The debate over the age of the earth is significant because it profoundly intersects both physical and spiritual reality. A literal reading of Scripture places the beginning about 6000 years ago, while almost all scientists claim the planet is several billion years old. Where we land on this key scientific question has tremendous spiritual implications. (1Ti 6:20-21)
As in most debates, our ideology, world view or general narrative determines how we interpret reality (Mt 6:22-23), and this particular debate appears to be no different. Young Earth Creationists use a consistent, well-established biblical hermeneutic, respecting the Creation narrative in Genesis at face value. Old Earth proponents tend to align with Philosophical Naturalism, that Earth and all life forms have arisen from random, purely natural causes over long periods of time.
While there is plenty of scientific data available to help us estimate the age of the earth (Ro 1:20), each world view finds ways to interpret the data according to its own general narrative. The consequences of allowing the data here to actually fundamentally change the way one perceives reality are indeed profound. (2Th 2:10-12)
The stakes are perhaps highest for the atheist: accepting a young earth eliminates Darwinian Evolution as a plausible explanation for our existence, leading us to wrestle with Divinity defining a moral standard and holding us all accountable for our actions. This is so offensive and unpalatable to hardened atheists it blinds their minds, literally rendering them incapable of rationally evaluating the facts. (2Co 4:4) So, when we discover soft tissue in dinosaur bones, for example, any explanation at all, even if it’s a wild stretch, satisfies sufficiently to dismiss the evidence. (2Pe 3:5)
Yet decades of extensive Origin of Life research now prove beyond any reasonable doubt that life could not possibly have evolved naturally, exposing Darwinian Evolution as an elaborate hoax and eliminating any rational basis for Philosophical Naturalism. (Ps 139:14) Consequently, an old-earth interpretation of the scientific data no longer supports any rational world view (Ps 102:25); we should all be free to consider faith-based, young-earth interpretations of the scientific data without being mocked and ridiculed.
Even so, many Christians depart from a biblical hermeneutic in Genesis to accommodate an old earth, hoping to be respected by the general scientific community. However, in doing so they unwittingly undermine the very foundations of the Christian faith: that God actually made Man in His own image from the dust of the earth; that He actually formed Woman from the rib of Man (1Ti 2:13); that God actually rested on seventh day of Creation and sanctified it (Ex 20:11); that Adam actually brought sin into the world by eating of the forbidden fruit (14), and death by sin, actually passing spiritual death on to all of us, who are all his descendants (Ro 5:12); that God actually cursed the ground for Man’s sake, and prophesied that the Seed of Woman will bruise His heal while bruising the head of the serpent who deceived them. Allegorizing the Creation story leads one to presume all of these foundational historical events didn’t actually happen as they are recorded, but that they merely evolved over millennia as pre-historic humanoids passed on oral traditions trying to make sense of their chaotic world.
This debate is surely not without consequence. Grounding ourselves in the facts and understanding how and why they are interpreted by each side, will help us be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks of us a reason for our hope with meekness and respect. (1Pe 3:15)