Allen wrote:
I got this from a YEC email list. I thought It might
spark an interesting discussion. The person's
name has be removed to protect his identity. If
you (singular) absolutely must know who this is, I'll
talk to the author and see if his is willing to be
identified to you.
Allen
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 9:02 PM
Subject: Why YEC?
Hi everyone,
Several people have answered the basic question "Why did you become
YEC?" These are interesting, and I'll add my answer.
When I was in school in the 30's and early 40's, I had never heard of
anyone with an interest in science who actually believed early Genesis. I
was raised in church, and believed the Bible (except for early Genesis).
But
my church was liberal and I hadn't become a born-again Christian. Since I
had an active interest in science, I believed in evolution and ancient
Earth-age. That belief was reinforced when the Army put me in the Manhattan
Project (first atomic bomb) and I met a number of scientists whose names
you've all heard of.
Later, while I was Chief Engineer of Isotopes Inc., several of our top
staff were Ph.D.'s, including one who was also Professor of Geochemistry at
Columbia University. He and a few others were Wheaton graduates, and
Christians who believed in Progressive Creation. We often had lunch
together, and the subject of origins was one of our favorite "arguing
points." By that time I had become a born again Christian, and studied the
Bible. But I still never heard of any scientist who accepted the YEC
viewpoint, so I didn't either.
But I asked many questions, about radioactivity, dating methods,
etc.
This Professor was generally recognized as one of the world's experts on
geochronology, gave testimony before Congress on that subject, and was also
a
true gentleman who tried to answer my queries honestly. He and another
Ph.D.
believed fervently in OEC and progressive creation over extreme times. My
questions kept getting back to "Well how do you really know?" on various
aspects of the foundations of radio-dating. Our lunchtime group wasn't just
a bunch of dummies -- we were all quite knowledgeable about dating
procedures
etc -- that was one of our company's products. But I kept feeling subtle
doubts about the foundational accuracy of radio-dating. (BTW, this was in
the years around 1960.)
I kept studying technical journals and books, and finally became
convinced that circular logic and faith in prior beliefs played a strong
part
in radio-dating -- in other words, it wasn't a "scientific fact, provable by
scientific methods." There was too much unprovable belief involved. By
this
time I was a dedicated Christian, who kept being bothered by this dichotomy
of my own beliefs. I became open to a YEC attitude, but still had never
known there was such a thing as a "scientific creationist" who believed in
YEC. When I finally met one, and he gave me one of the early copies of a
Bible-Science Newsletter, I found there was actually such a thing as a
scientist who really believed in early Genesis. I subscribed, and quickly
became an active scientific creationist -- (that was the common term in
those
days, and I still don't like that term).
When someone asks me why I'm YEC now, one facet of my answer always
includes the closer relationship to God the Creator, and the comfort that
gives. No, you don't have to believe in YEC to be a Christian, but it
certainly does help one's relationship with God.
[Hammond]
Several comments, to the author, whomever he is:
1. YEC is a more sophisticated theory than OEC
2. Both YEC and OEC are scientifically correct
3. OEC rests to the fact of Evolution (biologically speaking).
and takes the advent of DNA to be the "beginning of life".
This is correct if you define "Life" as the birthdate of the
first living organism. This is an elementary theory which
essentially ignores the impact of the existence of the phenomena
of "God" on the problem.
4. YEC, takes the "beginning of Life" to be the advent of the
Human Species (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) which is only 40,000
years old. This theory does NOT ignore the existence of
God, in that it is pointed out that "reality as we know it"
did not exist before the advent of the H.s.s. brain. Thus
"reality was created 40,000 years ago", hence the
"Creation of the world" happened 40,000 years ago (YEC uses
the Biblical figure of 6,000 yrs).
5. As an intelligent person can see, BOTH theories are correct.
But, also, as one can see, YEC is more sophisticated than
OEC, since you can understand OEC without knowing what God
is, but you can only understand YEC and OEC if in fact you
DO know what God is. This is of course the nexus of the
controversy, YEC's are people who know what God is, and OEC's
are people who don't. I advise caution therefore to all
OEC's.
6. As a practical matter, the YEC's are going to come out on top
in the political arena... mainly because science is about to
deliver a scientific proof of God to the world (SPOG), and the
most controversial thing about it is that it is going to prove
that "Science" is wrong (about God, Creation and the Bible), and
the Fundamentalists are right.
7. So... my advice to the adamant scientists who get up and
condemn the YEC's... is.... BE CAREFUL, the dice are loaded,
the YEC's know it, and you are going to get took.
-- Be sure to visit my website below, and please ask your news service provider to add alt.sci.proof-of-god ----------------------------------------------------------- George Hammond, M.S. Physics Email: ghammond@mediaone.net Website: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/ghammond/index.html -----------------------------------------------------------
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