Frequently Asked Questions about Old Earth Ministries
1. If you say it doesn’t matter what position
you believe in (old or young), then why do you attack the young earth
position?
There are two reasons why the young earth creation science position
is criticized on this website. First and most important, there is a battle
to be waged for people's souls. Countless people have abandoned the
Christian church today, because they were told that the earth was young, and
then after they studied the evidence, they saw that it was old. We seek to
reach these people...the ones that have been cast out by young earth
creationism. They need to understand that you can be a Christian, and
believe that the earth is old. With this goal in mind, we gladly confront
the false teachings of young earth creationism.
The second reason we confront the young earth position is because
it is wrong. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old, and the universe more
than 13 billion years old. The scientific evidence to support this claim is
accepted by over 99.9 percent of all scientists.1 However, the young earth
position teaches that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Because this is
against all (100%) of the evidence from God’s creation, the young earth
position is not true. Yes, even God's creation argues against young earth
creationism. At this website, we seek to expose the young earth position for
what it is, a false representation of science and truth. We encourage people
to examine God's creation, so that they can discover the truth that the
earth is old.
Because what they teach is not the truth, it must be confronted.
Old earth creationists, and Christians who find their faith challenged
because of the old age of the earth, need to be ready to provide answers to
false young earth claims. We provide those answers here for all Christians
to use.
2. Who are you seeking to reach with the
Gospel?
Our intended audience is two-fold. First, we seek to reach those
people who may have been turned off to the Gospel because of what they see
as a conflict between what they know to be true in science and what they
believe to be true of the church. In other words, they were taught young
earth creationism, but they were turned off to the church when they saw that
the creation itself was old, thus they thought the church's message to the
world to be flawed.
Second, we seek to reach those new to the church. They know that
the earth is old, but who have no experience in church matters.
If you want to read some testimonies of people who used to be
young-earth, check out our Testimony page.
3. Do you seek to convert young earth
creationists to old earth belief?
No, the goal of Old Earth Ministries is not to convert young earth
creationists. They are very committed, devoted members of the church, and we
do not seek to change them. Since salvation is not affected by the age of
the earth, we are happy if they choose to continue in their young earth
belief.
If they should seek with an open mind, we are glad to help them to
understand old earth belief. We do believe that they are better off with old
earth creationism. After all, they would then believe in the true story of
creation, and would not spread more untruths when they witness to
non-Christians.
4. Do you believe in evolution?
Old Earth Ministries believes that all forms of old earth
creationism, including Theistic Evolution, are valid choices for a
Christian. We accept that evolution may have been the method that God
used to create life on this planet. From a theological point of view,
there are no valid Biblical arguments against evolution.
Therefore, there is no reason why Theistic Evolution should not be considered
a viable alternative to any other form of creation belief. It is possible to
be a Christian, believe in an inerrant Bible, and believe in Theistic
Evolution. In fact, you can even be a fundamentalist and believe in
evolution.
5. What About the Gap Theory?
Old Earth Ministries supports the rights of old earth believers who
believe in the Gap Theory. It is a viable form of old earth
creationism, thus we will host articles submitted in
support of the Gap Theory.
6. Do you consider the Genesis account of
creation to be literal?
Yes, we believe the Genesis account of creation is best understood
with a literal reading, and such a reading supports old earth creationism.
We also believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures in their original
writings.
7. Do you believe in a global flood?
The flood of Noah was a local flood, however, it was universal in
effect. God said he would wipe man from the face of the earth, and he did.
All locations that were populated in Noah’s day were flooded. Please keep in
mind that during Noah’s day, the people all stayed together in one
geographic area, and they all spoke the same language (this was prior to the
Tower of Babel). Thus, there was no need to flood the entire earth (nor is
there any geological evidence of such a flood).
Does this mean the Bible is in error when it says the whole earth
was flooded? No, the Bible is accurate. The Bible is written from the frame
of reference of man. All the lands known to man were flooded, thus all of
man's world was flooded. Noah, viewing the flood, would have claimed the
whole world was flooded, even though most of it was not.
8. What Do You Think About the Intelligent
Design (ID) movement?
Any Christian who believes God created the world, in either the
young or old earth system, believes in an intelligent designer. We support
the ID movement in concept, but not necessarily its tactics.
9. The "Daily Young Earth
Rebuttals" on the home page are not updated on a daily basis.
The rebuttals may not be updated on a daily basis for the following
reasons;
Creation Moments rebuttals are for their devotional style emails, which are
Monday-Friday only. Many of their arguments are harmless God of the Gaps
type arguments, with no implications for age of the earth issues.
Answers in Genesis publishes new articles regularly
Monday-Saturday, and occasionally on Sunday.
Creation Ministries International (CMI) rebuttals are for their
featured articles. Their website is based in Australia, and the timing of
their articles is sometimes mixed up. A delay may be used when dealing with
CMI.
The Institute for Creation Research publishes all their new
material on the first day of the month, and sporadic news releases
throughout the month.
Another reason a daily rebuttal may be missing is because no rebuttal is
necessary. Not all articles produced by young earth ministries are bad, nor
do all the articles have implications for the age of the earth.
A final reason is because technical articles may require additional
research, leading to a delay.
10. How big an organization is Old Earth Ministries?
Old Earth Ministries is a privately owned website, with articles coming from volunteers. The founder, Greg Neyman, is the only full-time person working on the website. He administers the site, controls the flow of email for feedback purposes, and handles all media requests. We have about 40,000 total visitors each month.
1 Estimating the number of scientists who believe in a
young earth is almost impossible. Consider the following, which we present
as an rough estimate.
There are 65 scientists listed on ICR’s list of young earth scientists
(granted, this is not a complete listing of all scientists who are young-earthers).
Limiting our numbers to geologists, ICR lists 12 people that are in Geology
or related fields. By comparison the Geological Society of America has over
17,000 members (keep in mind that not all geologists are members, just like
not all young earth geologists are listed by ICR). That equates to 12 young
earth geologists and 17,000 old earth geologists, or .0007 percent. This is
by no means a scientific determination, but can be used to give a rough
estimate.
Another estimate of so-called "creation scientists" claims there are 480,000
scientists in the United States, but in the relevant fields of earth and
life science, there are only 700 who believe in creationism, or less than
0.15 percent of scientists (http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CA/CA111.html)
It could also be argued that ALL scientists accept an old earth. I use the
word ‘all’ because young earth scientists are not scientists. By definition,
a scientist makes observations, then formulates theories about those
observations. By contrast, a YEC “scientist” has made the theory first (that
the earth is young) and then he looks for observations to confirm it. They
are performing science backwards, thus deserve the term “theorist” rather
than “scientist.” This is not to say that they are not smart, intelligent
persons. Many have made important scientific contributions, but in the area
of the age of the earth, their preconceived ideas about the age of the earth
invalidates any scientific work they do in this field of research. For more,
see Creation Science Commentary:
Creation Scientist?
Did you know that you can be a Christian,
and believe that the earth is billions of years old? You can even
believe in evolution and be a Christian. There is no conflict
between science and the Bible...all one needs is a proper
understanding how to merge science and the Bible. To learn more
about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
or check out the article
Can You Be A
Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to
provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism,
and honor God by properly presenting His creation.