FAQ: Short Answers to Hard Questions - Pastor Dave

 SHORT ANSWERS TO HARD QUESTIONS  (Genesis Series)

Pastor David Christensen

1 HOW DO WE RESPOND WHEN SCIENTISTS SAY THAT EARTH IS 4.5 BILLION YEARS OLD?

Scientists use astronomical data and Carbon 14 dating along with other methods to date the origins of life and the universe.  All of these dating methods are based upon two assumptions. These assumptions are not provable or testable. They are assumptions that are foundational to the methods used by scientists for dating. The first assumption is what we might call zero-based calculations.  Star light began at zero. Carbon 14 dating uses a ratio so that age begins at zero.  Young earth creationists believe that the universe was created in motion rendering these dating methods inaccurate to date origins.  The earth was created with age so our starting point in years is somewhere long past zero.

The second assumption is what has been called “uniformitarianism.”  For these dating methods to work the process must have continued from start to finish without interruption or alteration.  Life on earth must have followed a pattern (a ratio) that never changed.  No global catastrophes took place to change the pattern.  Young earth creationists argue that the universal flood altered the record completely.  Flood geology argues that layers of sediment were changed and laid down in their current form by the flood so Carbon 14 and fossil records can only be used to date back to the flood and not beyond.

2. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE COSMOS WAS CREATED WITH AGE?

Genesis 1 tells us that age was built into the creation from the beginning. Humans were created as adults not babies (Gen. 1:27-28).  They were immediately commanded to procreate and to rule.  All the animals, birds and fish were fully developed mature creatures (Gen. 1:20-22; 24-25).  Once again they were told to be fruitful and multiply from the moment of creation.  God created plants and trees fully developed and mature (Gen. 1:11-12). They were bearing seeds and fruit from the moment they were created.  It is but a small step to argue logically that Carbon-based organic life forms were already laid down in the earth.  One of the most important aspects for dating the universe is the light from the stars.  The travel time for light coming from the stars is calculated to be over 10 billion years and is one of the major arguments for an old universe.  It is clear from Genesis 1:14 that God created the stars with their light already visible on earth from the moment of creation. This eliminates 10 billion years of time from the very beginning.

3. IF GOD CREATED THE COSMOS WITH AGE, ISN’T GOD BEING DECEPTIVE?

No. God is not being deceptive because He told us what He did in Genesis 1.  How could God say it any clearer than what is said in Genesis 1?  God revealed the fact that He created the cosmos mature and in motion (with age). He has not hidden it from us.  To accuse God of deception requires us to say that God hid the information from us so we would be confused. God did not deceive humans about the origins of the cosmos. Humans deceived themselves by refusing to accept the record God revealed.

4. IF GOD CREATED THE COSMOS WITH AGE, ISN’T GOD CAPRICIOUS?

No! Capriciousness is the tendency to act without motive, to be arbitrary and make choices based on whims.  God did not act without motive or on a whim when He created a mature earth (with age).  He did not do this to fool modern scientists or to play mind games with us. God did not create our world with age on a whim. He is not capricious. God created a mature world purposefully and intentionally.  Everything He did was for a purpose. God created a perfect eco-system.  He created the star light visible for humans because it was important to the existence of life on earth to have the light from the sun and stars visible.  God created mature trees bearing fruit because it was necessary for humans and animals to have food.  Humans couldn’t wait 30 years for a tree to grow and bear fruit.  Mature trees require an eco-system to survive.  Decomposing organic life forms must have already been deposited in the ground to provide nourishment to the mature trees and plants that need that nourishment to survive.  Trees could not wait for the decomposition to take place or they would die.  The decomposition of organic life forms is the basis for Carbon¹⁴ dating. God did not build this into the system on a whim but because the eco-system required it for life.

5.  WHY DO YOU THINK THAT CREATION TOOK PLACE 12,000 – 15,000 YEARS AGO INSTEAD OF 6,000?

 Bishop Usher used the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 to determine 4004 B.C. as the date of creation making the world about 6,000 years old.  However, the genealogies contain significant gaps making them inconclusive for dating the earth.  Fitting biblical history into the broader framework of ancient history requires a longer period of time.  Many young earth creationists today argue that the earth is about 8,000 to 12,000 years old.  I personally think that creation took place closer to 15,000 years ago (13,000 B.C.).  We know that stratified city mounds in the Middle East show an unbroken sequence of occupation dating back as far as 7,000 B.C. (9,000 years ago).  Using Carbon¹⁴, stratigraphy, pottery, historical records and crosschecking between all the methods demonstrates that many cultures have an archaeological record that date back that far. The flood must have predated them and creation before that. There is good evidence that primitive cultures were developing as far back as 10,000 B.C. or 12,000 years ago. There is simply too much evidence for these longer dates so I conclude that creation must have been about 15,000 years ago.

