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Dear all FR readers actually,

I have not always been a YEC but my faith has 'evolved' (OK actually strengthened) as I have (and still continue) to read God's Word. My cousin is a pastor. At a family reunion we we're discussing an idea I had run across on the internet that since a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day that possibly creation was a 6,000 year 'week'.

This was a very weak argument as soon as I unfolded it. He simply pointed out how we need to take the Bible literally when it is speaking literally. How with each creation day God defined it with 'there was evening and there was morning' while the 1000 day reference was symbolic of Christ's return.

He also pointed out that altering God's Word to say something it doesn't is tantamount to what we see liberal christian churches doing today (i.e. homosexuality). That possibly we can come to question and lose our very salvation when we begin to re-define God's Holy Word.

I saw this website refernced on FR a while back - the best and most complete explanation for YEC that I have seen yet: http://www.creationscience.com/ I've read the book twice now - once online and then again when I bought the book.

It shows why age-dating is so very confusing. As a computer programmer/analyst for over 20 years I know what havoc assumptions can do to application code (esp. unstated/unknown assumptions).

Furthermore, if the physical universe had not undergone some very very extreme changes, then evolution seems more palatable when viewed in the reference of uniformtarianism - the idea that certain conditions have always been the same since the beginning of time. Yet we know w/ global-warming this is not true. Heck, if it were just true w/ app code I would either a.) only need to write new code or b.) be out of a job.

Actually, I spend close to 80% of the time maintaining old code - usaually that which didn't follow the KISS principle b/c some bozo was so proud of how complicated (err sophisticated) he could write it. I should thank all the bozos for my job security but the jury is still out due to mgmt decisions to outsource and/or replace w/ H1B's.

Consider this too. 1st Earth was perfect - prior to original sin. 2nd Earth was better than today's b/c mankind lived close to 1,000 years - possibly due simply to plant/animal foods being much more highly nutritious. 3rd Earth is todays - and God said he would limit mans' time to 120 years. Recent scientific research concluded the same.

Some would say 4th Earth was AD till now but I think it is actaully the new Heaven/Earth from Revelations that follows Armageddon.

BTW last night I prayed for all you fine folks on here - yes the evolutionists too - not just bc I once were one.

I was analyzing over God's Word about praying constantly and wondering why an all-powerful God requires this. I realized first that prayer brings me closer to God. But I also think I had a revelation - consider that this world is utterly polluted by sin. That sin constanly dirties the windows of our atmosphere. Then think of prayer as a window cleaner that could basically clear it away and allow God's Light to shine on your life and all those lives that you pray over. Obviously no matter how much Biblical truth is revealed to you - you won't understand it here in your fallen sinful physical nature but you can always get closer than before and help others in the process.

I have always enjoyed learning and will continue to do so - till? - well after my physical demise I think. Here another website you may find insightful: www.oneplace.com/ministries/Grace_to_You/ - per my John MacArthur references. Sorry so long and Godspeed to all.

It shows why age-dating is so very confusing.

We set problems on age dating in Freshman Chemistry class. Most of them (and they're mostly not chemistry majors) don't seem to be confused.

As a computer programmer/analyst for over 20 years I know what havoc assumptions can do to application code (esp. unstated/unknown assumptions).

Identify one unstated/unknown assumption in radioisotope dating.

Sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors. Thought I didn't have more time here at the public library.

Meant to say:
Obviously no matter how much Biblical truth is revealed to you - you won't understand it ALL here in your fallen sinful physical nature but you can always get closer than before and help others in the process.

What a nice, sincere post for a change.

This is an excerpt from an article that was posted a few months ago. It's quite interesting as it deals with the Hebrew text.

What is a "day?"
Let's jump back to the Six Days of Genesis. First of all, we now know that when the Biblical calendar says 5700-plus years, we must add to that "plus six days."
A few years ago, I acquired a dinosaur fossil that was dated (by two radioactive decay chains) as 150 million years old. My 7-year-old daughter says, "Abba! Dinosaurs? How can there be dinosaurs 150 million years ago, when my Bible teacher says the world isn't even 6000 years old?" So I told her to look in Psalms 90:4. There, you'll find something quite amazing. King David says, "One thousand years in Your (God's) sight are like a day that passes, a watch in the night." Perhaps time is different from the perspective of King David, than it is from the perspective of the Creator. Perhaps time is different.
The Talmud (Chagiga, ch. 2), in trying to understand the subtleties of Torah, analyzes the word "choshech." When the word "choshech" appears in Genesis 1:2, the Talmud explains that it means black fire, black energy, a kind of energy that is so powerful you can't even see it. Two verses later, in Genesis 1:4, the Talmud explains that the same word -- "choshech" -- means darkness, i.e. the absence of light.
Other words as well are not to be understood by their common definitions. For example, "mayim" typically means water. But Maimonides says that in the original statements of creation, the word "mayim" may also mean the building blocks of the universe.
Another example is Genesis 1:5, which says, "There is evening and morning, Day One." That is the first time that a day is quantified: evening and morning. Nachmanides discusses the meaning of evening and morning. Does it mean sunset and sunrise? It would certainly seem to.
But Nachmanides points out a problem with that. The text says "there was evening and morning Day One... evening and morning a second day... evening and morning a third day." Then on the fourth day, the sun is mentioned. Nachmanides says that any intelligent reader can see an obvious problem. How do we have a concept of evening and morning for the first three days if the sun is only mentioned on Day Four? There is a purpose for the sun appearing only on Day Four, so that as time goes by and people understand more about the universe, you can dig deeper into the text.
Nachmanides says the text uses the words "Vayehi Erev" -- but it doesn't mean "there was evening." He explains that the Hebrew letters Ayin, Resh, Bet -- the root of "erev" -- is chaos. Mixture, disorder. That's why evening is called "erev", because when the sun goes down, vision becomes blurry. The literal meaning is "there was disorder." The Torah's word for "morning" -- "boker" -- is the absolute opposite. When the sun rises, the world becomes "bikoret", orderly, able to be discerned. That's why the sun needn't be mentioned until Day Four. Because from erev to boker is a flow from disorder to order, from chaos to cosmos. That's something any scientist will testify never happens in an unguided system. Order never arises from disorder spontaneously and remains orderly. Order always degrades to chaos unless the environment recognizes the order and locks it in to preserve it. There must be a guide to the system. That's an unequivocal statement.
The Torah wants us to be amazed by this flow, starting from a chaotic plasma and ending up with a symphony of life. Day-by-day the world progresses to higher and higher levels. Order out of disorder. It's pure thermodynamics. And it's stated in terminology of 3000 years ago.

The creation of time.
Each day of creation is numbered. Yet there is discontinuity in the way the days are numbered. The verse says: "There is evening and morning, Day One." But the second day doesn't say "evening and morning, Day Two." Rather, it says "evening and morning, a second day." And the Torah continues with this pattern: "Evening and morning, a third day... a fourth day... a fifth day... the sixth day." Only on the first day does the text use a different form: not "first day," but "Day One" ("Yom Echad"). Many English translations make the mistake of writing "a first day." That's because editors want things to be nice and consistent. But they throw out the cosmic message in the text! Because there is a qualitative difference, as Nachmanides says, between "one" and "first." One is absolute; first is comparative.

I have always enjoyed learning and will continue to do so..

Great. Then check out this website..

www.talkorigins.org