Mechanical Bliss said:
Young earth creationism is not rejected because of atheism.
You are using the standard creationist tactic of polarizing the issue into atheism vs. theism when the issue is young earth creationism vs. science.
Lots of theists believe in Evolution. Do not say "young earth creationism vs. science" - that would be just the same as me saying "Evolution vs. science".
Mechanical Bliss said:
Christian creationists were the ones who originally disproved young earth creationism in the first place. Clearly young earth creationism is vacuous on the scientific level, and we've known this for nearly two centuries now.
Right. Christian creationists "disproved" YEC?
1) Which Christian creationists did this?
2) How exactly did they "disprove" YEC?
Mechanical Bliss said:
YEC is a threat to Christianity, particularly in the way you presented it.
What way was that that is so threatening to Christianity?
Mechanical Bliss said:
YEC, especially as you defined YEC as "true" Christianity, makes Christianity look absurd, plain and simple.
I did not define YEC as "true" Christianity. Young Earth Creationism =\= Christianity. YEC is a logical result of Christianity, for most people. It is quite clear in Genesis that God created the world ex nihilo by divine fiat, and almost as clear that He did so a few thousand years ago only.
But on top of this, I never even said, or tried to say, that true Christians believe in YEC. I said this:
"If people are going to reject their faith in Christ because they won't believe what the Bible says (i.e. YEC), then they're obviously not true Christians to begin with."
I could have stated it this way: "If people are going to reject their faith in Christ for any reason at all, they're obviously not true Christians to begin with." All I was saying was that true Christians
do not reject their faith for any reason. Otherwise they are not true Christians to begin with.
If a "Christian" rejects his faith because it's too hard, or because his girlfriend didn't like it, or because he decided he couldn't believe in someone being raised from the dead, or because he discovered Buddhism, or because he just decided he didn't want to be a Christian, then he was obviously not a true Christian to start with. In the same way, if a person rejects his faith in Christ
as a result of his rejection of YEC, then he can't have been a true Christian to start with. (Notice, if you will, that I did not say that his rejection of YEC was his rejection of Christianity - I said that
if he rejects Christianity
because he rejects YEC [or, as I've said, for any other reason], then... etc.)