6.  WHY DO YOU THINK THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT GAPS IN THE GENEALOGIES OF GENESIS 5 AND 11?

There are at least 7 major reasons why biblical scholars recognize that the genealogies contain significant gaps of time.  (1) The terms “begat” and “son of” are both used to describe ancestors and sometimes distant ancestors in the Bible (Matthew 1:8; 1 Chron. 26:24 etc.).  (2) The number of years in Genesis 11 was never totaled indicating that the purpose was not to construct a chronology.  (3) The name and years of Cainan do not appear in the text (Luke 3:36). (4) If there were no gaps then Noah would have died just 3 years before Abram was born and Shem would have outlived Abram.  The Bible says that Abram’s fathers were idolaters (Joshua 24:2,14,15) which would be odd if Shem was still alive in Abram’s life.  (5) The ancient versions of the Bible disagree on the numbers between Adam and the Flood.  (MT, 1656; LXX, 2242; Samaritan, 1307; Josephus, 2256). (6)The lists are perfectly symmetrical and stylized with 10 patriarchs followed by 3 sons of the last patriarch in each list indicating that the purpose of the lists was not chronology but ancestry.  (7) There would be approximately 300 years between the Flood and Abram if we take the lists as strictly chronological.  Into this brief time we have to fit the migration and population growth from one family to fill an earth that had been wiped out; the Ice Age; the Tower of Babel and the subsequent disbursement populations; and the rise of major civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia including the construction of the Pyramids.  John  Whitcomb and Henry Morris in their classic defense of young earth creationism allow for up to 5,000 years between Abram and the Flood (The Genesis Flood, p.489). Archaeologists have added more information since then so I would add a few thousand years to that number to fit what we know about the Middle Eastern civilizations.

7. HOW LONG DID LIFE EXIST BEFORE THE FLOOD?

According to the Masoretic Text (MT) the genealogy indicates 1656 years between Adam and the Flood.  Given that there are significant gaps in the genealogy we can add to that number but it would at least be that much. Using Whitcomb and Morris’s estimate of up to 5,000 years from the Flood to Abraham we could say the same for the time frame from Adam to the Flood.  These conservative numbers would place creation around 12,000 B.C. or 14,000 years ago.  (Adam to Flood – 5,000; Flood to Abram – 5,000; Abram to Christ – 2,000; Christ to our day – 2,000).

8.  WHAT IS THE 2^ND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR OUR STUDY OF CREATION?

The 1^st Law of Thermodynamics says that energy is neither created nor destroyed in a closed system.  The 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics is that the amount of usable energy in closed system decreases over time as it dissipates into unusable energy.  It is sometimes called the Law of Entropy. The point of the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics is that the universe had a beginning and is now “running down.”  Energy is being dissipated over time.  The 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics says that order moves in the direction of disorder in a closed system.  The creation record is consistent with this law.  God’s creation was complete and perfect.  Life has been devolving into greater disorder since its inception.  The universe is falling apart and disintegrating as it expands.

9. HOW DO WE DATE HUMAN HISTORY?

We rely on the science of Archaeology for our knowledge of biblical and extra-biblical history.  Archaeologists cross check their dates using 1) Written historical documents; 2) Inscriptions on tombs and temples; 3) Stratigraphy; 4) Pottery and 5) Carbon-14.  Most of the data related to biblical chronology comes from the two ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt.

10. WHERE DO WE GET OUR HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS FOR ANCIENT HISTORY?

The oldest forms of writing were in pictographs.  Babylonian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics were early pictographic forms of writing. Later the first alphabets were developed for writing.  The earliest documents were written on clay tablets or white limestone shards called ostraca. The administrative records of empires in Egypt and Mesopotamia were extensively documented and we now have massive accumulations of such historical records available today.

11. HOW ARE INSCRIPTIONS ON TOMBS AND TEMPLES USED FOR DATING THE HISTORY OF EMPIRES?

Kings in Mesopotamia and Pharoahs in Egypt documented their own exploits and the stories from the past on statues and temple walls. For example, the Palermo stone and the Temple of Seti 1 have fairly complete lists of kings covering Egyptian history. Priests also documented the religious history in inscriptions on temple walls. We have uncovered the ruins of many of these temples as well as numerous other inscriptions providing an extensive network of information that we can use for dating events in the Bible.

