a really really long span of time, something will evolve.

For me, what saved my belief in God was that I 1) recognized that the evolutionary origins of the cosmos were purely speculative and 2) I saw no reason why the six day creation account in the Bible should be deemed false, figurative, or anything less than literal. I reasoned that if the God of the Bible were real and that He could create the universe using evolutionary processes (that take billions of years), could He not have created the universe in six literal days as the Bible says? If God is all powerful, can He not do immense things that humans cannot comprehend as being possible? If so, why would we render the likelihood of a literal six day creation account impossible?

The answer to this last question is nothing less than, “science teaches us that it took longer.” That is faulty reasoning. The conclusions of science are purely speculative based on assumptions (some rooted in observation, others that are not). Modern science assumes that natural processes are responsible for the universe as it currently exists. If I choose to believe in an all powerful God, why would I not choose also to believe His inspired Word (the Bible)? God reveals that He created the universe in six days in Genesis chapter one. As a believer in Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior, I find no other option for the believer than to accept God's Word as it is written and to accept a literal six day Creation Account. For me, what I found more difficult, was to come to terms with the Young Earth model of creation.

With two decades worth of indoctrination, telling me that the universe was billions of years old, my old presuppositions did not die easily. I don’t even remember the exact reason I abandoned the Old Earth model, but I think it had to do with the historic nature of dinosaurs in the form of dragons. Because of my former beliefs, I understand why people think Young Earth Creationists are crazy. I also know that the reasons they won’t lend an ear to creationists are pride, arrogance, and ignorance. I know this because THAT was me.

www.williamhseng.com