Bryan Fischer
Help for Marco Rubio: scientific evidence for a young earth
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The meanstream media tried to hang Marco Rubio from the nearest creationist tree yesterday by asking him for his opinion about the age of the earth. He adroitly dodged the question by saying that he's not a scientist, and by the way, what does that question have to do with a tanking economy? Good for him.
Now Rubio could have quite safely said what I think he believes, that the earth is young. Had he said that, it would have helped him, not hurt him. A full 46% of the American people, according to Gallup, believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Another 32% believe that while God created everything, evolution was the process he used. Articulating a view that at least in part is shared by 78% of the people to whom you are appealing for votes cannot possibly hurt you.
Only 15% share the out-of-the-mainstream media's view that God had nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of the universe and life. This must be enormously aggravating to the secularist blowhards who have been trying to brainwash the American public for a century now. It ain't working, and Rubio has nothing to lose by saying so.
His response could have been, "The Bible teaches a young earth, and I believe the Bible. And more importantly, the Bible teaches what the Founders believed, that man is a created being and all our rights come from our Creator God." No matter what the follow-up question, he should give the same answer. "As I just explained to you, the Bible teaches a young earth, and I believe the Bible. And more importantly..."
If he needed a follow-up answer, he could say, "Well, I believe the Bible teaches that God created everything and I believe the Bible. If you have a problem with that, your problem is not with me, it's with God. I suggest you take it up with him. Next question."
A straightforward reading of the early chapters of Genesis does not leave a lot of wiggle room in which to smuggle in billions and billions of years. The genealogy from Adam to Abraham, as outlined in Genesis 5 and 11, is unbroken, and clearly takes us back to around 4000 BC (by my calculations, 4242 BC, but who's counting?) for the creation of Adam. There just isn't enough fudge factor there to reconcile the age of man with secularist theories.
It seems unlikely that the earth could be much older than that. The days of Genesis 1 are clearly 24 hour days, not day-ages as some try to argue. It's pretty tough to get around "there was evening and there was morning," especially when it's repeated day after day. Now maybe the earth was "without form and void" for some time before God began forming and filling on day 1. So perhaps you can push Genesis 1:1 back to around 10,000 BC or so, but it's tough to stretch it much beyond that.
And these theories about the age of the earth and man are all just that, by the way, theories, since nobody was there to watch it happen. God was the only eyewitness, and he left us an eyewitness account, recorded for us in the first book of the Bible. That's good enough for me, it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for four out of every five Americans, and I believe it's good enough for Sen. Rubio.
But the beauty of this discussion is that there are any number of scientific as well as biblical reasons to believe the earth is much younger than our secular fundamentalist friends want us to believe.
Dr. Russell Humphreys — his doctorate is in physics, which is more than you can say for the pseudo-journalists trying to trap Rubio with a "gotcha" question — outlines at least 14 natural phenomena in this article — Evidence for a Young World — which conflict with the far-fetched theory that the universe is billions of years old.
Here are a few of my favorites, which I happily recommend to our scientifically-challenged friends in the media.
1. Comets. Comets are supposed to be as old as the solar system, about 5 billion years old. Yet comets lose material every time they orbit the sun, and thus no comet can last more than about 100,000 years. If the earth is as old as we're told, comets should have disappeared literally billions of years ago. But there they are, happily orbiting the sun and sending flutters through the astronomical community every time one becomes visible to the naked eye. So, where are all these comets coming from? Scientists have to posit that there is some kind of comet nest out there, which occasionally kicks one of these guys out into the solar system. Now scientists have no evidence that this nest exists, no idea where it is located, and have not clue one what kind of process could explain the whole thing. I'll stick with a young earth as the most plausible explanation.
2. Sediment on the sea floor. Mud is deposited by rivers and dust storms into the sea much faster than natural processes can remove it. Every year, about 20 billion tons of dirt and rock are dumped in the ocean. A process called plate tectonic subduction removes about a billion tons a year, which leaves 19 billion tons to accumulate on the seafloor year after year. The problem here is that the average depth of all the sediment in the entire ocean is less than 400 meters. That would take well less than 12 million years, which leaves us just a tad shy of the three billion years scientists demand. If the biblical account is correct, accelerated accumulation of deposits during the world-wide flood of Genesis 6-9 could account for it most if not all of it. I think I'll go with a young earth on this one.
