[boatbums]

There is a huge fly in that ointment: the creation itself is avowed to be sufficient testimony to damn an unbeliever for eternity. Now that’s WITH an old earth “appearance.” Darwinism does not rise to a billionth of a percent of the amount of evidence that an old earth does. Darwinism is a straw man.

Do you mean in the sense that when Romans 1:18-20 says:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

...that men are without excuse in their denial of a Creator, then I would agree. The evidence is all around us and God created us with the mental capacity to interpret what we are seeing and know it didn't all happen out of chaos, by accident. There is too much design and order in the universe and within our own world to have as our first assumption that it has no purpose or was without a plan.

I have enjoyed listening to a radio broadcast called "Privileged Planet" from Equip.org, Bible Answer Man, which can be read HERE. In it the author states:

Some scientists speculate that the earth is an insignificant speck of soil aimlessly adrift in a meaningless universe. As documented by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher Jay W. Richards, however, evidence refutes the principle of mediocrity (Copernican principle), demonstrating instead that our earth is a singularly privileged planet designed for discovery.

First, the unique conditions necessary to support intelligent life turn out to provide the best overall conditions for scientific discovery. Examples abound. Earth is situated between two arms of a flattened spiral galaxy—the Milky Way—not too close to the core to be exposed to lethal radiation, comet collisions, or light pollution that would obscure observation of the distant universe; and not so far that a privileged planet could never form or where we would not observe different kinds of nearby stars. Moreover, the atmosphere of our privileged planet is both oxygen-rich for survival and transparent for discovery. The moon is the perfect size and distance from earth to stabilize rotation and to facilitate human habitability. Not only so, the moon and sun’s relative sizes and distances from earth provide perfect solar eclipses, which played a vital role in the development of modern science (e.g., determination of the nature of stars and confirmation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity).

Furthermore, we live in the best overall age of the universe to do cosmology. In our time the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang is readily observable, but it won’t always be. Furthermore, this radiation confirms that the universe is not eternal but began in the finite past. Moreover, most of the astrophysical phenomena astronomers rely on to measure the universe were not observable earlier in the universe’s development, and they will eventually fade (e.g., cosmic background radiation)—but neither could we have survived at earlier or later stages.

Finally, the setting of our privileged planet permits a stunning diversity of measurements, from the universe at large (cosmology) to the smallest of subatomic particles (quantum physics) to the middling size of earth and humans (geology and anthropology).

From habitability to discoverability, earth’s status in the universe is surely one of privilege. To reduce this to an accident of cosmic evolution is shortsighted; to recognize it as privileged, sublime.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2

[editor-surveyor]

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Additionally, Old Earth theories invoke a lack of purpose, and a belief in random outcome.

Both impossible for a believer to hold.