Young Earth Creationists (YECs) are an odd bunch. They denounce and ignore mountains of scientific evidence in order to blindly believe just a single source, the Bible. What’s more, they take the Bible as a literal transcript of what happened. So when the Bible says the universe was created in six days, they believe the universe was created in six days. When the Bible says man was dropped onto earth in his current form, they believe that man was dropped to earth in his current form. When the Bible says it’s ok to beat slaves providing they can stand again within a couple of days, they believe it’s ok to beat slaves providing they can stand again in a couple of days.
And most importantly, when the Bible says the Earth is only 6000 years old they believe the Earth is only 6000 years old. To many, this position seems completely indefensible, yet they continue to not only believe this, but defend their position in books and on TV shows.
You’ll often find that YECs focus on small details in an attempt to discredit the scientifically calculated age of the Earth (~ 4.5 Billion years) and the age of the universe (~ 14 Billion years). It’s a fruitless pursuit however, as science does not, generally, rely on a single source. Even when looking at radiometric dating, multiple methods and techniques are used and only when they agree is the calculation treated as true. There is redundancy built into the calculations.
Of course, none of this really matter to YECs. The margin of error is only matched by the level of their ignorance. So to drive home the enormity of the mistake they are making, I wanted to highlight some of the things that happened, according to science, before they believe the Earth existed.
The purpose of this exercise is to point out how far off the mark YECs are. There are many, many, many things we know existed before YECs claim the Earth had even been created. It’s important to note that the methods used to date many of these creations and events differ, so we’re not relying on a single source (although, admittedly, radiometric dating is heavily relied upon).
People
Fairly recent discoveries have suggested that humans, broadly as we exist now, have been around for at least 160,000 years. No doubt we were inventing Gods and using them to oppress back then, just as we do now.
Domestication of Dogs
This is an example that’s been used by Richard Dawkins previously. Evidence (fossils in Iraq) tells us that dogs were first domesticated roughly 12,000 years ago, although one could make a case for it being a few thousand years prior to that date. Of course, it’s not just dogs. Sheep, pigs, goats and cattle were all domesticated around 11,000 years ago and draught animals were domesticated as the world was being created, about 6,000 years ago.
Houses
Yes, we had built houses before there was ground to build houses on. The earliest known human-made dwelling is approximately 12,000 years old and was made from Mammoth bones and hide. It was discovered in the 1960s in the Ukraine. Similarly to the domestication of animals, it’s highly likely that there were human made dwellings prior to this point, but as such a specific set of circumstances were required to preserve the evidence, it’s unlikely we’ll find archaeological evidence for it.
Looking at more tangible evidence. Recent excavations have shown that postholes were installed at the Stone Henge site around 10,000 years ago.
Language
Language is not quite as simple as saying it developed x number of years ago. Language is difficult to define and can by pigeon-holed (or should that be pidgin-holed?) into a number of categories (Pidgin, Proto, Creole, Modern). For the purpose of this article, let’s think about the sort of language we are all familiar with. Modern language is understood to have originated at least 50,000 years ago. Other types of language are understood to have originated more in the region of 400,000 years ago.
Going hand-in-hand with language is writing, which dates back to about 1,000 years before the Earth was created by God. Mathematics was beginning to be understood and utilized around this time as well.
Art
Yes, art. Paintings in caves have been discovered in Europe that date to 32,000 years ago. We also have cave paintings in Africa that date to approximately 20,000 years ago (conservatively). However, art is subjective (not just the merit of a particular piece of art, but the definition itself), so you could make an argument for art dating back 75,000 years if you argue that drilled shells count as art.
Jewellery
As I mentioned above, a series of drilled snail’s shells were found in a South African cave that date to 75,000 years old. You could argue that these are art, or you could argue that they were a piece of jewellery. At 75,000 years old, these shells don’t qualify as the oldest known jewellery however. That distinction goes to a set of shells that are 100,000 years old.
Clothing
As the Bible teaches us, man experienced shame in the Garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit. This led to us requiring clothes to cover our shame. Except for the fact that clothes had been around for about 25,000 years when God decided to drop Adam and Even into the Garden of Eden.
Cooking
Are you enjoying that tasty burger? Cooking utensils, hearths, ovens, flint and burnt animal remains have been dated back as far as 250,000 years. The first controlled fires date back to around 400,000 years ago.
Farming
There’s no point being able to cook without having some raw ingredients. Thankfully, we can conservatively date the origin of farming to 10,000 years ago where we define farming as the cultivation of certain plants for eating. There’s some evidence for the farming of certain grains prior to that, but 10,000 years is a safe estimate.
War
Just so you don’t think things were all happy and loving before God came along and created us, I need to point out that there was war before we existed. Graves of Nubians (from the Sudan area in Egypt) dating back 12,000 years suggest two warring factions.
Dinosaurs
Just in case we forget about the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the room, we have evidence for dinosaurs existing 230 million years ago. They had died out before God had created the earth for them to live on (65 million years ago). I’ve left dinosaurs until the end because of the abundance of evidence for their existence. It just seems unthinkable that any sane, logical person could dismiss such a mountain of evidence and instead favour the word of a book that is, itself, full of inaccuracies, hate, bigotry and contradictions.
