Still believe it literally?
Still trying to pass off poetry as literal speech? As I said... you have zero intellectual honesty and no critical thinking skills if you are willing to take Psalms as literal historical data, but not Genesis. No wonder you believe in Evolution.
Some of the most compelling prophecies fulfilled by Jesus come from Psalms that are obviously poetic! Should we likewise write off Psalm 22 as being beneath Genesis just because it is poetry?
If you attributed a fraction of belief in Genesis as literal as your argument attributes to Psalms, your point might make sense or have some credibility. However, it is clear that you are using the scripture to make a point, rather than trying to honestly interpret it. This is wrong and is a shameful behavior. Again, you are demonstrating a lack of honesty and a lack of critical thinking. You are, however, being entirely consistent with the atheists and humanists who try to discredit scripture with the junk science of evolution. It is truely sad to see a christian use the scripture in this way. You are picking an choosing what you want to believe as it suits the purpose of the devil.
In verses 4-6 of Psalm 19 we see that the author had a different idea of the sun than we do today, and this different idea is found in his plain statements (about the tabernacle and the sun's circuit from end to end of the heavens) and not just his similes (comparing the sun to a bridegroom and a strong man). However, God inspired the author in writing this the same way he inspired the authors of Psalm 22 and Genesis 1. If some think they're too advanced to benefit from stories and poetry with imagery that we now see is nonliteral, then I think they're really at a disadvantage compared to earlier students of the Bible.
So it is your assertion that there are never morining on planet earth, or that the Sun is stationary in the sky 24 hours a day? Come on Merc... you are using this scripture in an entirely inappropriate way. Surely even you can see that.
My point was that the evidence for the age of the earth and our universe is not dependent on evolution -- indeed, many Christians accepted an older age for the earth even before evolution became an issue.
Yep... that's the part that was wrong all right. You can try to re-write history all you want but truth doesn't change no matter how much you want it to.
Fine. Instead of getting into a discussion about the history of the development of modern geology why don't we just skip to the end and change the statement to say that even if all the evidence for common descent were to disappear tonight, the case for an old earth and universe based on what is known to day from geology and astronomy is so overwhelming partially because of how well the various fields point to the same thing through indepenent means
Firstly, the part you are continually "skipping" when you skip to the end is the Beginning... the Word!
Jhn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Instead of 'skipping to the end' perhaps you should start from the beginning with a solid foundation. That beginning is revealed to us in God's Word. He gives us a headstart.
UTE: based on what is known to day from geology and astronomy is so overwhelming partially because of how well the various fields point to the same thing through indepenent means[
What you fail to realize is that all that 'overwhelming' evidence is manufactured upon the pre-supposition of uniformitarianistic thought. The Bible, however, gives us the true history and lets us know of a major global catastrophy that has NEVER been factored into the uniformitarian thinking. As a matter of fact, it has been rejected as a possibility even before it had a chance to be considered. The very concept of uniformitarianism is an a priori committment to gradualism and everything happening for billios and billions of years EXACTLY as we see it happening today. The Bible makes it clear that things have not always happened exactly the same. There have indeed been global changes ... geological... biological... zoological... anthropological... etc. For example - The flood is a HUGE geological change. Life spans decreasing from 900 years to 130 years is a huge biological change. The tower of Babel is a huge anthropological change. Noah's ark is a huge zoological event.
What Lyell did when he began making his uniformitarian theories is he said - if we ignore the Bible and assume that everything has always happened at the same rate and in the same way we see now, how do we explain it. Effectively, he removed the Word of God from the equasion. He begain with the pre-supposition that the Word of God wasn't true... that the things spoken of in the Bible didn't happen. That is the ONLY way one can come to the conclusions of evolution and millions/billions of years.
And it's not only the Bible. Just about every culture on earth has some global flood story either in their history or in their mythology. This evidence is also willfully ignored. Evolution and it's theories are built upon willful ignorance of evidence that goes against the theory. It is built upon suppositions and presumptions that are unproovable and contradict the Word.
