Why I Gave Up On Young Earth Creationism, part 1.

There was a time when I was passionate about young earth creationism.  I absorbed as much material put out by ICR and AIG and other young earth groups as I could.  I subscribed to their newsletters, read their books and watched their videos and even had the privilege to hear Ken Ham speak.  I even studied biology under some pretty good young earth scientists at a fundamentalist university with the intent of advocating young earth creationism some day.  I loved it, and what else could a knowledge hungry Christian believe?  Sure there were old earthers, and gap theorists, and worse yet, theistic evolutionists hovering on the fringes of Christianity, but none of those groups were consistently faithful to the Word of God, right?  And the scientific evidence, well it was consistent with the Genesis account, as long as it was interpreted with the correct 'world view', right?

So what happened?  Well, I guess I grew up.  I'm not saying that those hanging on to young earth creationism are immature, uneducated, or lacking in any way.  I totally get that compared to many young earth advocates, I'm pretty much an idiot.  But I just don't get it anymore.  By don't I mean can't.  By growing up I mean that I see things differently now.  Like a child learns and grows through play, through seeing, feeling, and experiencing, what I see, feel, and experience in creation has a profound influence on how I think and ultimately, my faith.  And while I understand why many Christians hold onto it with such passion, I can not be honest with myself and subscribe to 'scientific creationism.'  

As a young earth creationist, I found myself more concerned with finding holes in evolution theory than supporting young earth theories.  And now, looking back, that makes sense to me.  Young earth creation is not based on science.  It's based on a particular interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis.  If science doesn't agree, it must be wrong.  Evolution, on the other hand, is based on science.  And with just about all science, it is a work in progress and as such, open for criticism.  Despite what some may purport, it does not explain everything.  It is not perfect.  I'm confident that decades from now, as more of this world is revealed to us, many of the theories in evolution will have changed.  Some changes may be subtle.  A few revisions may even be drastic.  That is science.  Though as a science, evolution will not go away.   I don't see the lack of surety as a bad thing.  We are constantly learning, adjusting, pursuing.  I don't believe God gave us the Bible so that our knowledge would be full.  It's not a matter of God's words versus man's words as so often repeated by Ham and his followers.  It's about good science and pseudoscience.  Good science refines itself.  Pseudoscience does not. It does not adjust itself to new information but rather looks for new information to confirm itself.  Creationists ask evolution for irrefutable proof (an impossible demand) while providing not an inkling of evidence (a seemingly simple expectation) for itself. 

Almost every Christian I know personally would rebuke me for giving up on young earth creationism.  I'm fine with that.  That's the circle of fellowship I've put myself in.  I'm not out to change anyone's mind, just come clean about mine.