So…
As you can see, we achieved a lot before God created us, and there was an awful lot going on in the world before it was even a twinkle in God’s eye. I know that not all Christians choose to accept the Bible as a literal interpretation of events, but that begs the question of which bits of their holy book they will choose to ignore next.
The above list doesn’t even scratch the surface of the pre-God earth, it’s a shame that certain elements within our society want to diminish and compress our planet’s history.
That’s good information. Thank you. I didn’t notice the citation but, whatever . . .
Apologies, I forgot to put them in. They’ve now been added.
There’s shouldn’t be anything too controversial in there. If anything, I’ve erred on the conservative side.
Silly heathen, languages were created AFTER the creation of the world. Creation scientists, through rigorous methods of comparative linguistic analysis have determined that all current languages originated from the Middle East, somewhere in Iraq, perhaps as a result of the toppling of a giant ziggurat that reaches up to the heavens.
😉
This is very excellently written, thank you. I just want to point out that “allot” should be “a lot.”
While there are certainly good information here, isn’t one of the problems that YECs and others who does not want to believe available science and can just come up with the old “God created fossil records, that’s why carbon dating shows the results you are seeing” and similar weak arguments, which boils down to the “God is infallible, so everything that doesn’t fit with the Bible must have an explanation so that it fits.”
Very simple proof that the earth is millions, if not billions of years old.
We have examples of petrified wood, which takes millions of years to petrify, and dinosaur bones are petrified.
The islands that rose from the ocean floors, started from the bottom and it took millions of years, if not billions of years for them to reach the great heights they are at today, I think the highest island in the Hawaiian chain is around over 17,000 feet above sea level, and are still growing so much per year, I thought that the bible god got through creating after after 6 days?
The nearest galaxy from us is 4.5 million light years away.
It took the bible god six days to create the entire universe, including over 125 billion galaxies, yet ironically it took him forty days and nights to right the ten commandments.
And then it took him over 4000 years to devise the jebus salvation plan.
Just in this response alone, totally destroys the notion of a 6000 year old earth and a creation god.
Correction, that would be – write the ten commandments.
Here’s a bit of food for thought. No matter what an atheist states or believes, or how many try to present philosophical ideas for the pro or con of it, there is an undeniable fact that cannot be overlooked: life is very very very short. So leave the atheist to believe what they choose; for in due time the truth will hit them like a trainwreck and the believers will have eternity to say, “I told you so.” The point is the world is suffering and over 1 billion people are going hungry. I for one could care less what an atheist believes, or when a believer wastes time trying to convince such blind men when children go hungry….Prophecy
Creationists, Evolutionists, Dinosaurs, carbon dating, my God vs. your God, Physics vs. The Bible, who’s right, who’s wrong, who cares. The only one constant on this dust ball we call a planet is death; the cycle of life, death, and change. Energy changing from one form to another, but, short of turning this into a lecture on the properties of matter; Stop worrying about life or where it all came from. just live it. One thing I do know first hand, everyone dies. Enjoy today while you still can.
What if you’re wrong? You see the problem with atheism is this; If you’re right and there is no God, then in the end there is no difference whether I believed or not because we are all dead forever and nothing here on earth makes a bit of difference, but, if I’m right and there is a God what I believe makes an infinite difference because our souls last forever. If you’re as smart as you think you are you should be more cautious with your eternal soul. The bible is the most reliable ancient text there is, hands down. There is more evidence of Jesus’ life than that of Julius Caesar. Play it smart, accept God’s free gift of salvation through his Son Jesus.
Tom W, let’s say I’m wrong an there actually is a God, what is to say it’s your God? There are so many religions and no religion has any evidence they are more right than the other (you assumes the question is a matter of atheism vs. christianty, but why should it be christiantiy that is correct and not scientology?). All religions say they have “sacred texts” that proves they are correct, but none can be verified, not even a little bit.
On what do you base your claim that the bible is “hands down the most reliable acient text”? All I can see is contradictions and flaws in the text?
In light of the above, the argument is not atheism OR religion, it’s atheism OR christiantity OR scientology OR islam OR hinduism OR etc…etc.. In that respect, the safest bet is atheism and the theory of evolution as it is the only one that can be verified even a little bit
What you’re referring to Tom is Pascal’s Wager, which I’ve addressed previously.
As barelyadraft pointed out, the choice is not as simple as you make out, and as I pointed out in the article I’ve linked to here, given how vengeful, spiteful and jealous your God is, it’s likely that he’d take worshipping another God over him as a far more heinous crime than worshipping no God at all. But don’t think that gets you off the hook, because most of the other Gods are equally nasty.
And please don’t make an outrageous claim like:
Without backing it up with evidence. There’s no verifiable mention of Jesus in any historical texts of the time. The first mentions are many years after his supposed death. The Bible is one of the most convoluted, hypocritical and inaccurate books of all time and it’s a crying shame that anyone takes it literally or as anything other than a work of fiction.