The Verdict of Reason
Today’s installment will wind up the Jerry-Zeis-Science-Guy portion of this series in which Jerry made the case for a ‘young earth’. Next week we’ll resume with our regularly scheduled programming.
A FINAL LOOK
Jerry Zeis
We are coming to a close of our look at the age of the Earth. From the very beginning, the goal was not to convince you of a young earth, but to question the facts. Do the facts add up to make logical assumptions? I wanted to point out how a world view can cloud judgment. Evolutionary science is not science. The big bang is not (at least currently) science. There is no way to travel in time and make direct observations. If the observations cannot be made, then assumptions have to be put in place. Effort is put in to reduce or eliminate error, but worldview will influence you more than you think.
The ideas that we mentioned that stated that the universe could actually support the bible are not the only ones possible1. There are literally hundreds more. Helium is a gas that when it is released in the atmosphere, will float up to outer space overcoming gravity. If we know how much comes out of the ground each year and how much goes into space, then we know what should be in the air. Spoiler alert – it adds up to 6,000 years’ worth of helium. Another example is how much salt is in the ocean. If you can add up how salty each river is as it empties into the ocean, add in how much salt leaves the ocean each year, in theory you should be able to tell when there was no salt in the ocean, or when the oceans formed. Again, it is not 4 billion years. How about why galaxies don’t spin apart? This cartoon sums it up pretty well.
In the bottom corner of each picture is a bible quote. The Darwinist is Isaiah 40:28 – “Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.” The creationist is Psalm 104:24. “O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.”
Your worldview can influence the interpretation of the facts. That was stated in the first week, that is the core difference between the truth of the Bible, and the facts that are collected. The facts can bend to fit the truth, or the truth can bend to fit the facts. Imagine our criminal justice system in the country. The facts that the police gather may or may not be correct, but the courts job is to decide what the truth is based on the facts. No matter how much evidence is found, it will not change the real truth. The same is true with science and the bible. Science cannot change what the bible states. Day three of creation has plants filling the earth before the Sun was made. It does not make sense to us, but it is a fact of the Bible. You can’t be ready to throw away the interpretation of scripture by the time you get to verse 10 on page 1! The choice is put before you today; you can no longer claim ignorance. Science and God are at odds nearly every instance. Who do you serve today? The facts of science, or the Truth of Scripture.[i]
[i] Don Batten, Age of the earth, Can science prove the age of the earth?, Creation.com, June 4, 2009
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