Michael Kruse

Paula, I will break these into multiple posts. I think they will be easier to address that way.

“If the 7th day has not ended then you could say the days of Genesis equal ages. But there are several problems with this.â€

I am not saying that individual days are equal lengths, only that they are unspecified lengths of time but distinct periods.

“One is that Adam had to have been thousands of years old instead of what the Bible states.â€

I am unclear why you think this would be the case. The last thing that happened on the sixth day (period) was the creation of Adam and Eve. The length of time between Adam and Eve’s creation was in the sixth day (period) but when Eve was created the sixth day (period) ended. Apparently nearly all of Adams 930 years were in the seventh day (period).

“Do years mean ages too? Why not?â€

Again, you have lost me. The Hebrew yom is the word translated day. Hebrew has a thousand times fewer words than English. Many words in Hebrew carry many meanings that can only determined by context. Yom can be the period between sun-up and sun-down. It can be a 24-hour period. It can be an endless era.

“The people at AIG also have spent their lives studying science, and many were teachers of biology etc. before the evidence convinced them that YEC is true.â€

My dad is retired Ph.D. chemist who among other things taught at a Nazarene University for ten years. I am in a bible study together with a Christian brother who is head of the science division of a local university with a Ph.D. from MIT in astronomy. I have a long time friend who is a physicist at Kansas State University who attends an Evangelical church along with her husband. I have a MA in the social sciences and have graduate work in the philosophy of science. I have spent the last 25 years on these topics as well. I have been around scientists all my life and I have read more than 25 books and countless articles on this topic from many perspectives.

I did peruse the speakers lists at AIG and found maybe four with Ph.Ds in relevant fields. Of those, it was unclear whether they believed in a young earth or were simply opposing evolution. The young earth folks at AIG are in an exceedingly small minority of even Evangelical Christians. I have been around Evangelical Ph.D scientists all my life and don’t recall ever meeting one although clearly some exist.

“Not so! The facts are not the problem, it’s the interpretation of them. That’s philosophy, not science. There is not one shred of proof that anything existed for millions of years. Not one. There are even open challenges for million-dollar rewards for anyone who can prove evolution, and they’ve never been claimed.â€

First, how did evolution get into the picture? I don’t recall saying anything about evolution. Second, “not one shred of proof.†The evidence for an ancient earth has been consistent and overwhelming and it has been so more at least 300-400 years. It was quickly determined that earth was at least millions of years old. As more evidence has been accumulated and measuring devices have become more precise scientists have been able to pinpoint with ever more accuracy dates of major celestial and earthly events. Scientists have learned more in the past decade than they have learned in all of previous human history. There has been consistent accuracy that the earth is ancient and that has varied is the precision of measurement.

“Why do some of us insist that the days of Genesis were 24-hr. periods? I’ll tell you, but I could easily turn the question back on you: why do you insist that they are not?â€

Paula, I was already asked that by question Cheryl. That is most of what most of my comments were in response to. You have missed the point of my listing the early church fathers, the early scientists, people like William Jennings Bryan, and current Evangelicals. I wasn’t talking about their scientific credentials. I was talking about their strong Christian character and commitment to the authority of scripture. These folks saw no issue in non-literal 24-hour days based on reading of scripture. So the reason for the my question back was that if all of these witnesses from the beginning of the church to the present have seen no issue with it why are those militantly insisting on a 24-hr day doing so?

I’ll stop here and write more later.