Old Earth vs. Young Earth
The Grand Canyon is truly a magnificent place. You can’t capture it or gain a true appreciation of its magnitude in a picture. You just have to go and see it for yourselves. I guess that is why is it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
As you know, we went to the Grand Canyon during Lauren’s Senior trip. I was in the 7th grade the only other time I had been. While 46 years seems like a long time between visits, “geological time'“ is looked at differently as it relates to the Canyon and its origins. The National Park Service claims that the oldest exposed rocks are 1,840 million years old while the Canyon itself has been carved out over the past 6 billion years.
All of these “old earth” claims intrigued me during our visit. I really haven’t ever put too much thought into the true age of the earth - even though I had some preconceived notions about what I believed. It was time for me to “dig in” a little (pun intended) and gain a better understanding of my beliefs.
The debate that I am going to address is not the one between Christians and Atheists. I want to address the differing views between “old earth” Christians and “new earth” Christians and their interpretations of what the Bible and science tell us about the true age of the earth. After reading quite a bit of varying views on the subject, I discovered that there are passionate and compelling arguments on each side.
If Genesis 1 & 2 are interpreted in the strictest sense, it indicates that the earth is around 6,000 years old - aka ”young earth.” In contrast, various scientific dating methods place the age of the earth up to 4.5 billion years. “Old earth” Christians beliefs about the age of the earth range from hundreds of millions of years old up to billions of years.
The main driver for this huge difference is the debate over the 6 “day” time period of creation - God rested on the 7th day. Were these “days” 24 hours like we have or were they more like “ages” that could have been millions of years? Neither “old earth” creationism nor “young earth” creationism teaches that the Bible is wrong. What differs between these approaches is simply a matter of interpretation.
Old earth creationists believe a strictly literal approach is not the correct way to interpret the early chapters of Genesis. They view the passage as being primarily symbolic and/or poetic. Young earth creationists interpret the passage as a literal, historical account of how God created the universe. Young earth creationists question why, if the rest of Genesis is historical, should the first two chapters be interpreted differently? Old earth creationists question why, if the Bible uses symbolism in many other books, can’t metaphor be used in Genesis?
Young earth creationists contend that the scientific data supporting a billions-of-years-old earth is being interpreted incorrectly. They view old earth arguments developed by scientists as primarily being a defense for Darwinian evolution. They contend that the dating methods are flawed and are implemented by scientists with bias and agendas. Old earth creationists view the scientific dating methods as being reasonably accurate and therefore accept that the earth and the universe are truly old.
So, in the old earth vs. young earth debate, who is correct? It seems very apparent that one can be a Bible believing Christian and subscribe to either theory. It’s hard to ignore the scientific evidence of an “old earth,” however; we can’t dismiss the fact that God’s miracle of creation could have also been done in six “24 hour” days as the young earth interpretations suggest.
Where does that leave us? Hopefully, at least we are all now more educated on the subject and have an appreciation for both sides - even though there is no definitive answer. You can be a Christian and hold either believe or just choose to take a pass on picking a side. Either way, we’ll all find out the answer when we get to heaven. I’d love to hear any thoughts that you have on the subject.
Stay hungry,
Big E
Matt. 5:6