Creationists could do themselves a favor by getting off of the “young earth” kick.
It’s worse than that. They sound a lot like Know-sticks.
Their view is so rigid it doesn't allow them that luxury.
“Creationists could do themselves a favor by getting off of the “young earth” kick.”
Yes they could. And your saying that ‘creationists’ could do so highlights why young earthers infuriate me so much. I believe that God did create the heavens and the earth, but I can actually look at the evidence and not pretend God did things they way I would have liked him to.
This thread, predictably, has been hijacked by the anti-science crowd... I would love to hear how many young-earthers have been burnt at the stake by evil scientists, since the reverse is something this particular group is historically famous for.
I’m a creationist, but I consider the young earth argument not only obviously false, but completely absurd. I’ve always felt there’s incredible arrogance in the young earth quarter, in that they not only presume to know exactly how God created everything, because God is apparently incapable of doing things any other way, but will dispute any solid evidence that doesn’t fit into their point of view.
They are constantly limiting God’s power, not only in the study of biology, but in the study of geology, and in the study of astronomy, and in the study of anything that’s actually verifiable, come to think of it.
They believe that God’s version of a day is a human-oriented 24-hour cycle, because God could never be more powerful or less time-dependent than a human is. We’ve got to drag him down to our level. God can’t have created humanity via evolution, well, he can’t have just because! God would never create humanity in a way that could be usen to discredit God’s creation of humanity! Therefore, it’s all lies and bunkum. Any evidence of it, or any evidence that one animal can change without God’s influence (most of the dog breeds in the world are just a few hundred years old, after all - and there are a few entirely new ethnic groups without the help of the Tower of Babel) is immediately dismissed for no reason except it makes them feel cranky.
They, frankly, make it almost impossible for those of us who value science to admit our religion, as they go out of their way to falsely portray Christianity as anti-science as possible. Many of the greatest scientific discoveries of the past several hundred years have been made by Christians, who themselves were constantly persecuted by this exact same crowd.
It’s one thing to believe in something that can’t be proven, but quite another to still believe it when there is evidence to the contrary. This is the essence of faith, but purposefully ignoring the beauty of God’s creation doesn’t speak very highly of that faith.
Belief in 'Creationism' isn't one school of thought on all points. Not all adhere to an absolute belief that the earth is 6,000 years old. Not all adhere to the idea that the 'days' in the Genesis creation account were necessarily 24 hour days. The one coherent idea behind Creationism is that God created all things and that He created man as man, i.e. that man didn't evolve from a pool of pond scum.
Please note that Creationism and Intelligent Design are different in that no 'designer' is specified. The Intelligent Design realm of thought would include those who believe in Theistic Evolution, i.e. evolution that was guided by God.