The Mars Hill Club

Thanks to both Bruce Paolozzi & George (Phil) Drake for developing a fascinating thread of discussion on intelligent design (ID) & short age or young earth creationism.

I agree with Phil that ID doesn't claim to be making theological declarations or to be tied to any particular theological issues. I agree with Bruce that many young earth creationists (the title more common than short age)make a false dichotomy between biblical faithfulness & judgments about the age of the earth and/or universe.

I think that sometimes the argument between the 2 views is like the argument between many Calvinists & many non-Calvinists regarding the transcendental argument for the existence of God (TAG). Calvinists argue quite rightly that there can be no argument at all (rational discourse, observation & inference, communication, etc.) without the theistic God of the Bible who makes it all possible. Non-Calvinists are right that they will be more likely to be persuasive in their arguments with non-theists if they start with what we have in common (belief in reason, argumentation, inference, & communication, etc.) & work from there back to what is logically & ontologically prior, but epistemologically concluded, by the very arguments. Neither view contradicts the other -- they are arguments from diffferent points, for different purposes.

In the same way, when I use ID arguments with non-believers, I am starting with what we have in common (the ability to observe & infer from irreducible complexities, for example) to reason toward what we should have in common but don't -- recognition of our designer & creator, the Lord God. At the very least, I am arguing with my non-believing friend that strict materialism is inherently unable to explain the irreducible complexity, for exqample, that we see demonstrated throughout the material world.

When young earth creationists insist on positing a young earth at the beginning, middle, & end of every argument, they derail the powerful momentum of the argument that begins from commonality rather than from disagreement. I often find ID proponents willing to listen to young earth creationist ideas & evidence. I rarely find young earth creationist proponents willing to listen to anyone who does not share their young earth views.

I am also disappointed with the many young earth creation proponents who insist that one cannot believe the Bible without being a young earth creationist. This is just plain silly at its worst. Even if it were the case that young earth creationism were obvious, indisputable, & unequivocally taught in the Bible, it would still be possible for one to honestly & sincerely believe the Bible, reject a young earth creationist position, & simply be illogical, ignorant, or mistaken. But the situation is not nearly that obvious. There are (& have been throughout Christian & Jewish history) good interpreters who have argued persuasively from a variety of points of view that the portions of scripture dealing with original creation (& there are not many) are anything but obvious, indisputable, & unequivocal. In fact, as I survey church history, it seems to me that theologians & exegetes have been more persuaded by the science of their own day (whether that science was religious, Christian, or "secular") as to the age of the earth than they were by the "clear" word of God.

I do not know science well enough to feel confident supporting either an old earth view or a young earth view.

I do know the Bible well enough to confidently conclude that the Bible does not tell us how old the universe, earth, or humanity is. The days of Genesis 1 are not given to indicate order, length of creative period, or age. Genesis 2 does not indicate the age of humanity or the earth. The geneaologies of Genesis & other OT books are not consecutive, regular, exhaustive, or linkable to particular lengths of history. The other passages referring to creation are not given to enable us to date the age of the universe, the earth, or humans. I believe every single thing God teaches through the Bible, including what he teaches about science. I believe there's an awful lot he doesn't teach us about science in the Bible at all, & I believe there's an awful lot we don't understand today, & perhaps no one has ever understood.

I pray that my brothers in the young earth camp will give me the grace to accept me as a Bible believing sister in Christ if I honestly don't believe the Bible tells me how old the earth is. I pray that my brothers in the ID camp will give me the grace to accept me as a Bible believing sister in Christ on the same grounds.

Thanks to Phil & Bruce for developing a good discussion string. I hope to hear others joining in on our discussion.