For years I've read/listened to a group called Reasons to Believe at www.reasons.org. They're probably the first old-earth creationists to get a little traction, at least as far back as 25 years ago. I finished college with doubts about God largely because I trusted both my church/youth leaders as much as I trusted my college teachers. Who was right? They can't both be right? And both of them seem to be very religious in their science trying to prove their point -- to the point of it looking more like pseudoscience. This goes for the Christians telling me "why" they know the earth is only 6,000 years old as well as the atheists telling me "why" they know to exclude all the things in our DNA that's different from apes and focus on just what's similar to make it look like we're related.
Then a friend of mine told me he had the same problem 2 years before me and pointed out Reasons to Believe.
I admit that it can be a little challenging to boldly say that I believe the universe is 6000 years old. I have recently been in two conversations with two separate atheists who both consider themselves very scientifically literate. In both cases I seemed like a nut to them.
But these are both people offended at even hearing "God" in a conversation. So I welcome looking like crazy to them. 1 Cor says the gospel of Christ is foolish to those who are perishing. For some reason a lot of Christians really stumble over the 14 billion light years thing. They suggest that God would be lying to make the universe look older than it is by making it bigger than the speed of light would allow in 6000 years.
This is a strange conclusion to me. ALL miracles, by definition, defy the rules of nature. Whether it is creating matter from nothing, creating an adult man from the dust, making a day last longer for a battle, raising the dead, floating an ax head or creating strands of electromagnetic radiation 14 billion light years long.
I wonder if many Christians think got is powerful but not THAT powerful. Certainly the Pope has recently said "God is not a magician with a magic wand". What a faithless thing to say about miracles.