extent of YEC thought

Hi,
The recent discussion here reminded me of a question I've meant to ask many times. What is the extent to which non-Christians (outside mainstream evangelical Christianity) are attracted to a young earth view? I've been working on book-length critique of creation science for some time now and in a first draft I wrote that other than some Muslims and a number of other pseudo-Christian groups (ie, some Mormans) there are none that ascribe to a young earth (4000 years and global flood) based on scientific evidence. I'm sure that there are a number of native american religions that claim a relatively recent origin to the earth or at least humans but they don't attempt to use science to support a young earth view. So would it be correct to claim that the YEC worldview is a rather exclusive club? Has anyone compiled a list of the distribution of YEC thought amongst the World's religions today?

Even thought the YECs often use the argument that the world is against them because they are afraid of the truth of Scipture, I do think it is important to highlight (if it is true), that if the earth truly were young and the evidence did point in that direction then wouldn't it stand to reason that some group without scriptural presupposition would have concluded that the earth may not be billions of year old. I like Walter Brown's quote from the beginning of his book (2cd ed) that “A detailed and scientific reconstruction of these events (the Biblical flood) can now be made independently of Scripture. This reconstruction, based only on what is seen on the earth today, is briefly described in the section of this book entitled, “The Fountains of the Great Deep.” If he is right, why aren't there some atheistic, but ambitous, scientists out there tryiing to make a name for themselves by trying to overthrough the great distortion of modern geology?

Regards,
Joel Duff
Akron OH
Received on Fri May 26 09:35:51 2006