I believe that the Genesis account is literally true but I don't take it in a hyper-literal sense. When Jesus said he was the door, I don't take it to mean that he is made of wood and has a handle.
Please note that the young-earthers are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and the disagreements we have are trivial compared to our agreements.
One of the big problems is the young-earth creationist claim that the Hebrew word yom must mean a literal 24-hour day even though there are numerous instances in the Bible where it obviously does not mean a 24-hour day. Genesis 2:4 even uses the word yom to describe the entire creation week!
Worse, Hebrew does have not an indefinite article as English does. The indefinite article is implied when the definite article is absent. Literal translations interpret the days of creation something like this: "Evening, morning, day second." The Bible does not "the second day," as it is often translated.
Genesis 2:4 uses the definite article with yom [ha-yom], which is literally translated "the day," even though it refers to the entire creation "week."
These [are] births of the heavens and of the earth in their being prepared, in the day of Jehovah God's making earth and heavens...(Genesis 2:4, Young's Literal Translation)Thus, when young-earth creationists claim that the Genesis creation story must refer to 24-hour days, even a first-year Hebrew student (which is all I had) can point out that the creation story itself is not consistent with the notion of yom meaning a 24-hour day.
Finally, we have the problem of God's general revelation as shown to us through his creation. God does not lie through his specific revelation (the Bible), nor does he lie to us through his creation.
I am a scientist, and scientists can certainly be wrong or driven by an agenda. However, we have research by many thousands of scientists in many different fields over more than 100 years whose experiments show us that the earth and the universe are much, much older than 6,000 years. The measurements have gotten better as equipment and technology have improved. The current best measurements suggest that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the universe is about 14 billion years old.
To sum it up, there is nothing in God's Bible to suggest that the earth is 6,000 years old and there is nothing in God's creation to suggest that the earth is 6,000 years old. Unfortunately, scientists and theologians of dubious credentials have offered up proofs to suggest otherwise but their proofs never stand up to good scholarship.
Well stated. Thank you. I do not find conflict in God’s Scientific and spectacular creation of all that we know.
Unless you employ relativity.
Then there is no problem with the time difference.
Since time is warped, both measures of time can be correct depending on your frame of reference.