After the truck incident, Andrew and I were on our way to hear from a gentleman about a video series he wants to put on in the Magic Valley area (he’s hoping for Andrew’s church). He wanted to show us a video about the Creation Evidence Museum, which is headed up by Dr. Carl Baugh. He showed us this video, and it was all Andrew and I could do to not bust up in laughter. We both had our CLIEs out and we were trying to beam messages to one another (he was trying to send HELP and I was trying to send WTF?). Andrew knows a lot more about creation/evolution stuff than I do, and he said the videos were absolutely pathetic, full of holes, etc. When I asked him to sum up the videos, he said, “What happens when mental patients get science degrees…” or “Saturday Night Live meets Jesus?”
It was really bad. The whole premise of their argument is that men were present with dinosaurs [thus giving us a date that supports a Young Earth], and he showed many “convincing” artifacts and pieces of evidence. The best was a beautiful Kinkade-like painting of a young, naked, Neanderthal boy playing with and petting a brontosaurus. It was precious. Other scientific claims include seeing FLYING glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs, the pre-Flood presence of a pink firmament, and various other absurdities.
The gentleman showing us the video was terribly concerned for the youth of today, being exposed to terribly “atheistic evolutionary” teachings in our public schools and higher ed [I failed to mention that there were some professors at my conservative, evangelical alma mater who believed in evolution…]. He was passionate, I’ll give him that.
The question I wanted to ask, was…”so what?!” Listening to Dr. Baugh go through his “scientific” explanation of a 6,000 yr old Earth – it was pretty ludicrous. I sat there actually wishing and hoping that our universe was millions of years old – that God would allow the crust of the Earth to form over millions of years, instead of a split-second. Why do we have to go through all of this, simply so that we can be comfortable with a literal interpretation of Genesis?
I admitedly don’t know much in this area, and I want to study this more. But I know that I am perfectly content in an old, old old Earth. How does a young Earth vs. old Earth impact my life here on the Earth today? How does it affect my call and desire to pursue God as God pursues me? I find more joy and excitement in reading the Creation narratives in Genesis as oral tradition, as metaphor for the powerful voice of God who speaks and calls Creation into existence. I cannot help but see the futility of pursuing the arguments for a young Earth.