Re: YEC refutation

Burgy: "Is there ONE argument that can be used to show clearly and
convincingly
to a nonscientific person that the earth really really is much older than
a few thousand years?"

Don: Depends strongly on who the nonscientific person is. Most of the
nonscientists I've spoken with on this have seriously considered several
relevant arguments. It's only those who've tied something important, such
as their reputation or their salvation, to a young Earth who refuse to
consider any reasonable argument. And there are many compelling arguments,
not just one, for those willing to listen. Your question apparently concerns
"professional YECs" and "conscience-bound YECs" rather than nonscientific
persons in general.

Burgy: "3. All coal and oil deposits ever found and analyzed show that they
originate with organic (pre-living) plants and animals. No exceptions."

Don: See Thomas Gold's arguments at
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/tg21/usgs.html. He claims that oil came to
Earth at the time of Earth's formation. We can't really prove from
petroleum chemistry that all oil comes from dead organic matter. It's
possible in principle that--at least in some cases--abiogenic oil is simply
contaminated with chemical remains of organisms. No one I've heard of in
the oil industry believes this, but it's difficult or impossible to disprove
conclusively.

Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol or John Burgeson" <burgytwo@juno.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 8:37 AM
Subject: YEC refutation

> I've been thinking (a painful process) more about the YEC claims in my
> last post.
>
> The problem is -- the typical person has no way to evaluate them. To him
> (or her) it comes down to two opposing "scientific" viewpoints. One has
> the appearance of being biblically supported. No contest.
>
> Is there ONE argument that can be used to show clearly and convincingly
> to a nonscientific person that the earth really really is much older than
> a few thousand years?
>
> Something that can be looked up -- verified?
>
> One such argument goes something like this:
>
> 1. Almanacs give data on coal and oil production over the past -- say --
> 100 years.
>
> 2. This is business data. It is verifiable. Factual. No arguments
> possible.
>
> 3. All coal and oil deposits ever found and analyzed show that they
> originate with organic (pre-living) plants and animals. No exceptions.
>
> 4. There is a way to measure the biomass that produced these deposits.
>
> 5. There is too much biomass to have been produced in only a few thousand
> years.
>
> 6. Therefore (1) either God produced the deposits and made them look like
> biomass had produced them, or (2) many more years than a few thousand
> took place to produce them.
>
> 7. Since (1) is sort of flaky (like the Gosse theory), (2) must be true.
>
> 8. Therefore the earth is much more than a few thousand years old.
>
> Comments? I tried once to quantify the above argument; it seemed
> reasonable at the time.
>
> Burgy
>
> 2.9979 x 10**8 m/s, is not just a good idea, it's the law.
>
>
Received on Wed Jun 15 04:08:44 2005