3. The Earth's magnetic field. Electrical resistance in the earth's core causes the earth's magnetic field to lose energy rapidly. In fact, the half-life of the earth's magnetic field is about 165 years. That means the magnetic field is half as strong today as it was 165 years ago. Put another way, it was twice as strong 165 years ago as it is today. As recently as 20,000 years ago the earth would have been a magnetic star incapable of sustaining life. For the objective observer, that's powerful evidence for a young earth.
4. Decay rate of DNA. DNA experts say that DNA cannot exist in natural environments for more than about 10,000 years because natural radioactivity, mutations and decay degrade DNA as well as other biological material. So dinosaur and Neanderthal and insects-in-amber DNA may not be as old as they want us to believe.
5. Helium. The rate at which helium is produced from the decay of uranium and thorium can be measured. The Journal of Geophysical Research reports that helium produced in zircon crystals that are supposed to be 1.5 billion years old show that the helium has only been leaking for around 6,000 years. Hmm...just about as long as the Bible says the earth has been around.
6. Carbon 14. Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5700 years, so no carbon 14 atoms should exist at all that are older than 250,000 years. Yet Ice Age strata that are supposed to be billions of years old contain significant amounts of carbon 14. If the earth is less than 10,000 years old, this carbon 14 can be accounted for. Otherwise, you're up the proverbial creek without an atomic paddle.
7. Dead bodies. Evolutionists tell us that Homo Sapiens was around for at least 185,000 years before the dawn of agriculture, and world population all that time was between one and ten million souls. Where are all the dead bodies? Under an evolutionary model, there should be at least 8 billion dead bodies buried somewhere. Where are all these stone age skeletons? Only a few thousand have ever been found. Maybe the Stone Age lasted only a few hundred years rather than a few hundred thousand years, hmmm?
Bottom line: Sen. Rubio, you need have no hesitation to affirm that the earth is young and the Bible is right. It's not only scientifically sound, it's a political winner. Millions of voters agree with you, and they just might be inclined to vote for you in 2016. What's not to like?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
November 21, 2012
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The meanstream media tried to hang Marco Rubio from the nearest creationist tree yesterday by asking him for his opinion about the age of the earth. He adroitly dodged the question by saying that he's not a scientist, and by the way, what does that question have to do with a tanking economy? Good for him.
Now Rubio could have quite safely said what I think he believes, that the earth is young. Had he said that, it would have helped him, not hurt him. A full 46% of the American people, according to Gallup, believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Another 32% believe that while God created everything, evolution was the process he used. Articulating a view that at least in part is shared by 78% of the people to whom you are appealing for votes cannot possibly hurt you.
Only 15% share the out-of-the-mainstream media's view that God had nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of the universe and life. This must be enormously aggravating to the secularist blowhards who have been trying to brainwash the American public for a century now. It ain't working, and Rubio has nothing to lose by saying so.
His response could have been, "The Bible teaches a young earth, and I believe the Bible. And more importantly, the Bible teaches what the Founders believed, that man is a created being and all our rights come from our Creator God." No matter what the follow-up question, he should give the same answer. "As I just explained to you, the Bible teaches a young earth, and I believe the Bible. And more importantly..."
If he needed a follow-up answer, he could say, "Well, I believe the Bible teaches that God created everything and I believe the Bible. If you have a problem with that, your problem is not with me, it's with God. I suggest you take it up with him. Next question."
A straightforward reading of the early chapters of Genesis does not leave a lot of wiggle room in which to smuggle in billions and billions of years. The genealogy from Adam to Abraham, as outlined in Genesis 5 and 11, is unbroken, and clearly takes us back to around 4000 BC (by my calculations, 4242 BC, but who's counting?) for the creation of Adam. There just isn't enough fudge factor there to reconcile the age of man with secularist theories.
It seems unlikely that the earth could be much older than that. The days of Genesis 1 are clearly 24 hour days, not day-ages as some try to argue. It's pretty tough to get around "there was evening and there was morning," especially when it's repeated day after day. Now maybe the earth was "without form and void" for some time before God began forming and filling on day 1. So perhaps you can push Genesis 1:1 back to around 10,000 BC or so, but it's tough to stretch it much beyond that.
