This is not dinosaur related, but worth noting. Ham's cronies at Answers in Genesis published this article which gives out 9 reasons why should Christians reject the adhoc phrase "millions of years" and conform to their young earth dogmatic ways while ignoring empirical evidence which says there's truth to the adhoc phrase. Written by Terry Mortenson for Ham's updated version of his idiot book The Answers Book, these 9 "reasons" are really no reasons at all. They're just empty excuses made up to explain why Christians are to bow to their ways, be ignorant of the truth surrounding it, and make them deal with controversies that's really non-existent.
To start off the article Terry writes,
"There is an intensifying controversy in the church all over the world regarding the age of the earth. For the first 18 centuries of church history, the almost universal belief of Christians was that God created the world in six literal days roughly 4,000 years before Christ and destroyed the world with a global Flood at the time of Noah."
Which is a blatant lie made to cover up the fact that this concept was invented a little over 140 years by Ellen G. White who founded the Seventh Day Adventist cult religion. She founded this cult to observe the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week which is Saturday. According to one of her literature books, she, at one time, claims to have allegedly saw a vision from God who showed her how he made the universe in 6th 24-hour days and the fossils were made by the Flood of Noah. She start preaching this alleged vision to her followers and it didn't take long for her to gain some following among her church. At first, Young earth creationism was restricted to only the SDA, at least until the late Henry Morris got a hold of her young earth teachings and the rest is history.
He then went on,
"But about 200 years ago some scientists developed new theories of earth history, which proposed that the earth and universe are millions of years old. Over the past 200 years Christian leaders have made various attempts to fit the millions of years into the Bible. These include the day-age view, gap theory, local flood view, framework hypothesis, theistic evolution, and progressive creation."
No person in his/her right mind will say that the earth and the universe is millions of years old. According to empirical evidence, both the Earth and the Universe is billions of years old, not millions. What Terry claims is pure strawman.
He then say,
"A growing number of Christians (now called young-earth creationists), including many scientists, hold to the traditional view, believing it to be the only view that is truly faithful to Scripture and that fits the scientific evidence far better than the reigning old-earth evolutionary theory."
And a much more growing number of Christians throw away the so-called "traditional view" when they found out that it was all a lie to begin with. Neither of the so-called "traditional view" is faithful to Scripture, nor does it fit the scientific evidence. Much of what creationists claim greatly contradicts one another. It even contradicts the Bible itself. You will also find that 98% of "scientists" who embrace the young earth view came from backgrounds other than Earth Science and Paleontology such as medicine, engineering, astronomy, physics, chemistry, plumbers, mailmen, and so on.
Then Terry claims,
Many Christians say that the age of the earth is an unimportant and divisive side issue that hinders the proclamation of the gospel. But is that really the case?
It is. Look at how there are many instances of families, church groups, even work and school groups are having riffs, divisions, and fights within each other over whether either evolution or creationism is true or not in this world. See the great multiple instances of churches wisely avoiding this stuff like the plague all over the earth. And above all, see the many clergymen out there who rejects young earth creationism on the bases of no evidence supporting it.
Terry however lies and says it's not the case and presents the following 9 reasons why Christians must conform to the young earth dogma whether they like it or not:
1. The Bible clearly teaches that God created in six literal, 24-hour days a few thousand years ago.
Creationists use the word "clearly" every time they say that the Bible allegedly teaches that the world was created "in six literal, 24-hour days a few thousand years ago" while in fact it don't. Where does it say that in the Bible? The answer is nowhere. Creationists like Terry made it all up and shoehorned it into the Bible. According to empirical evidence, God created - and modify His work over a period of time, changing what he made into many different forms to fit with the environment He put them in after he created them. Even creationists teach this despite their continuous denial of it in the face of physical evidence.
2. The context of Genesis 1 clearly shows that the days of creation were literal days.
Creationists also use the word "clearly" every time they teach that Genesis 1 allegedly shows that the days of creation were "six literal days" while in fact there no indication of it saying that other than the likes of "evening and morning was the first day." According to Terry, The Hebrew word "yom" means "day." But it doesn't just necessary mean "a 24 hour day." Especially since there are many verses in the Bible that mention "yom" to mean a period of time such as a month, week, year, decades, centuries, millenniums and eons (i.e. Psalms 90:4). The reason creationists insist that "yom" refers a normal day is because they wanted it that way. This is their own little way of twisting the meanings around to fit them into dogma while ignoring the verses in the bible that speaks otherwise. Whether it's a whole day or a period of a million years, it doesn't matter. God's view and our view of days is 2 different things.
3. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation days happened only about 6,000 years ago.
Nothing's clear in creationism. What it said above does as long as the Bible's missing text and out of order content along with historical artifacts and evidence of ancient civilizations existing before 6,000 years are greatly ignored and denied of their existence.
4. Exodus 20:9–11 blocks all attempts to fit millions of years into Genesis.
It does as long as the other Sabbaths the Israelites are told to observe are greatly ignored and denied of their existence.
5. Noah’s Flood washes away millions of years.
Really? Then why are the stains of "millions of years" still there? Especially when dating methods, such as radiometric dating, can clearly detect them by the many tons load? If the young earth is true, and it's not, Noah's Flood would have washed away more than just "millions of years" — it will wash away "thousands of years," too and everything else in between. Fish, insects, coals reefs, plants (no matter if they're vegetable mats, seeds, or floating trees), bones, cities, towns, farmland, villages, forests, everything would all be completely wiped out, leaving behind acidic water, disease, predation, starvation, and a global desert wasteland filled with nothing but rotting, dead life-forms to finish the passengers off, both man and beast, the moment they leave the ark. People, this is creationists' own definition of "A Loving God" and His Judgment on a wicked world!
6. Jesus was a young-earth creationist.
Makes no difference whatsoever. It's all the same as to say, "Jesus was a old-earth creationist; Jesus was a Jew; Jesus was a conservative; Jesus was a evolutionist; Jesus was anti-Semitic; Jesus was a liberal; Jesus was a man; Jesus was a god; and other "Jesus was a…" statements people like young earth creationists made up to conform Him to their definition of what religion should be all about.
7. Belief in millions of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God.
Rather belief in thousands of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God. Without doubt, the teachings of young earth creationism portrays God exactly like what young earth creationists hypocritically portrays theistic evolution and other similar teachings as, an evil, bumbling, merciless, deity. Except that this deity young earth creationists portrays God as failed to take away physical death along with spiritual death from both animals (despite their inability to sin and reason) and people when He sacrificed His Son on the Cross (He only took away spiritual death when He did that.) and set everything up for the Fall by giving animals and people features to use to do things He forbade them to do in the post-Fallen world, like practicing predation for instance. Then, He goes about destroying the animals and people for the things He instigated on them to set everyone of them up for the fall with the worldwide Flood and its devastating aftermath…all because He's sorry He ever made them; sorry He made animals to be predators with sharp teeth and claws and a stomach for only red food; sorry He made man to be excellent thinkers who will go on to discover how ancient the Earth and the Universe truly is; sorry He made carnivorous plants; sorry He made all sorts of bacteria that help and hurt; sorry He made fertilizers from human and animal excrement for plants to feed on; sorry He made hair from dead cells; sorry He made the Tree of Life when there was no death and decay occurring before the Fall; sorry He made the body to digest meals; sorry He made everything else he could care less about including the universe and everything in it He made Himself. It is a everything they claim "millions of years" does while ignoring their own hypocrisy found within their own dogmatic propaganda.
8. The idea of millions of years did not come from the scientific facts.
Rather the idea of thousands of years did not come from scientific facts, but from religious zealots who wanted to make the Bible to be exactly what they wanted it to be while throwing out and ignoring everything that contradicts it. Where did they get the concept of 6,000 years is real simple, 4,000 years after Creation + 2,000 after the Birth of Christ, but that still doesn't make all physical evidence for history beyond 6,000 years go away. The [sic] idea of long ages, in the creationists' eyes according to Terry, was developed by deistic and atheistic geologists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who used antibiblical (translate to anti-young earth creatical or yecreatical) philosophical and religious assumptions (translates to anything that doesn't agree with the young earth dogma) to interpret the geological observations in a way that plainly contradicted the biblical account of creation, the Flood, and the age of the earth as told through the eyes of the young earth extremists, never mind the fact that all those [sic] "deistic and atheistic geologists" attended church, read the Bible, acknowledged the Bible to be The Word of God and worshiped the Lord with all their might and never mind the countless discoveries of valid evidence which lead those people to use anti-yecreatical philosophical, natural, and religious affirmations to interpret the geological observations in a way that plainly contradicts the imaginary young earth account of creation, the Flood, and the age of the earth, and acknowledge the Earth as being much more ancient than anyone could ever imagined.
