Young earth creationism

Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heaven, Earth, and life on Earth were created by a direct act of God dating between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Its adherents are those Christians and Jews who believe that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days, taking the Hebrew text of Genesis as a literal account. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that creationist claims have no scientific validity. The Earth is actually about age of about 4.5 billion years calculated (and proven) by modern geology using geochronological methods including radiometric dating.

This is not a joke.

Other Beliefs

Young Earth creationists regard the Bible as a historically accurate, factually inerrant record of natural history. Young Earth creationists believe that Adam and Eve were the universal ancestors of the entire human race; accordingly it is usually held that their sons and daughters married amongst themselves to produce the next generation of children. Many also belive that Dinosaurs and Humans lived side-by-side, though in actuality, all dinosaurs were extinct 65 million years ago, and we originated in Africa 200,000 years ago, leaving a 64,800,000 year gap.

Atheist Response

The fundamentalist Christian arguments for a great flood include finding fish fossils in mountains, and allegedly that a great flood story has been told by a society on every major land mass on the planet. Floods do happen in a great many different places. The amount of water needed to flood the Earth is 10 to 11 times the amount of fresh water, salt water, ground water, and vapor in the air, combined. If a great flood did happen, all of the societies on Earth would of been wiped out, thus, no society would have a story to tell. Some people will explain that there was a canopy of water surrounding the Earth, like the ozone layer. First of all, the atmosphere of the Earth cannot support such weight. Secondly, if the water was in orbit, a spherical canopy is impossible due to the fact that all orbiting objects in such a canopy would collide with each other. A water "ring" would be a better idea for the Christian fundamentalists, however, where did all that water go after the flood?

See also

• The fact of evolution
• Evolution
• Creationism/Intelligent Design
• Scientific arguments for/against religious beliefs