Young Earth Creationism is the belief that the Earth, and usually the universe, were created by a direct action of
God a relatively short time ago. Such a belief is almost invariably held in conjunction with fundamentalist
Christian beliefs, in which the first chapters of the biblical book of
Genesis are taken to be a literal account of the creation of the universe, in six strictly 24-hour days. This differs from
Day-Age Creationism which purports that "day" is used in Genesis before the creation of the sun or the earth and the dawn of earthly time. Young Earth Creationists generally believe that the age of the Earth is between 6000 and 20,000 years, although some believe in a "gap" of unspecified duration between the creation of Adam and Eve and the Fall see Gap Creationism.
Such an interpretation conflicts with mainstream scientific views of the age of the earth and the origins of life. Young Earth Creationists generally believe that scientific belief in an old earth are the results of misinterpretations of evidence or erroneous assumptions. There is a widespread belief that evidence for a young earth is suppressed or ignored by the scientific mainstream. Although most Young Earth Creationists' primary reason for belief is a faith in the literal interpretation of Genesis, they do maintain that scientific observations, if correctly interpreted, would support their viewpoint.
Young Earth Creationists usually distinguish their own hypotheses from the
Omphalos hypothesis put forth by
Philip Henry Gosse. Gosse's hypothesis claims that, just as
Adam had a navel, evidence of a gestation he never experienced, so also the Earth was created
ex nihilo complete with evidence of a prehistoric past that never actually occurred. Gosse's hypothesis allows for a young earth without giving rise to any predictions that would contradict scientific findings; Young Earth Creationists, by contrast, attempt to re-interpret scientific data to support their hypothesis that the earth is in fact young.
Young Earth Creationists deny the
Theory of Evolution, in particular the ideas and mechanisms of
Macroevolution.
The Flood
Young Earth Creationists almost invariably believe also in a literal interpretation of
Noah's flood as worldwide and total. Many explanations for perceived problems in young earth creationism come from this belief in a flood and subsequent ice age. This area of creation science is called
flood geology.
Young Earthers generally hold that most of the geological formations that we see were laid down during the time of the flood. It is believed that a vast amount of water descended on the Earth, covering it to a height of thousands of metres. Rock and soil was taken up into this water as silt, and was then deposited, forming the geological layers that we see today. They believe that much of the layering we see today was laid down not successively but simultaneously, in the same way as sand particles of different densities suspended in water will settle out to form layers in only a few seconds.
A worldwide flood is held to account for the erosion found in many spots, equivalent to millenia of conventional erosion. It is also held to account for the splitting of the continents on a timescale faster than that determined by conventional geology.
There is no evidence for a Genesis flood in ice cores, and there is evidence for multiple ice ages. However, should the Genesis flood be true, there is a strong possibility of no ice before the flood. Hence, no evidence of the flood being found in ice cores. There are various theories about what the earth was like before the flood. The fossil record does show what many evolutionists and creationists agree that the whole earth was more tropical at one time.
Distant Stars
One of the major problems in the Young Earth theory is visible astronomical objects many millions of light years distant. According to conventional science, the light that we are observing therefore began its journey millions of years ago, and this would not have been possible in a universe only a few thousands of years old.
Young Earthers have various responses to this question:
Light created in transit
Some Young Earthers hold that God might have created light that
appeared to have come from these objects, but created it 'in transit'. This is a limited form of the
Omphalos hypothesis. This theory is inherently unverifiable, and is a philosophical viewpoint rather than a scientific viewpoint.
The Institute for Creation Research supports this viewpoint, arguing that God would be creating a "very good" (Genesis 1:31) earth, by allowing Adam to see the stars already.
Inaccurate astronomy
Early responses by Young Earth Creationists tended to challenge the astronomical measurements, i.e. to assert that distant objects were not as far away as thought. When distance measurements were entirely reliant on red-shift calculations, it was easy to challenge the assumption that red-shift and distance were necessarily corrolated. Since measurements of astronomical distances are now much better authenticated this approach has fallen into disfavour.
