Jig
Christ Follower
- Oct 3, 2005
- 4,529
- 399
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
Then you are turning a blind eye to the evidence. There is no evidence that disconnects the maturity of a tree from its age. There is no evidence that disconnects the maturity of an eroded valley from its age. Maturity IS evidence of age and your belief that God created a "mature" universe that is not an "aged" one IS belief that God endowed creation with an illusion of maturity/age.
Allow me to clarify my meaning of evidence. I am using The Free Dictionary's definition in my post:
Evidence: A thing or things helpful in forming a conclusion or judgment.
Notice how evidence is merely something that is used to form conclusions. It is dependent on something other than itself to have meaning. It does not intrinsically hold meaning.
You have completely missed my point. Maturity is only evidence for age when interpreted under a philosophy that requires such a conclusion. Maturity and age are not necessarily synonymous. Maturity defines development. Age defines length of existence.
I will once again reiterate that my position does not sustain the idea that the universe's maturity is an illusion. If God truly supernaturally created a fully grown man and woman (such as described in Genesis), then their adult anatomy is not an illusion. It is absolutely real. Also, it is not a deception because God plainly told us that He did it this way.
This is not what I am saying. Evidence does not hold intrinsic meaning, remember? What I am saying is that we use our philosophical worldviews to interpret the evidence. All evidence must be interpreted.Now I grant you can consider that a miracle, like the miracle of the wine at Cana. But you cannot say it is based on the evidence or an interpretation of the evidence. You have to say that the evidence belies the conclusion, but that's ok because it was a miracle. So the evidence is illusory.
Your problem is clear. You are touting your interpretation of the evidence AS the evidence. They are not the same thing!Other evidence, however, is not so easily disposed of. A "mature" but not "aged" planet doesn't need a geological history, much less one filled with fossils of species no human has ever seen. So why does evidence of that history exist? "Mature" but not "aged" stars don't need a history of past supernovas. So why do these exist? Any evidence of pre-human history has no place in a "mature" but not "aged" universe--so you are committed to believing all such evidence is about an illusory history that never happened.
Independent of each other? Not if they are interpreted using the same philosophical assumptions.That includes amazing concordances of age measured independently by different methods. Take the Hawaiian islands as an example. They are volcanic islands so their age is easily measured radiometrically and has been. Each island's age is different with the oldest on the east and the youngest on the west.
After all, by your belief, the islands were created as they are, not as a history of plate movement over a hot spot. You have to believe this evidence is an illusion.
You have to believe the massive evidence of ice ages which scoured the rock from the Canadian shield, gouged valleys through the Alps, deposited hundreds of square miles of moraines along the southern borders of glaciers, all that history was an illusion. It never happened.
This is not true. My assumptions include more than just a supernatural creation. They include catastrophe's such as the Fall and a worldwide Flood.
Genesis 3:16As to the fall, there is no scriptural evidence that it fundamentally changed the nature of creation. There is no suggestion, for example, that thorns and thistles were not part of the original creation. Only that they had not been growing where humans were plowing and planting and so making it difficult to get a good harvest.
To the woman he said, "I will make your pregnancy very painful..."
What is your verdict of this divinely increased pain? Did God fundamentally change Eve's biological reaction to child birth?
No evidence? Depends on your how you interpret the evidence.There is no evidence of a global flood in the first place, so to take that into account is itself turning a blind eye to the evidence there is, much of which is incompatible with a global flood, so again, you have to turn a blind eye to actual evidence and hold that it is illusory.
Last edited:
Upvote
0