Is the Young-Earth Viewpoint “Absurd”?

I am furious with your explanation on the dinosaurs, suggesting that the dinosaurs lived alongside humans!!! THAT IS ABSURD! I am 16 years old and trying to find a way to disprove evolution by logical means and this site does not give logical answers. I suggest an old-earth christian veiw be taken on every subject. This new earth explanation of the the world is just stupid . . . and I am apauled at the fact of a no proof pseudo-science. Ohh and by the way . . . You need all my information such as my name and e-mail as a sign of good faith! HA! I will be suprised if I even recieve feedback!

– C., Texas, USA

[Editor’s note: We receive emails from people of all ages, but rarely respond online to someone in primary or high school. However, we selected this email to show that kids are having the millions-of-years message drilled into their heads at such a young age that by the time they are 16, many believe it without questioning it.]

Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. My comments are said with kindness and respect.

I am furious with your explanation on the dinosaurs, suggesting that the dinosaurs lived alongside humans!!!

Actually, that concept came from God, not us. God made it clear in Genesis 1:24–31 that man and land animals (such as dinosaurs) were made on the same day. Moses penned this about 3,500 years ago, so the belief that land animals—such as dinosaurs—walked with man is not a new idea.

THAT IS ABSURD!

This is an attack on the Word of God, not us. On what basis do you think you know better than God? He was there to witness history. Were you there?

I am 16 years old and trying to find a way to disprove evolution by logical means

There are many logical ways to do it that don’t require one to appeal to evolution’s long ages. Speaking of logic, are you trying to say that God is right and the evolutionists are wrong? If so, why compromise what God says for what the evolutionists say?

If you believe in the God of the Bible, then why not believe Him when He speaks? And, if you believe Genesis is true about man being specially created (as opposed to evolving), then why not believe Genesis is true when it says that God made land animals on the same day He made man?

If you believe in the God of the Bible, then why not believe Him when He speaks?

Sadly, what you are doing is replacing the foundation of God’s Word with an evolutionary premise, because long ages aren’t biblical.

The concept of millions of years was read into the geologic layers back with non-Christians Lyell and Hutton, and is based on uniformitarian assumptions. If the geologic layers did represent billions of years of earth history, it would mean there was death before Adam was created and sinned. Hence death, in and of itself, would be “very good” and “perfect.” One of Adam and Eve’s punishments for their sin was death. But this would be illogical if death already existed and God considered it “very good.”

Additionally, indications of the Curse in the fossil record, which would have formed prior to Adam’s sin, would also contradict other passages of Scripture. Take, for example:

Genesis 1:30: “Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Animals were originally vegetarian. Yet with the millions-of-years scenario, the Repenomamus robustus that had the remains of a small dinosaur (a psittacosaur) in its gastrointestinal tract died 130 million years ago—which would make the Bible wrong about original vegetarianism.

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.” (Genesis 3:17–18)

Thorns didn’t exist until after sin. Yet according to uniformitarian interpretations of the geologic record, thorns have been around for over 350 million years, since they have been found in the Devonian layers of the fossil record.1 God would be wrong again if thorns were supposed to come after Adam’s sin and yet actually came 350 million years before Adam.

The list could go on. Of course, neither of the above are problematic if the vast majority of the fossil record was laid down during the Flood of Noah’s day, after Adam sinned. As you can see, we are not disputing the fact of geologic layers laden with evidence of death and the Curse, but the interpretation of when and how these layers were formed.

and this site does not give logical answers.

What about our arguments is illogical?

1) All land animals were made on Day 6.
2) Dinosaurs were land animals.
∴ Dinosaurs were made on Day 6.

1) Dinosaurs were made on Day 6.
2) Man was made on Day 6.
∴ Dinosaurs and man were made on the same day.

I suggest an old-earth christian veiw be taken on every subject.

It is not a matter of what you suggest but a matter of what God said. He is the authority—not scientists, not theologians, not me, not you. Believing in a young earth of about 6,000 years is based on trusting what is written in God’s Word.

Of course, the Bible doesn’t come out and say that the earth is 6,000 years old, and it’s a good thing it doesn’t—otherwise it would only be right for one year! But we wouldn’t expect an all-knowing God to make that kind of a mistake.

Instead God gave us something better. He basically gave us a “birth certificate.” For example, using my personal birth certificate, I can calculate how old I am at any time. It is the same with the earth. Genesis 1 makes it clear that the earth was created on Day 1. From there, we can calculate the age of the earth.

Let’s do a rough calculation to show how this works. The age of the earth can be estimated by taking the first five days of creation (before Adam was created on Day 6) and then following the genealogies from Adam to Abraham. If you add up the dates from Adam to Abraham, you get about 2,000 years using the Masoretic Text. Most scholars—religious or otherwise—agree that Abraham would have lived about 2000 BC (4,000 years ago).

So a simple calculation is: 5 days + ~2000 yrs + ~4000 yrs = ~6000 yrs.

(Of course, the first five days are negligible in the context of 6,000 years.) Quite a few people have done this calculation,2 and almost all calculate approximately 6,000 years for the age of the earth, or a creation date around 4000 BC, when using the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

This new earth explanation of the the world is just stupid…and I am apauled at the fact of a no proof pseudo-science.

This is not a good argument to help your case. You need to show why long ages are biblically necessary for proper doctrine or that young earth interpretations are incorrect—and that would not be by saying “most teachers and professors think the earth is old.” Investigate for yourself and see the assumptions that are involved in their assessment of old age (a good place to start would be our Radiometric Dating topic page). There is no reason to fall for the recent aberration of old-earth belief. And there is every reason to see that a recent creation does matter and can be logically defended.

Ohh and by the way…You need all my information such as my name and e-mail as a sign of good faith! HA!

Yes, as a sign of good faith, and we thank you for filling them out. We obviously need your email address—otherwise, we would have no way of replying to you! We do not add your information to any sort of subscriber lists.

I will be suprised if I even recieve feedback!

Surprise! :)

I hope this challenges you to get into God’s Word and trust what it says.

Sincerely in Christ,
Bodie Hodge, AiG–USA