Decreasing speed of light
Another approach was to consider that the speed of light may not have been constant. If the speed of light were signficantly faster in the past, light from distant objects could have reached earth in much less time. Such an approach is attractive after all, it is impossible to prove today that fundamental physical constants have not changed over time.
A change in the speed of light of the necessary magnitude would have had profound implications on other physical processes, particularly the nuclear fusion reactions that power the
Sun. Secondly measurements of the speed of light have revealed no noticeable change in the speed of light in the time we have been measuring it. Given that these measurements have been extremely accurate over a long period it seems unlikely to opponents of this theory that there were substantial changes in the last few thousand years. This cannot be conclusively proven.
Relativistic shifts
A more recent theory holds that, in a bounded universe, relativistic effects might cause time to pass more slowly near the centre of the universe that at its periphery. If the Earth were near the centre, then far-away stars might indeed be millions of years old, while the earth might be thousands of years old, even if created at the same time. Even the author of this theory will admit that it is no more than a theory at this time.
This theory also assumes the extremely problematic existence of an edge to the universe. Mainstream scientific theories regarding the topology of the universe do not consider a physical edge. Indeed, it is similar to the flat Earth hypothesis - a spherical Earth has no edge and yet remains bounded, whereas the thorny issue of an as-yet unreported edge to the Earth arises in the flat case.
Early civilisation
Many Young Earthers believe that dinosaurs and other creatures of their geological era existed contemporaneously with human beings. Mythologies of dragons and other creatures, such as the
Leviathan in the
Book of Job, bear a strong resemblance to dinosaurs and occur frequently in many parts of the world. (Indeed, the Chinese interpreted fossilised dinosaur bones as being "dragon bones".) Some have claimed that cave paintings depict animals that should have been extinct long before the paintings were executed.
Young Earth Creationists hold that human society progressed from the 'caveman' stage to city-building capability in only a few thousand years. Many Young Earthers argue that in Adam's day, humans lived longer (1000 years), had few disabilities and malfunctions, and were closer to God, and therefore lived more successfully. Since expulsion from Eden, they hold that humans have slowly declined as a consequence of genetic mutations and/or separation from God.
By contrast, conventional science maintains that dinosaurs died out long before human beings existed. Scientific methods of dating separate the last known dinosaurs and the first known humans by some 65 million years. The remains of humans and dinosaurs have never been found in the same fossil layers, indicating a lack of contemporaneity between the two. Genetic mutations are conventionally seen as benefiting species in the long term, allowing them to evolve to better fit their environment. Conventional archaeology has recorded in considerable detail a progression from a lengthy
Stone Age to the relatively rapid development of technological civilisation over the last 9,000 years - a timescale which in itself contrasts many Young Earth views. Conventional archaeological and paleontological evidence does not show ancient humans having longer lifespans than today. The bulk of the evidence suggests that life expectancy was far shorter in the past, with the ancient
Romans having an average life expectancy of 40 years or less.
Conventional science
Conventional science holds that the universe came into being 13.7 0.2 billion years ago, and the Earth formed around 4.57 billion years ago. The geologic timescale is based on many pieces of evidence, including radiometric dating, the fossil record, dendrochronology (tree rings), ice cores, sediment cores, and coral samples.
Young Earth Creationists hold that conventional science is incorrect, as it fails to take into account important evidence from
Genesis and from divine revelations. They also point to alleged inconsistencies, errors, anomalous results, and unanswered questions created by conventional science as evidence that it is incorrect. The Institute for Creation Research(ICR)[
http://www.icr.org] is the source of most evidence cited by Young Earth Creationists. The ICR searches for other interpretations to scientifically accepted data.
Conventional scientists regard some of these objections as resulting from misunderstanding of the relevant scientific evidence by creationists. Other objections they regard as merely indicating avenues for further scientific research, rather than insurmountable flaws requiring a paradigm shift.
