I'm going to leave the scientific bits for now, because I'm not a scientist. Speaking of scientists, by the way Zephan, you have no right to put Alan's title in inverted commas - he has a PhD from an accredited university. Unlike "Dr." Kent Hovind, I might point out.
So..
quote:
I believe in a young earth, because this is what the Bible teaches. I know many people say the Bible isn’t literal, but if the Bible doesn’t mean what it says, how can we trust it on anything, even on things like You shall not murder.
There is an unwarranted jump here from "not literal" to "not true". Clever sleight of hand, but quite unjustified. It is like saying we can learn nothing from Our Lord's parables because they are not literal, and therefore "untrue".
quote:
The Bible says, On the first day... and On the second day..., etc. Therefore, I believe that those things happened on those days.
However literal the days are, they are only literal within the framework of a symbolic narrative. The Ring is literal, but only literal
within the framework of Tolkien's history of Middle Earth.
quote:
Also, I believe the creation week happened approximately 6000 years ago. The Bible says Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born, and it gives Seth’s age when Enos was born. Why would it give years if it didn’t want you to know the time elapsed?
There are places that aren’t specific (for example, we don’t know exactly how old Terah was when Abram was born), but these only leave room for small amounts of error, a century or so at most.
Longevity was seen as a sign of God's blessing in the times that the OT was written - hence the comment in Isaiah about how "one day" everybody will live to be a hundred. It was therefore common practice to add a few years to people's ages when writing about them. It has also to be borne in mind that these legends are ancient, and spent hundreds, possible thousands, of years as oral traditions. To suggest that if such a tradition says Adam was 130 when Seth was born, then Adam
was 130 years old when Seth was born, does not seem to be a wholly reasonable suggestion.
quote:
If the Bible doesn’t mean what it says when it gives dates and times, then it’s whole authority is undermined, for who knows where it’s literal and where it’s not?
I refer to my response to the first section.
™ Version 4.2
