My testimony is at odds with your statement that this book and the works of Dr. Henry Morris did damage to the cause of Christ. I was raised in a liberal mainline denomination and grew up reading the evolutionary Time-Life encyclopedia set cover to cover. My faith was marginal due in part to the apparent discrepancies between “science” and the Bible. Consequently, I lived a marginally Christian life and wandered far.
It wasn't until I experienced a year of intense discipleship that included reading Dr. Morris’ writings, that I woke up and realized that true science (discovering God's works) and true faith (discovering God's Word) are perfectly synchronized. For me, the cause of Christ was realized as I now walk as a devoted follower of Jesus.
And really, isnt that the problem - too many marginal believers or pseudo-believers not living fully for Christ, sharing truth and loving the folks that are put into their lives?
- a fellow engineer
You could be writing my story right there as well, including the “fellow engineer” part.
When I say Morris' book caused damage to the cause of Christ, really, it was more Morris' followers who did so. Believers like me who do not hold to the literal 24-hour-days interpretation of Genesis are absolutely castigated by Ken Ham and other Answers in Genesis types, the spiritual successors to Morris, saying that we are "evolutionists", or "believers in hydrogen gas", or "following after science rather than God."
I am none of these things, and nor are other believers who take physical measurements of God's creation to be truth.
To me, it seems that Morris and his followers are positing a Wizard-of-Oz-like God, who must cover up millions of years of weathering (e.g., the Grand Canyon) and ambiguously attribute it as the result of a single year-and-a-half flood event. The God of the Bible does not work that way; he cannot lie.
I don't know what the correct interpretation is, but I refuse to believe that God would deceive mankind about the most fundamental question of our physical universe: its age.
Be that as it may, I am glad you are a follower of Christ.