[steve-b]

For what it's worth, I am a conservative, committed Christian who believes the entire Bible. I'm just embarassed by these Young-Earth Creationists who post nonsense like this -- they keep educated people from coming to know Christ. Please don't judge all Christians by what you read in posts like this.

As one of the Church Fathers put it:

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a non-believer to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn."
--St. Augustine

[GodGunsGuts]

If you read “ City of God Against the Pagans,” you will learn that Augustine included old-earth compromisers in that discription. He was himself a YEC, and despised old-earthers as being corrupted by “paganism.”

[js1138]

Interesting that even though Augustine and Aquinas did not have the benefit of recent scientific findings, they anticipated them and anticipated the need for people of faith to adjust to reality.

Aquinas in particular said there are different ways of understanding the Bible, and it is foolish and counterproductive to insist on an interpretation that is contrary to fact.

[DallasMike]

Thanks, I like that quote. It can never be repeated enough on threads like these.