I do not believe that the Bible is the Creator. The Bible is inspired by God and creation is created by God. So, I reject any approach that tries to pit one against the other. To do so is blatantly contradictory to Psalm 19:1-4a and Romans 1:18-20 which show that both sources of revelation are in harmony in pointing to God
2Ti 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Pro 30:5 Every word of God [is] pure: he [is] a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Psa 119:140 Thy word [is] very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
That doesn't say everything except Genesis 1-11 is true. It says ALL. You can continue trying to quote Genesis as poetic, and Psalms as literal... but you will continue to be wrong. Clearly, Psalms is poetic speech and Genesis is historical writing. Now we can take the things in Psalms to be true - the sun coming out of a tabernacle as a bridegroom coming out of the chamber is a very good analogy to the way to sun rises each morning, for example. We can see the sun rise each morning and know by Romans 1:18-20 that this proves that every other word in the rest of scripture... including Genesis ... is true.
No. Until about five years ago, I assumed the earth was about 6,000 years old. The evidence (ice cores, tree rings, lake varves, the fossil record, distant starlight, radiometric dating, radioactive isotopes, etc.) convinced me otherwise.
Every single piece of evidence you listed is synthetically manufactured based on the pre-supposition that nothing in Genesis is true. YEC have answers for all of them that are based on the Bible being true AND accurate.
Exactly, and then that assumption led to predictions, those predictions were falsified, and then the assumption was no longer commonly held.
Incredible... instead of realizing that the predictions were wrong, you immediately jumped to the conclusion that the Word was wrong. Do you see how your humanistic thought has allowed you undermine your belief in scripture? Wow... what a startling and clear example!
Isn't it remarkable that things get deposited in the same fashion before and after this worldwide flood as during it? That's quite different from local floods and other cataclysms that leave evidence of their occurrence.
Oh... so you've got some credible evidence from pre-flood do you? And you know that it was pre-flood how exactly? That radiometric dating dated it as billions of years old? The mistake you are making is trying to interpret any evidence you see under an a priori commitment to humanism/atheism/Satan himself (aka evolutionay theory). You are trying to apply the interpretive methods of the wrong ideas to the Bible... and that's not going to work either. Ken Hamm says it this way - when you believe in evolution, you interpret the world through those evolutionary glasses. It distorts the truth. But if you wear the Word of God (the Bible) as your glasses, it makes the evidence come through clearly so it can be seen for what it truely is.
Helen, once again, I didn't use the word "fact". (Well, I used it regarding something in the Psalms, but not about what you're discussing.) Anyway, the word "fact" is not as limited as you make it out to be; if it was, we could hardly ever use it, and we'd all have to voice our thoughts like existentialists.
So Evolution is not a fact? If it is not, why do you treat it as such? So uniformitarianism is not fact? If you really believe that, why do your actions and words contradict that belief?
How can you say they have been "shown to be wrong" without also making assumptions, which assumptions might also be wrong?
Because our 'assumptions' are based on the word of someone who was there and knows all. Our assumptions are based on the FACT that the Word of God is absolute truth.
The assumptions of "uniformitarianism" are constantly being checked. They have stood the tests that scientists arranged.
Uniformitarianism is constantly loosing ground. Every single day, more and more scientists lean towards catastrophism to explain the mysteries of the earth. For example... just look at the 'how did the dinosaurs die out' question. Evolutionists USED to believe that one of the following killed the dinosaurs:
* Mammals eating dinosaur eggs.
* New narcotic plants evolved.
* Global cooling/global warming.
* Loss of plants causing herbivores to starve, which in turn caused the carnivores to starve.
* Lowering of oxygen partial pressure in the atmosphere.
However, scientists and giving more and more credibility to catastrophism as the most logical cause of the dinosaurs getting wiped out... now they say it was a commet or asteroid hit the earth... or perhaps a very large volcanic erruption killed them all. Many scientists are even trying to marry the two saying there were millions of years of the same old thing happening... then WHAM... a catastrophy hit and everything changed. Then millions of years like that ... and wham... another catastrophy. They are even beginning to think that evolution of animals happened quickly in bursts followed by millions of years without change. We've all see these theories on the discovery channel. The very foundation of uniformitarianism never was built. It's foundation is pre-supposition and guess. It is getting weaker and weaker.
The Bible, however, remains unchanged. It's truth remaining remarkably clear. Given enough time, I sure science will eventually come to the conclusion that the Bible is ultimately and absolutely correct.