12. WHAT IS STRATIGRAPHY AND HOW IS IT USED FOR DATING?

Ancient cities were built on top of the ruins of previous cities. The results of such construction are giant mounds called “Tels” which can be found all over the Middle East.  Archaeologists “dig” carefully down through the mounds in a “cut” identifying each strata by the contents of that strata.  The contents are cross-checked with similar data from hundreds of sites to determine dates. The “Tel” at Jericho, for example, shows an unbroken sequence of occupation going back to approximately 7,000 B.C.  The flood must have pre-dated the earliest occupation level making the flood at least 9,000 years ago. 

13. WHY IS POTTERY SO IMPORTANT FOR DATING AND HOW IS IT USED?

Pottery is a primary means of dating because it was so common and yet distinctive for each city and civilization.  Broken pottery was discarded but remained in the strata of ancient cities so it is readily available to modern scientists for analysis.  A massive amount of pottery has been collected by archaeologists over the years so comparisons can be made noting both the similarities and the differences from one time to another and one civilization to another.  Archaeologists date the pottery by its ingredients, formation, structure and artistic styles comparing each piece of pottery to the growing library of ancient pottery available today.

14. WHAT ABOUT CARBON-14 (RADIO CARBON) DATING TECHNIQUES?

Carbon 14 is an unstable, radioactive isotope that is used to date once living things. It cannot be used to date rocks but only organic material.  Carbon¹⁴ will decay over time and become Nitrogen¹⁴.  Once a living thing dies the decay process begins.  The decay rate (half life) of C¹⁴ is known because modern scientists have established that rate through testing.  Scientists determine the starting point by comparing the ratio of C¹⁴ to C¹² in living things today.  The date of the organic material is determined by comparing the amount of C¹⁴ that remains with the amount that exists in living things today. The smaller the ratio the longer the organism has been dead.

Carbon¹⁴ dating is a matter of controversy today.  The rate of decay for C¹⁴ has fluctuated over the centuries and is influenced by the earth’s magnetic field, solar winds and climate changes. The rate is therefore not consistent.  The assumption is that all organic materials decayed at the same rate and started from the same point but this is not provable.  However, many studies comparing Radio Carbon dating with other dating techniques such as tree rings have indicated that C¹⁴ is quite accurate for recent dates but becomes less and less accurate the farther back in time we proceed.  So C¹⁴ dating is accepted as accurate when dating organic materials later than 1500 B.C. but becomes less and less accurate as organic materials get older.  It is approximately accurate back to about 10,000 years when corroborated by other evidence.  Furthermore, if the biblical Flood involved a major climate change as we assume then that would have greatly altered the rate of decay making dating beyond the Flood next to impossible.  Archaeologists use C¹⁴ dating in concert with the other forms of dating listed above to arrive at approximate dates for organic materials.

15. WERE THERE CAVE MEN?

Yes … and no.  There were (and still are) humans who lived in caves. The Bible mentions cave dwellers (Genesis 19:30; Job 24:4-8; 30:3-8).  There is considerable evidence that early humans lived in caves but the evidence also suggests that the cave dwelling was mostly temporary and transient.  Hundreds of human fossils and tools have been found so far in locations ranging from Africa to Siberia and the islands of Indonesia.  However, I think we have to be careful with the data and corresponding story line pictured by many scientists.  Some fossil “men” may not be human at all.  It is difficult to accurately determine the true identity of some supposedly human fossils and we do not have to automatically accept all claims regarding such fossil “men.”  The Biblical evidence would indicate that Adam and his immediate descendants were highly intelligent and resourceful humans unlike the typical picture of cave men as primitive half-animal creatures living in Stone Age conditions.

16. WHAT ABOUT NEANDERTHAL, CRO-MAGNON AND HOMO ERECTUS?

In 1856 a fossil was discovered in a cave in the Neander valley of Germany and named Neanderthal man.  Human fossils have been discovered since then in many parts of the world. They often share structural similarities and have been collectively called Home Erectus.  Neanderthal fossils are found in the Post-Flood period and associated with the end of the Ice Age.  They appear alongside Ice Age animals and plants.  Cro-Magnons appear generally in the more recent layers. Neanderthals seem to have died out about the same time as the Ice Age ended.  Some scientists date them to the end of the Pleistocene Era which can be dated as late as 10,000 B.C. and before the Neolithic Revolution from 9,000-7,000 B.C.  This is the age of settled agricultural living and before urban life developed.  There is no evidence that Neanderthal man is connected to any of the ancient cities unearthed by Archaeologists. It seems reasonable to conclude that the immediate descendents of Noah migrated to various parts of the earth and lived largely nomadic lives until the end of the Ice Age produced by the catastrophic climate changes brought on by the Flood. “Cave men” would belong to this period.