9. Radiometric dating methods do not prove millions of years
Wishful thinking, guys. Radiometric dating methods do not prove thousands of years, either despite RATE's stupid assertions about it. Just because radiometric dating methods didn't work on a few, tiny examples, doesn't mean it won't work on every example that's out there. This is an example of false reasoning that says that if it doesn't work on one or two things, then it doesn't work on everything else.
It's the same as if to say that if a key doesn't start one car, then it won't start every car; if the shoe won't fit, then all parts of a clothing set won't fit; if one part of a food dish sucks, then all parts of the food dish sucks; and so on. This kind of reasoning gives one a false impression that if one is not to be trusted, then all is not to be trusted, never mind the other cars that do work when the key is inserted into the hole, never mind the pants and shirt that fits onto the body perfectly, and never mind the other ingredients in the foods that do taste delicious. These are some examples of how creationists would treat evolution and scientific methods the very same way.
Creationists insist that people must believe that if one part of evolution and scientific method is flawed and untrustworthy, then all parts of evolution and scientific methods is not to be trusted, never mind the vast majority of everything else in evolution and in scientific methods that do work and how these methods help improve health, prolonged lives, find cures for diseases, clean up air and water pollutants, make accurate weather predictions, improve agriculture and plant growth, save lives, and much more. This is the creationists way of saying "Trust me. I'm right in everything." while hiding the flaws, the lies, and mistakes of their own.
And there you have it - nine no-good, empty reasons and excuses to why Christians must reject "millions of years" and conform to the narrow-minded views of the young earth jihadists whom one of them by the name of Terry concludes,
"These are just some of the reasons why we believe that the Bible is giving us the true history of the world. God’s Word must be the final authority on all matters about which it speaks—not just the moral and spiritual matters, but also its teachings that bear on history, archaeology, and science."
Yep! God's Word, in disguise of Ham's Word, Hovind's Word, Price's Word, White's Word, Chick's Word, Farwell's Word, and Morris' Word depending on whoever's teaching this crap, in all of its hubris glory must be the final authority on all that matters in history, science, and archaeology, never mind all the stinkin' lies, the sins, the flaws, the mistakes, the atrocities, and the contradictions found within its teachings and dogma creationists shamefully hides from their audience during their dogmatic escapades. This statement is unquestionably no different than the declarations, statements, teachings, and influences of Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, Napoleon, Bin laden, Big Brother, Cobra Commander, Napoleon the pig, King Zarkon, and all other dictators, past and present, real and fictional, who boldly declare themselves and their teachings to be the final Word and Authority on all matters including what is mentioned above in Terry's remark.
"What is at stake here is the authority of Scripture, the character of God, the doctrine of death, and the very foundation of the gospel. If the early chapters of Genesis are not true literal history, then faith in the rest of the Bible is undermined, including its teaching about salvation and morality. I urge you to carefully read the other chapters in this book. The health of the church, the effectiveness of her mission to a lost world, and the glory of God are at stake."
Christianity along with the health of the church, the effectiveness of her mission to a lost world, and the glory of God will all continue to go strong and powerful even when the whole world of young earth creationism crumbles to dust upon the huge massive weight in physical evidence stack against it and the rift and strife between the creationists who were at each other's throats over money, marriage, and power at one time. What's really undermining the faith in the Bible, including the early chapters of Genesis, is the creationists themselves. These warped minded men is setting their followers up for the fall by rewriting the Genesis account along with all other historical, archaeological, and folkloric accounts, changing every text they find to fit their own perceptions of it while throwing out the ones that don't agree with their dogmatic views and openly declare that what they made up is all the Word of God that must be defended while witlessly setting their followers up for the fall from grace and into a godless lifestyle.
Thus, the only thing that is at stake is Ham's Word, Hovind's Word, Price's Word, White's Word, Chick's Word, Farwell's Word, and Morris' Word depending on whoever's teaching this crap.
