Dear Danyelle,
I sympathize with your problem. I was taught young earth creationism in
Bible school. When I got to grad school, I first read the original
articles in the journals and discovered that I had been sold a bill of
goods. There might have been a factor of 2 or 3 in the dates, but that
was 10^4 or greater off from what was needed. I thank the Lord that he
kept me stable, so that I realized that the problem was not with what his
Word said but with what men said it said. His Word and his creation
agree, for they have the same Source.
I wrote two articles in the ASA journal on problems for creation science/
flood geology which bear on some of these matters. I'm on the road and do
not have access to them so as to give you the reference.
Suffice it to say that there is no need to assume that the Bible requires
a universal flood. A local flood is sufficient. Contrary to the claim of
YEC, the strata could not have been totally torn up by a flood, for
nearly as much salt as there is in the oceans is found in evaporites and
diapirs. Since it takes about ten times the concentration of salt in sea
water for salt to begin precipitating out of solution, the salt bodies
could not exist today if they had been totally torn up about 4000 years
ago. To put it bluntly, those who teach a universal flood that tore
everything up are lying.
It seems obvious to me that your professor is reacting against the
foolishness he has found in the YEC publications. Just be confident that
there are old earth creationists and theistic evolutionists who are
strictly orthodox, who trust the Bible and have committed themselves
totally to God through Christ Jesus. So don't tilt with windmills when
there are honest battles to be fought.
May God direct and bless you,
David F. Siemens, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
Los Angeles Pierce College
sometime adjunct professor at Calvin Chao Theological Seminary
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