Ark Guy said:
I think good argument could be made against this so-called old earth/universe argument.
Personally I think it looks young and have seen scientific evidence that clearly shows the earth can't be as old as those that accept evolutionism claim. Of course that is another topic and the real answer to your reply about what scientific evidence reveals follows.
In the bible we read that there once was wedding which took place at Cana in Galilee. During the wedding the servants gave the master of the banquet some wine to taste. The master of the banquet seemed to really enjoy the taste of the wine. As a matter of fact the master of the banquet took the bridegroom aside and complimented him on bringing out the better wine near the end of the wedding.
If you were to test the wine that the servants gave to the master of the banquet to taste, you would have laboratory results returned to you that indicated it was indeed a beverage that came from a fruit that use to hang on a vine in a vineyard. For all practical purposes the wine had a history. The test results would be irrefutable scientific proof. If you could extract the DNA from the beverage it would be an identical match to the grape DNA. The history of the wine would lead to a grape vine. The wine would indicate apparent age, yet we know it to be moments old.
But what is the truth? Did the wine really come from a grape vine? The bible tells us in John 2 that the wine did not have its start on a grape vine as the scientific test would have concluded but rather Jesus turned some water in clay jars into the wine. Water to wine was its simple history.
It appeared old in the minds of the scientific, but was not in reality.
For some the anology can be related directly to the six day creation.
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Now once again, when you view this water to wine story against the opening quote in this thread...once again we see that we have interpreted the bible wrong for we all know water can't become wine.
I say again, I will not try to defend this quote as I do not quite agree with it myself.
And again, all science does say that so far we 'know' (as in can scientifically prove) there is no mechanism for water to turn into wine. But it does not and cannot say that there is no God who can perform miracles in His creation therefore it does not and cannot say that "water can't become wine". Many scientists may make this as an off-the-cuff statement, but if pressed would have to admit that they cannot say this for certain as they cannot for certain disprove the existance of God.
On to the wine...
Funnily enough I just heard that this morning - it was the gospel reading for the day in the traditional Anglican litturgy
What you say about the DNA testing is true. However, if you were to ask the servants they would be able to tell you Jesus just created it. If you were to check the books of the wine merchant you would find he had not sold this wine to the house. If you were to see if the DNA exactly matched that of any plants in the local vinyards, or indeed any in the world, you might well find it did not exactly match any. It might, but there would be no need for God to make it so. And again, if our alien civilisation had been watching through their super telescope they would have actually seen it change. So, the seum total of the evidence would be contradictory, and so a theist would conclude a miracle had been performed. (Sure, an athiest would twist out of that conclusion somehow, but that is their problem).
But, IMHO, there is no evidence that supports a YEC position. When we look through our super telescopes we see something quite different. I realise you disagree, but if you do not want to discuss science of YEC vs TE here that is fine - as you say it is not the point of the thread.
However, I do hope I have answered the point. Would you please not conceed that it is not
automatically and totally contradictory for Christians to accept a litteral resurection and yet deny YEC on the basis of science? That is not asking a lot and involves absolutely no concesion whatsoever on your YEC views - just an acceptance that the views of others are not a nonsense.
Shalom,
YN.