And these theories about the age of the earth and man are all just that, by the way, theories, since nobody was there to watch it happen. God was the only eyewitness, and he left us an eyewitness account, recorded for us in the first book of the Bible. That's good enough for me, it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for four out of every five Americans, and I believe it's good enough for Sen. Rubio.
But the beauty of this discussion is that there are any number of scientific as well as biblical reasons to believe the earth is much younger than our secular fundamentalist friends want us to believe.
Dr. Russell Humphreys — his doctorate is in physics, which is more than you can say for the pseudo-journalists trying to trap Rubio with a "gotcha" question — outlines at least 14 natural phenomena in this article — Evidence for a Young World — which conflict with the far-fetched theory that the universe is billions of years old.
Here are a few of my favorites, which I happily recommend to our scientifically-challenged friends in the media.
1. Comets. Comets are supposed to be as old as the solar system, about 5 billion years old. Yet comets lose material every time they orbit the sun, and thus no comet can last more than about 100,000 years. If the earth is as old as we're told, comets should have disappeared literally billions of years ago. But there they are, happily orbiting the sun and sending flutters through the astronomical community every time one becomes visible to the naked eye. So, where are all these comets coming from? Scientists have to posit that there is some kind of comet nest out there, which occasionally kicks one of these guys out into the solar system. Now scientists have no evidence that this nest exists, no idea where it is located, and have not clue one what kind of process could explain the whole thing. I'll stick with a young earth as the most plausible explanation.
2. Sediment on the sea floor. Mud is deposited by rivers and dust storms into the sea much faster than natural processes can remove it. Every year, about 20 billion tons of dirt and rock are dumped in the ocean. A process called plate tectonic subduction removes about a billion tons a year, which leaves 19 billion tons to accumulate on the seafloor year after year. The problem here is that the average depth of all the sediment in the entire ocean is less than 400 meters. That would take well less than 12 million years, which leaves us just a tad shy of the three billion years scientists demand. If the biblical account is correct, accelerated accumulation of deposits during the world-wide flood of Genesis 6-9 could account for it most if not all of it. I think I'll go with a young earth on this one.
3. The Earth's magnetic field. Electrical resistance in the earth's core causes the earth's magnetic field to lose energy rapidly. In fact, the half-life of the earth's magnetic field is about 165 years. That means the magnetic field is half as strong today as it was 165 years ago. Put another way, it was twice as strong 165 years ago as it is today. As recently as 20,000 years ago the earth would have been a magnetic star incapable of sustaining life. For the objective observer, that's powerful evidence for a young earth.
4. Decay rate of DNA. DNA experts say that DNA cannot exist in natural environments for more than about 10,000 years because natural radioactivity, mutations and decay degrade DNA as well as other biological material. So dinosaur and Neanderthal and insects-in-amber DNA may not be as old as they want us to believe.
5. Helium. The rate at which helium is produced from the decay of uranium and thorium can be measured. The Journal of Geophysical Research reports that helium produced in zircon crystals that are supposed to be 1.5 billion years old show that the helium has only been leaking for around 6,000 years. Hmm...just about as long as the Bible says the earth has been around.
6. Carbon 14. Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5700 years, so no carbon 14 atoms should exist at all that are older than 250,000 years. Yet Ice Age strata that are supposed to be billions of years old contain significant amounts of carbon 14. If the earth is less than 10,000 years old, this carbon 14 can be accounted for. Otherwise, you're up the proverbial creek without an atomic paddle.
7. Dead bodies. Evolutionists tell us that Homo Sapiens was around for at least 185,000 years before the dawn of agriculture, and world population all that time was between one and ten million souls. Where are all the dead bodies? Under an evolutionary model, there should be at least 8 billion dead bodies buried somewhere. Where are all these stone age skeletons? Only a few thousand have ever been found. Maybe the Stone Age lasted only a few hundred years rather than a few hundred thousand years, hmmm?
Bottom line: Sen. Rubio, you need have no hesitation to affirm that the earth is young and the Bible is right. It's not only scientifically sound, it's a political winner. Millions of voters agree with you, and they just might be inclined to vote for you in 2016. What's not to like?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
